The Humantech System Accelerates Ergonomics Improvements at Land O’ Lakes

01/11/2018

Headquartered in Arden Hills, Minnesota, Land O’Lakes is one of America's premier agribusiness and food companies with operations ranging from agricultural production to consumer foods. For more than 96 years, the company operates some of the world’s most respected brands, including LAND O LAKES® Dairy Foods, Purina Animal Nutrition, WinField United and Land O’Lakes SUSTAIN.

With businesses in all 50 states and more than 50 countries, having a safe work environment is high on the company’s priority list. “Maintaining open communication and consistent processes in an organization with multiple divisions and facilities is the key to a successful safety program,” says Dan Liddell, Corporate Safety Manager, Dairy Foods.

The company implemented The Humantech System®, a software-as-a-service solution for managing workplace ergonomics in production and assembly environments in 2016. They knew they had the right tool to provide ergonomics training to employees, implement job improvements, and sell the ergonomics process to management.

The Humantech System put ergonomics on the radar of the executive management team with its executive summary report (it includes a risk score, “before” and “after” photos, and a follow-up description), and on the employees with its seven e-Learning modules. “Providing consistent online ergonomics training to our employees at each plant in a reasonable amount of time is invaluable,” explains Liddell. If people are properly trained and learn how to contribute to the solution, they are more engaged in the process.

The Humantech System has been implemented across 300 plants in North America.  After team members complete the online training, they work alongside a Humantech certified professional ergonomist on the shop floor assessing and improving jobs. To date, nearly 1,000 people have been trained, 406 jobs assessed and 566 improvements identified.

When data is entered into The Humantech System, a report categorizes jobs as either high (red), medium (yellow), or low (green) risk. Of the jobs entered, 30 percent were red, 36 percent were yellow, 10 percent were green, and 24 percent are scheduled to be assessed. “This tool was used by plant management to address their planning for ergonomics capital. As the old saying goes, ‘You can’t manage it if you can’t measure it,’ and The System shows our management how to do that,” explains Liddell.