Wincanton
Case Study

The Wincanton retail warehouse operation is primarily responsible for the pick, pack and dispatch of household, and other ‘awkward’ products directly to the end customer.

20% of all products ranged and delivered are above 15kgs. These products comprise 19% of the lifts that are performed by colleagues across the operation.

Musculoskeletal activity is the 4th highest hazard within the operation.

As part of their safety processes, Wincanton wanted to be able to give movement training to colleagues whilst on the job so they could learn how they were moving whilst working rather than only in a classroom setting. They needed to find a solution that was personal and allowed workers to oversee their own safety.

Furthermore, new starter adherence was reliant on shift coaches and the large numbers of new starters along with a very large, dispersed site, (around 1 million sq/ft of warehousing split over 4 units on 2 million sq/ft), presented an opportunity to enhance the shift coach’s role with use of personalized technology.

There was a significant need for formalised continual checking of adherence to manual handling and the challenge was to find a solution that:

• Was scalable;

• Gave workers the individual training they needed to move safely - on the job;

• Incited permanent behavioural change;

• Provided formalised monitoring, coaching and support to assess compliance with Manual handling training for: new starters, colleagues returning after an incident or injury, colleagues recommencing work after a performance management issue related to manual handling compliance, all colleagues at random points across the year.

Typical colleague concerns when introducing technology and devices such as SoterCoach includes:

• Using them as a GPS tracker to see where they were on site;
• Tracking them for performance management;
• Using the data to manage those not improving their results.

To overcome this, Wincanton worked with Soter to clearly understand the sensors and eliminated the use of words like ‘tracker’ or ‘monitoring’ to remove any uncertainty.

Wincanton used information presentations from Soter to explain what applications the technology contained and how the devices were there to support the workers, giving ‘them’, information and coaching on how to move safely.

They used examples and compared the devices to a FitBit or Apple Watch that would give them not only data on how they are moving but teach them to move correctly and get to know their body more to stay safe.

The data collected has been used to provide support and retraining to those colleagues in high-risk groups and easily spot areas in the business that are unsafe and need to be reviewed.

One colleague discussed how personal the technology was to them and indicated that it was a good sign of how Wincanton invested in technology to make their job safer.

Colleagues were unanimous in how easy it was to use and how straightforward and unobtrusive the devices were.