CDM Systems, Inc. > Resources > Blog > Put Away the Shovels: Protect Your Employees and Your Profitability with En-Masse Conveying

Protect Your Employees and Your Profitability with En-Masse Conveying

“I walked 20 miles to school, uphill, both ways, in the snow.”

“l used to carry 50 pound bags of ice up six flights of stairs.”

In a casual conversation, statements like these are great for impressing other people with feats of strength and a capacity for physical exertion. In a heavy-industrial operation, manual labor is not only outdated and overrated, it can be incredibly costly.

Consider these statistics:

  • Material handling incidents caused 37 percent of injuries in manufacturing from 2010 to 2014 (source: Travelers Insurance Injury Impact Report)
  • Material handling injuries accounted for 32 percent of total workers’ compensation claims filed from 2010 to 2014 (source: Travelers Insurance Injury Impact Report)
  • Injuries due to overexertion involving lifting, pushing or pulling cost employers $13.8 billion in 2017 (source: Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index)

When your 24/7 operation slows or stops due to injury, you lose more than just time. You lose employees, revenue and overall operating efficiency, not to mention profitability when you have to pay all those claims.

Learning How to Lift is Not the Answer

You could bring in an ergonomics expert to educate your employees on how to sit, stand and lift properly to cut down on strains and sprains. But even the best coaching is no match for heavy loads that far exceed your employees’ ability to move them manually. And proper body position isn’t going to protect your employees from exposure to corrosive, abrasive material, a common occurrence in many heavy-industrial operations.

Yet, some still rely on manual labor to move materials. Is yours one of them? And is your bottom line suffering because of it? If so, it’s time to say goodbye to the shovels and switch to en-masse conveying.

A Versatile, Cost-Effective Solution

En-Masse Drag Chain Conveyors are the most efficient form of material handling for high-volume conveying. They are used in a wide range of applications and can handle materials ranging from Ash to Zinc, with inlet temperatures up to 1000°F. Compared to other conveyor technologies, en-masse conveyors can carry more material in less space, with little to no plugging and less material degradation to cause equipment fatigue and failure. They also move material in an enclosed steel casing, which results in fewer injuries, less dust, less aspiration, and less potential contamination of the material.

The versatility of this equipment pairs perfectly with CDM’s customized approach. Every industry has unique requirements, so each en-masse conveyor system we create is custom-engineered to meet the specific needs of your application. The result is a system that moves large volumes of material smoothly, gently, reliably and effectively across planes and around bends – all with a low cost of ownership over time. This solution becomes even more beneficial to your bottom line when you factor in the reduced number of workplace injuries and workers’ compensation claims associated with moving materials manually.

So while “I shoveled 700 pounds of material from one end of the plant to the other” might make for a good story, it doesn’t make for a safe, healthy or efficient operation. Stop putting your employees at risk, stop absorbing the high cost of workers’ compensation claims and start improving your profitability with a CDM En-Masse Drag Chain Conveyor System.

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About CDM

The CDM story is about recognizing every industrial operation is different, as are their conveying challenges. A custom-engineered conveying system is a cost-effective approach to any operation willing to look at the value of having a partner who is vested in your success and one who stands by their product. CDM has earned more than 91 percent repeat business because we’re more than just a conveying systems manufacturer – we’re a business partner. 

For further information contact:

Andrew Parker, President CDM Systems, Inc.

Andrew@cdmsys.com  • cdmsys.com