• Provide sufficient and appropriate forklifts or other equipment to help workers to lift heavy things, to get products from high shelves and to carry heavy things within the factories or for delivery.
• Allocate specific workers to use these machines and prevent any other workers from using them.
• Train the relevant workers to use the forklifts appropriately.
• Ensure that usage instructions and all controls on the machines are in a language workers can understand. This may mean putting stickers onto machine controls in local languages.
• If a worker needs to access products from high shelving, use a forklift to lift the worker rather than the worker climbing up the shelf (see diagram 1). This helps to ensure the safety of the workers while making their work much easier.
• Stack product/boxes/material on pallets to make it easier to load onto forklifts.
• Use trolleys to stack and carry heavy semi-final products. Such trolley is convenient for workers to move large amount of items to any place, but they are especially useful to carry heavy loads for a short distance with minimum elevation.
• After use, forklifts and equipment must be kept in a secure, regulated area in the factory.
• Continuous maintenance of all machinery is very important in ensuring that they work well. Develop and implement a regular maintenance schedule for each machine and ensure all maintenance is done by a qualified mechanic.
• It is always better to eliminate manual lifting. However, if the workers cannot avoid carrying heavy loads, workers must be trained on how to lift the heavy items in a proper way which is easier and safer to them.
• In case of manual heavy lifting, try to use a method in which they elevate the load as little as possible over the ground level.
• Always try to match the height of the vehicle bed to that of the loading areas
• A platform is also useful when goods have to be carried manually. It reduces the risk of injuries and uses only half of energy to lift weight from a height of 1 meter instead of from the floor.
• Always use the correct lifting technique to keep the back straight while raising the load; use the muscle power of the legs and the gripping power of the hands.
• Never associate handling of smaller weights to lower productivity. The optimum efficiency is usually attained with weight below 20 kg.
• Woman should not perform jobs involving lifting of heavy loads above shoulder level as their physical capacity is normally about one-third lower than that of an average man and her reach is shorter.

Funding for the Factory Improvement Programme is provided by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and the United States Department of Labor.