MOD-PAC

MOD-PAC workers.

Printers hum five days a week over three shifts at MOD-PAC’s Elmwood Avenue headquarters in Buffalo, NY, where premium quality folding cartons and personalized print products are made. Like any other manufacturing environment, the facility is a potential breeding ground for job-related injuries. MOD-PAC leaders have noticed a slight uptick of incidents in recent years among employees of the finishing department – specifically the crews that feed loads of paper materials into the machines and remove them. Some employees have reported pain and soreness in the shoulders, hands and wrists, relegating them to light job duty. A few cases involved medical leave due to clinical diagnoses of carpal tunnel syndrome or a rotator cuff injury. These isolated incidents are enough to motivate Operations Manager Rick Oleszak in taking a proactive approach, so that MOD-PAC keeps its employees safe, does not come close to exceeding its insurance-mandated threshold for safety-related claims or does not draw attention from OSHA because of injuries requiring medical treatment or restricted work. Without an ergonomics-focused safety program in place, he sought assistance to objectively evaluate processes of the finishing department and identify ways to minimize risk for injury.