Entering data into the V-MAC
Which data do you need to use the V-MAC?
For each job, pick a typical day when the job is carried out and:
- Find out how many distinct manual handling tasks each of the three workers carried out during his or her work shift. A task might be picking a single order, filling a pallet, unloading a trailer, or carrying out a cyclic production task.
- Get full data on the weights each of the three workers handled for each task over the work shift. If you can, retrieve it from a computerised system, such as a Warehouse Management System. The item weights need to be in kilograms (kg).
- For each task, find out how far, on average, each worker carried loads – if at all. You don't need to measure the distance of each carry. For each distinct task, you can estimate the average carry distance as half way between the distances of the longest and shortest carries.
Inputting the data
The outputs you get are only as accurate as the data that you put in.
- Download and open the Excel workbook.
- The workbook has three tabs across the bottom. Choose the 'Instructions and Data Entry' tab.
- Read the 'Introduction' and 'Steps to Follow' to help you enter your data.
- You have 16 columns and 512 rows to enter the data for the entire shift. Use these to enter data from the different tasks that the worker carried out during the shift. We've labelled them 'Task 1', 'Task 2', etc. Change the column headings to identify the actual tasks – perhaps 'Order number 1', 'Order number 2', 'Pallet 3', 'Pallet 4'.
- Use different columns for tasks with different carry distances.
- If items are carried more than 2 m, enter the average carry distance for that column. Remember, you can estimate this as halfway between the shortest carry distance and the longest carry distance.
Copy and paste your data (if using information from your computerised system such as a Warehouse Management System) into the spreadsheet.
- If workers handle several small items at once, enter the total weight as one lift. So a lift of a stack of four items each weighing 2 kg should be entered as one lift of 8 kg.
- Select the link or tab that matches the total shift length (including breaks). Just to make it easier to display the graphs, there are separate tabs for shifts between 4 hours and 8 hours long and for shifts between 8 and 12 hours long.
Enter the actual shift duration in the hh:mm format.
