In the bottle-recycling department of Labatt's Brewery (now part of Anheuser-B·usch InBev) in St. John's, Newfoundland, the ''throw on'' task involves lifting cases of empty bottles from a pallet and throwing them on a conveyor. 17 A case weighs approximately 6 kg. ''Throw on" sometimes involves reaching up above shoulder-height or bending and lifting elements (see the two sketches below).

Each ''throw on" takes between two and five seconds, and the pallet is unloaded in about three minutes. Even though the workers rotate out of this task every half hour, there is still a chance of repetitive motion injuries and lower back pain. Propose an ergonomic solution for this problem.

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