Background: Manual "picker-to-part" order picking takes place in a labour-intensive and time-consuming working environment where humans are the central actors and co-determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the process. Throughout Europe, work-related musculoskeletal disorders affect millions of workers, especially in the logistics sector, and cost employers billions of euros.
Objective: This paper studies how order pickers relate the use of technology as well as their relationship with the logistics company to their well-being, health and productivity.
Methods: To obtain data, a survey consisting of questions regarding work characteristics, health problems and the logistics company's relationship with employees was conducted in Poland, Slovenia and Croatia.
Results: Workers who carry most items manually experience more health problems than cart and forklift users. The most common complaint is lower back pain - only 6% of order pickers (n = 221) never experienced it. The use of barcode or RFID scanner/terminal/smart phone correlates with more health problems than the use of other technologies. Participation in the selection of transport means or in training on health preservation can reduce the perceived health problems.
Conclusions: Workers' perception of the impact of the applied technology on health and productivity can differ from the impact that is calculated or measured. Through their relationship with employees, logistics companies can influence employees' perception of their health problems.
Keywords: Picker-to-part; human factors; productivity; technology; work-related musculoskeletal disorders.