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Anyone here work in a job where there is a conveyor belt?

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  • Anyone here work in a job where there is a conveyor belt?

    My husband works in a recycling facility sorting recycling material on a conveyor belt.

    He got this job through a temporary employment agency, and all of the temporary employees were told that they must sort 50 items per minute or they will lose their jobs in 10 days.

    Does anyone have any advice on how to pick up his speed as well as a method to use to sort 50 items per minute?

  • #2
    Hi, I don't work with a conveyer belt, but I've worked in industrial settings and I think I can help. This is a suggestion and maybe (probably) someone has a better idea or more experience.

    Is your husband one of several people on the same conveyer belt? The recyclables pass in front of person 1, then person 2, 3, etc? If that is the case, the most efficient way would be for him to concentrate on one or two types of recyclables, i.e. metal cans and maybe a second similar shaped item like plastic jars or a similar material like metalic foil.

    Depending on the speed of the conveyer, it would be impossible for a normal human to sort everything in a set length of moving conveyer and the loading of that conveyer.

    By concentrating on only one or two shapes / colours, the brain kind of tunes out the rest and you gain speed in sorting. The other coworkers can probably do the same. Person 1 does metalics, the next one does plastic jars, the third does bags and fims, and so forth down the line. The last person just sorts whatever was overlooked.
    It's not the years in you life that count, it's the life in your years! - Quote from the office coffee cup.

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    • #3
      Quoth Cecily View Post
      Hi, I don't work with a conveyer belt, but I've worked in industrial settings and I think I can help. This is a suggestion and maybe (probably) someone has a better idea or more experience.

      Is your husband one of several people on the same conveyer belt? The recyclables pass in front of person 1, then person 2, 3, etc? If that is the case, the most efficient way would be for him to concentrate on one or two types of recyclables, i.e. metal cans and maybe a second similar shaped item like plastic jars or a similar material like metalic foil.

      Depending on the speed of the conveyer, it would be impossible for a normal human to sort everything in a set length of moving conveyer and the loading of that conveyer.

      By concentrating on only one or two shapes / colors, the brain kind of tunes out the rest and you gain speed in sorting. The other coworkers can probably do the same. Person 1 does metallic, the next one does plastic jars, the third does bags and films, and so forth down the line. The last person just sorts whatever was overlooked.
      Thank you very much for your advice.

      I e-mailed this entire post to my husband's e-mail and sent him a text to check his e-mail.

      He works 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

      I work 3 to 10 p.m. tonight, and so he will be sleeping when I get home.

      I want him to read this before going to sleep.

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      • #4
        I do, but we don't have rules like that. At ours pretty much if you're slow stuff will fall on the ground. So you learn that way. I'd say to have him watch and ask people who have been there the longest. They'll have the best techniques.
        Replace anger management with stupidity management.

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        • #5
          One item every 1.2 seconds? I'd say it'd have to be a very simple thing to sort. Otherwise, hell no.

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          • #6
            I found that at my work everything seems to have a really steep learning curve. Like starting a video game on "expert." Each machine I've trained on I went through a phase where I thought I would not be able to learn, but after a bit I must have gotten muscle memory or something, and now the tasks are easy. I know that's not an answer, but I don't know how else to explain it.

            Didn't the management there give any help on how to accomplish their requirements? Even at my work the floor manager came to show me how to run each machine, I wasn't just told to do it or get fired. I mean, I often was shown once and then left alone (yikes) but if I messed up people came to help me when I was first learning. There has to be some sort of training I guess is my point.
            Replace anger management with stupidity management.

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            • #7
              I will never understand why employers these days are running places like a modern sweatshop. Which is exactly what this is. All these impossible metrics you have to reach. With no wiggle room for breathing, or god forbid going to the bathroom.
              https://www.youtube.com/user/HedgeTV
              Great YouTube channel check it out!

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              • #8
                Quoth telecom_goddess View Post
                I will never understand why employers these days are running places like a modern sweatshop. Which is exactly what this is. All these impossible metrics you have to reach. With no wiggle room for breathing, or god forbid going to the bathroom.
                What's hard to understand? Money, money, money - it's a rich man's world.

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                • #9
                  But this causes so much turnover, they would make so much MORE money if they could retain people by treating them well, instead of training hundreds of new people every 3 months.
                  https://www.youtube.com/user/HedgeTV
                  Great YouTube channel check it out!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Quoth telecom_goddess View Post
                    But this causes so much turnover, they would make so much MORE money if they could retain people by treating them well, instead of training hundreds of new people every 3 months.
                    Why do you think they are getting training? The professionals a call it "on the job training" or OJT.

                    Back where I came from we called it "sink or swim," and if they sank, someone else would be tossed in.
                    "I don't have to be petty. The Universe does that for me."

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