How a Global Beverage Producer Eliminated Accidental Lacerations and Greatly Reduced Product Damage

A beverage giant came to Riteknife looking to improve its safety knife program. Their goal was to reduce product damage, eliminate lacerations, and train their personnel in proper cutting techniques.
How a Global Beverage Producer Eliminated Accidental Lacerations and Greatly Reduced Product Damage

The Business By The Numbers

6,000

Employees at the plant and warehouse level

17

Plants across the United States

8

Cutting tasks across the facility workflow

A facility-wide safety upgrade

Based upon Riteknife's on-site safety knife evaluation, our experts found that this Global beverage company was using disposable knives to cut corrugated cardboard, stretch wrap, plastic banding, tapes, and gaylords. The blade angle of these knives did not allow for easy cutting of these materials. Additionally, the fact that these were disposable knives made the program quite costly, a chore to recycle correctly and not good for the environment. A more durable knife, with a replaceable blade, was needed.

Our recommendation was the Riteknife CB100 concealed blade safety knife. The CB100's Flowthrough Technology™ minimizes friction by lowering the force needed for cutting. One of its key features is an optimal blade angle to eliminate harmful repetitive motion injuries.

The CB100 is a safety knife built to last and features tool-free blade change functionality to access the two-sided blade. The integrated magnet safely secures the blade during the changing procedure.. This safety knife also has a box top opening lip on one end and a tape splitter on the other to maximize the longevity of each blade.

Elsewhere in the facility, 3/4 inch thick gaylord containers were being cut. This thick material is often difficult to work with and can be dangerous because of the amount of force needed to perform the task. Riteknife recommended these areas of the facility use a Riteknife AS100 Auto Retractable Safety Knife, which is equipped with a fast-acting blade guard to prevent lacerations, and a patented, easy tool-free blade change.

Riteknife safety specialists also recommended the Riteknife AP100 Safety Holster, which safely holds both the CB100, the AS100, spare blades, and multiple writing instruments. The end customers, the people using these new safety knives, absolutely love these holsters because they now have everything they need to do their job right on their hip which makes their jobs more efficient.

Training

Riteknife's safety knife evaluation began by identifying every tool and task performed in each area of the facility. Our safety specialists then met with select personnel (the “Safety Heroes”) to train them on how to use our knives as well as how to change and dispose of their blades.

he AS100 and CB100 were used in their workflow for 3 weeks as the first stage of a pilot program—ensuring the facility had on-the-ground personnel who were knowledgeable and excited. Meanwhile, we created customized videos, posters for display, and checklists safety managers could use to ensure every person completed training. This rigorous training program made positive change at scale ultimately come to fruition.

Eliminated Accidental Lacerations

The AS100 allowed for less force to be used to make difficult cuts in gaylords since the blade has a lower profile than other utility knife blades. Excessive force and dull blades are often the top two reasons for accidental lacerations This risk was eliminated when an AS100 with a Mozart ® blade was used.

Greatly Reduced Product Damage

Personnel were equipped with CB100s, which allowed for 100+ more cuts per knife without damaging the contents - an order of magnitude better than the safety knives previously used.

“CHANGE IS DIFFICULT. RITEKNIFE'S RECOMMENDATION TO HAVE CUSTOMIZED TRAINING WITH OUR WORKERS DOING THE TASKS WITH THE TOOLS RECOMMENDED HAS BEEN A GAME CHANGER FOR THIS PROGRAM.”

Safety Manager