Improving processes and ergonomics at air freight handling agents: a case study

ABSTRACT

The air freight supply chain consists of several agents. Among them are truckers, who ship freight between customers and airports, and airlines, who transport the freight in-between airports. Handling agents link the two: they receive freight from truckers, consolidate it and forward it to the airlines and vice versa. They need to organise and execute processes efficiently. Digitalisation offers great potential in this context. Furthermore, handling agents’ workers handle most of the freight manually. The resulting elevated levels of physical strain make workers prone to muscular-skeletal disorders. Based on a case study at two handling agents, we first investigate the handling agents’ process chain from an economic perspective. We identify shortcomings and present countermeasures with an emphasis on digitalisation. Second, we analyse the physical strain on the workers and evaluate devices that could improve ergonomics. The paper concludes with a discussion of recommended means for economic and ergonomic improvement.

KEYWORDS:

• Air freight
• process improvement
• digitalisation
• workload
• assistive device
• manual materials handling

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful for the funding under grant number HA-801 /19-121. They further wish to thank the case companies and HA Hessen Agentur GmbH for their support. Furthermore, the authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewer for his/her constructive comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by State of Hesse, Germany, and the HOLM funding initiative ‘Innovationen im Bereich Logistik und Mobilität’ [Grant Number HA-Projekt-Nr. 801/19-121].