Risk Assessment and the Hierarchy of Controls
How to assess a manual task and apply the hierarchy of controls — slotting, aids, layout and rates before technique and gloves.
Last reviewed September 2026 · Part of Manual Handling Training for Warehouse and Logistics Workers
Key learning points
- Work through the identify, assess, control, review cycle
- Apply the hierarchy of controls to warehouse, dock and delivery tasks
- Explain why slotting and layout are among the most powerful warehouse controls
- Understand why there is no legal weight limit and what workplace guidance figures mean
- Explain why technique and PPE are the weakest controls
The risk management cycle
- Identify the hazards — which tasks, lines, bays and runs involve manual task risk factors?
- Assess the risk — which factors are present, how often, for how long, and how serious could the injury be?
- Control the risk — apply the most effective control that is reasonably practicable, as high in the hierarchy as you can
- Review — check the control actually worked, and reassess when the product, layout, equipment, rate or people change
What to look at when assessing
- The task
- How is it actually done on the floor, not how the procedure describes it? What postures, forces and movements are involved?
- The load
- Weight, whether it is labelled, size, shape, grip, stability, temperature and packaging condition
- The environment
- Slotting height, floor surface, ramps and lips, aisle width, lighting, temperature, congestion, vehicle layout
- Work organisation
- Rates, piece-rate or scan-rate pressure, shift length, rotation, breaks, staffing for team lifts, dispatch cut-offs
- Equipment
- Is a suitable aid available, working, close to hand and actually used? Is the forklift or conveyor available when needed?
- The worker
- Training, induction, experience on this site, fatigue, existing injury, whether they are working alone
Hierarchy of controls
Most effective at the top
- Eliminate
- Remove the manual task — have suppliers deliver on pallets or in roll cages to the point of use; cross-dock rather than pick; automate a sort
- Substitute
- Replace the load or the method — smaller cartons or split packs from the supplier, 15 kg bags instead of 25 kg, lighter drums, palletised instead of loose-stacked containers
- Isolate / engineering
- Change the equipment or layout — slot heavy and fast lines at waist height, pallet levellers, scissor lift tables, conveyors that extend into containers, vacuum lifters, dock levellers, powered pallet jacks and tugs, better castors
- Administrative
- Change how the work is organised — realistic rates, job rotation, two-person and mechanical-aid rules, weight labelling, procedures, training, supervision, scheduled breaks
- Personal protective equipment
- Gloves for grip and safety boots for feet are needed, but they do nothing to reduce the force on your back and shoulders — the least effective control for manual task risk
Technique is not a control on its own
Telling workers to bend their knees does not change the weight, the height, the rate or the distance. Risk must be controlled at its source so far as is reasonably practicable — by changing the load, the layout, the equipment or the work organisation. Training and technique support those controls; they do not replace them.
Slotting: the most powerful control in a pick warehouse
- Put heavy and fast-moving lines between mid-thigh and elbow height — the zone where lifting demands the least
- Put light and slow-moving lines on the high and low levels
- Keep the heaviest single items at waist height on pallet levellers or flow racks so they never come from the floor
- Split heavy multipacks into smaller sell units where the supplier or customer allows
- Review slotting whenever the range or the velocity of a line changes — it drifts out of date within months
- Do not use the top of racking as a pick location; that is a forklift task
Other practical controls
- Telescopic boom conveyors and extendable roller conveyors for containers, trailers and vans
- Height-adjustable packing benches and scissor lift tables so totes and pallets rise to you
- Vacuum tube lifters for sacks, drums, tyres and repetitive carton lifts
- Powered pallet jacks and cage tugs for long hauls, ramps and heavy loads
- Rotation between picking, packing, replenishment and dispatch so no one does the same movement all shift
- Rates that build in recovery time and are reviewed when the product mix changes
- Weight labelling on inbound cartons, and a clear rule for when an item needs two people or an aid
- Maintained castors and wheels — a stiff wheel doubles the push force
About weight limits
Australian WHS law sets no legal maximum weight for lifting. Risk depends on the risk factors — how far, how often, from what height, in what posture, in what conditions. Some workplaces set their own guidance figures, for example requiring two people or a mechanical aid above a stated weight. Those are workplace controls, not law, and a load below the figure can still be hazardous if it is picked from the floor 300 times a shift.
Practical scenario
Scenario: recurring strains at the packing bench
Three packers report lower back pain within a month. The packing bench is a fixed height that suits nobody, totes arrive on the floor beside it, and finished cartons are lifted onto a pallet that starts at floor level.
What is the most effective response?
Reveal the explanation
Not a reminder to lift carefully. Assess the task and control it at the source: height-adjustable benches, a tote stand or conveyor that delivers totes at bench height, and a pallet leveller or scissor lift under the outbound pallet so the working height stays constant as it fills. Then review whether the pain reports stop. Three reports in a month is the task telling you it is wrong.
Practical scenario
Scenario: the new heavy line
A new product arrives in 22 kg cartons, 40 to a pallet, and will be picked by hand about 150 times a shift. The supervisor plans to brief the team to bend their knees and keep the load close.
What should happen before that briefing?
Reveal the explanation
Start higher in the hierarchy. Ask the supplier for smaller cartons or split packs. Have the product delivered on pallets to the point of use so it is moved by forklift, not by hand. Slot what must be hand-picked at waist height on a pallet leveller, or fit a vacuum lifter at the pick face. Set a two-person or aid rule for what remains, and consult the pickers. The technique briefing comes last and supports the other controls.
When to review
- A new product line, a change in carton size or a supplier change
- A re-slot, a layout change, new racking or a new conveyor
- A change to rates, shift patterns or staffing
- After an incident, a near miss or a report of discomfort
- When workers tell you a control is not being used or does not work
Knowledge check
These questions are for your own learning. They are not part of the final assessment.
1. Which approach is most effective for reducing hazardous manual handling risk in a warehouse?
Risk should be controlled at its source. Technique reminders and PPE are the weakest responses to manual task risk.
2. Re-slotting a heavy fast-moving line from floor level to waist height is best described as:
Changing the layout or equipment is an engineering control and is more reliable than relying on worker behaviour.
3. Your workplace has a rule that cartons over a stated weight need two people. What is true?
Australian WHS law has no weight limit. Workplace guidance figures are administrative controls, and risk depends on all the factors together.
4. When should a manual task risk assessment be reviewed?
Review is triggered by change, incidents, new information or evidence that a control is ineffective.