Find The Hand™
Notice where the hand goes and where it is exposed during the task.
Find The Hand™
“A site-made hook is a clue to the task. It shows us what the hand needs to do.”
Start with the function of the hand.
During PSC’s Find The Hand™ audits, we observed workers making hooks from rebar, pipe or wood to guide and position material from farther away. We see that improvisation as practical ingenuity—and as a signal that a suitable tool may be needed.
Before selecting REACH-IT™, look at how the improvised hook is being used. Is the hand pushing, pulling, guiding or positioning? Where does the hook contact the material? Which way could the material move? Those answers help identify the hook shape and reach for the application.
Select for the function, contact point, material path and available working space.
What we saw on the floor
Improvised reach takes many forms.
Straight rods, bent metal hooks and long narrow poles appear in very different tasks: clearing coke-oven debris, reaching into equipment, and guiding or positioning material. The forms vary because the hand functions vary. Each improvised tool is evidence of a worker trying to create separation with what is available.
Field photographs illustrate different improvised forms observed in industrial tasks. They are shown to recognize worker ingenuity and explain the product need.
What PSC did with that signal
We turned field improvisation into an engineering brief.
PSC looks at the task behind the tool: what the hand is doing, where contact occurs, how the material can move and what working space is available. The brief considers reach, engagement geometry and control, along with material, grip, foreseeable demand, failure behaviour, ergonomics, repeatability and inspection. That field-led process shaped REACH-IT™ as a configurable range of shaft lengths, materials and hook/head options selected for the application.
Find the Function
Determine whether the hand must push, pull, guide or position material.
Engineer the Hand Out of the Hazard™
Choose a suitable working position, reach and hook geometry for the task.