[rehab] manufacturing jobs

[Jan Bailey]

Does anyone have any clients working in the manufacturing field?  I have a guy I saw today who works in a plant that makes gas fireplaces, and some other kinds too, but don't remember every detail. He's been working as a materials handler, unloading parts from the train, and delivering them to the work stations. They use to turn out 500 fireplaces a day on the line, and they had 70 people on the line. Today they turned out 120 fireplaces with 20 people on the line, so now they have to do 12 and 18 step jobs in 166 seconds on the line, and they have to move around on the jobs so they don't get carpal tunnel syndrome. I have until the 22nd of December to figure out if this guy can keep his job, because he needs to be able to do 3 different jobs on the line in addition to the job he has been doing. Many of the jobs require reading and inspecting, both of which are difficult for him. He can read, but not well, and not very fast. We looked at the job today, and basically found that he could do parts of each job, but not all of one job, and there isn't time to move people in and out of positions when you have to get the work done in 166 seconds. Just wondered if anyone had any experience with something similar.

Jan