Material handling

Overview

Some 4,500 years ago, workers in Egypt finished the Great Pyramid of Giza. To this day, no one knows exactly how it was built. But the material handling tasks were immense. Average core blocks of the Great Pyramid weighed 1.5 tons each and were placed without pulleys or wheels. An estimated 2.3 million blocks were used in its construction. Completing the pyramid in 20 years would involve moving an average of more than 12 of the blocks into place each hour, day and night. But it might have been completed in as few as 10 years.

Oregon OSHA’s rules do not cover material handling for pyramid construction; however, they do cover a variety of other material handling tasks for general industry, construction, agricultural, and forest activities workplaces.