Evaluation of a supermarket twin-checkout involving forward and backward operation

Cashier workplaces recently put into service in self-service shops of a retail company provide a face-to-face position of two cashiers. These twin-checkouts involve both traditional goods handling from the front to the rear as well as a reverse technique - i e, forward operation from behind. By means of different methods they have been analysed from an ergonomics point of view and evaluated in respect of operators' workload resulting from the specific layout. The results support the conclusion that the new 'backward' system and twin-checkouts are not inferior to traditional single checkouts. On the contrary, a working technique where the arm moves from behind to the front involves a better approach to accounting for physiological characteristics and obviously allows a better fitting of the task of operators.