Posts Tagged ‘ergonomic assessment’

Are Your Running As Lean As Possible?

Tuesday, 21 August, 2012 08:53 Written by admin
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Given the current economic climate we find many organizations watching their bottom line a bit more carefully.  Some perhaps waiting in the wings with cash reserves looking for a “signal” that the economy is truly on the upswing again.  Others are looking for ways to cut costs to remain lean in these difficult times.

It is no surprise that spending has slowed down both by consumers and businesses.  Many “experts” say the economy/spending will pick up after the November election, but there is no real indication of a speedy recovery.  With this in mind, management faces a tremendous challenge in maintaining an acceptable bottom line.  One possible solution is identifying substantial and sustainable areas of cost reductions.

As presented in this brief video, using an ergonomic evaluation program will allow management to identify, measure and correct the factors that impede worker performance and put them at risk of injury.  In doing so, increased performance and productivity will lead to sustainable cost savings.  While reductions in work related injuries will lead to reduced worker’s compensation and healthcare costs.

Taking a few minutes to view the video now may save you millions of dollars in the (near) future.

Measuring Where You Stand

Tuesday, 10 July, 2012 09:50 Written by admin
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“What gets measured gets managed.”  That age-old axiom attributed to the great business management guru Peter Drucker is as important today as it was years ago when he wrote it.  If something is not consistently and continuously measured, there is no way to accurately understand the impact that it has on your company.   The measurement of important data is a primary part of the Six Sigma phenomenon that has swept across industry around the world.  First, identify what needs to be measured and how to measure it, measure it then analyze it and determine what improvements need to be made.  The information that follows addresses the Black Hole of Corporate Productivity, how to measure it and how to determine what impact it has on your organization.

In most large companies Six Sigma and other sophisticated techniques and software are used to gather large amounts of data on critical equipment (electrical, HVAC, chillers, servers, generators, water pumps, etc.) in a preventative maintenance program to ensure that this equipment will never fail significantly reducing the potential of disrupting company operations.  In regards to equipment, discussions about things like mean time between failures (MTBF), overall equipment effectiveness and availability (OEE) and mean time to repair (MTTR).  All of these different equipment metrics are tracked, analyzed and acted upon.  A lot of time, effort and money are put into understanding the current status of and preparing specific upgrades and actions to prevent any breakdowns or complete failures.

What is more important and costly to your company than your employees?  How much time money and effort are put into studying, understanding and improving the way your employees work? This includes engineering out anything such as detailed scrutiny of furniture, equipment, chairs, lighting, noise and indoor air quality that could cause a negative productivity impact keeping knowledge workers from peak performance. Anyone who discounts the impact of these issues on worker productivity has their head buried in the sand.

There is very little actionable data that is gathered by companies about discomfort, risk of injury and understanding the causes of injuries to knowledge workers in business.  Workers’ compensation insurance, traditionally the primary system for gathering employee injury data and providing care for injured employees was put in place over 150 years ago.  It serves its intended purpose well, but is totally inadequate for true investigation, study and actionable data as described in the study excerpt below:

“The possible extent of under-reporting in the workers’ compensation system was suggested in a Connecticut population survey in which only 11% of self-reported cases of work-related cumulative trauma musculoskeletal disorders of the hand, arm, and neck had filed a workers’ compensation claim. “  Group Medical Claims as a Source of Information on Worker Health and Potentially Work-Related Diseases” P. Timothy Bushnell, PhD, MPA, Jia Li, MS, and Deborah Landen, MD, PhD, JOEM , Volume 53, Number 12, December 2011.

This is also true for the OSHA injury and illness reporting system.  Even if both systems were used to their full potential they still are totally reactive systems being invoked only after an injury has occurred.  There are many reasons given for this underreporting including the bitter politics that became involved in the OSHA ergonomics standard between the Democrats and Republicans when George W. Bush became President.  The current reporting system can cause unwanted scrutiny and distrust between employees and the company.  One thing for sure is that there are systems much better suited for prevention of office work related injuries.  Companies must take ownership of these office work related injuries in much the same way they would any other important corporate issue.  Identify the problem, measure it, analyze it, implement corrective actions then follow up on the progress and continue again with further measurement and analysis.

Why Ergonomic Assessments?

Thursday, 28 June, 2012 09:07 Written by admin
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5 Benefits of Performing Ergonomic Assessments with Evaluation Software

1.  Understand the impact of improving ergonomics to your bottom line.

2.  Identify, measure and reduce risk for your employees.  See exactly where your employees are at risk and where they are experiencing discomfort.

3.  Actionable Information – Take immediate action based upon the survey.

4.  Increased happiness of your employees – This sounds nice but does it really matter that much? Yes it does!

5.  Gain the ability to respond to issues before injuries occur.

The Details:

1.  Understand the impact of improving ergonomics to the Enterprise bottom line.

Productivity is the gold standard for enterprises.  The largest Enterprise cost by far is the cost of people.  Peer-reviewed studies and our own data show that an enterprise can expect from 50% to 80% of all computer using employees to be experiencing significant discomfort and even injuries.  What gets measured gets done.

Comfort Zone,  a web-based ergonomic evaluation solution, provides you the tools to easily measure, quantify, qualify and present ergonomics related issues and the impact to your Enterprise.

2.  Identify, measure and reduce risk for your employees.  See exactly where your employees are at risk and where they are experiencing discomfort.

It is well established that extreme postures and discomfort are indicators of ergonomics related issues.  With Comfort Zone, you have a dashboard populated with actionable data that spans your organization.  This data provides you with the basis for an action plan that lets you focus on the specific issues that are presenting the largest challenges.

3.  Actionable Information – Take immediate action based upon the survey.

Comfort Zone provides you targeted and actionable training information that you can provide to each employee based upon their risk and discomfort scores.  This information provides them with steps that they can take at their workstation to help alleviate any issues they are facing.  With a follow-up survey you will know if there are other steps to be taken to assist further.

4.  Increased happiness of your employees – This sounds nice but does it really matter that much?

According to the current Harvard Business Review employee happiness not only matters, it is extremely important.  “Happy employees produce more than unhappy ones over the long term.  They routinely show up to work, they are less likely to quit, they go above and beyond the call of duty, and they attract people who are just as committed to the job.  Moreover, they are not sprinters; they’re more like marathon runners, in it for the long haul.”

Employees, who are in less pain, have fewer injuries and are more comfortable.  Comfort Zone helps you get all your employees in their “comfort zone”.

5.  Gain the ability to respond to issues before injuries occur.

Surveys should be administered as needed for corporate operations.  Any new initiative involving processes, equipment or furniture can be surveyed before, during and after a test or full roll-out.  Closely monitoring the changes in employee comfort levels will provide you with flags relating to any potential concerns.  Groups displaying increases in discomfort levels indicate issues that can escalate into lost productivity and possibly injuries.  A survey will provide you with advanced notice to take action and prevent any further escalation.

Comfort Zone, provides a quick and easy way to gather that so important data metric on the impact that the furniture, processes, and equipment have on employee productivity.  Every good understanding starts with complete targeted data.  All aspects of the interactions between all of these components and your employees must be as carefully planned as any operation in your organization.

Comfort Zone takes the ergonomic, comfort and productivity pulse of an entire organization with a simple 5 to 7 minute survey predominately based upon each employee choosing pictures of their postures, comfort level and equipment positioning.  An extremely robust analytic engine provides a graphic dashboard that starts with a high level view of your organization and allows you to drill down to the individual employee level using Comfort Zone’s robust report and analytic tools.

See where your organization stands by conducting a Gap Assessment.  Click here to sign up today.

Identifying Conditions Contributing to Musculoskeletal Disorders

Thursday, 21 June, 2012 07:50 Written by admin
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The information below is provided by OSHA at their website http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/ergonomics/contributing_conditions.html and provides a common sense approach to identifying factors that are impeding worker performance and leading to possible workplace injuries.

How do I look for conditions that may contribute to musculoskeletal disorders?

There are several approaches that may be used to determine whether conditions in the workplace might be contributing to employees developing musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). These approaches can be used individually or in combination.

Review and analyze injury and illness records to determine whether there is a pattern of ergonomic-related injuries in certain jobs or work tasks.

  • OSHA 300 Logs and supporting 301 forms
  • Workers’ Compensation claims


Analyze the jobs or work tasks themselves to identify potential ergonomic problems before employee injuries occur. Determine if jobs present ergonomic risks that may contribute to musculoskeletal disorders.

  • Analysis tools (such as Comfort Zone) may help in analyzing jobs. While there is no one size fits all approach, there are numerous non-OSHA, voluntary analysis tools that may be used to learn more about potential ergonomic risks associated with jobs.
  • Seek employee input about the existence of ergonomic problems related to particular jobs or work tasks. This may be accomplished, among other ways:
    • by speaking with employees
    • by conducting symptom surveys
    • through use of employee questionnaires
  • Be aware of common contributing conditions within your industry or job classifications. If other companies in the same industry have ergonomic-related problems, then it is possible these potential problems are also your concern. Obtain information from others in your industry:
    • to see what problems others have experienced in their operations
    • to gain a better understanding of potential problems that may exist in your workplace.

How It all Came Together (Continued from – Enterprise Human Performance Management (EHPM) – What is it?)

Wednesday, 21 March, 2012 13:55 Written by admin
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When we saw the opening generated by the need for a new workstation design, we jumped on it. We brought in our ergonomists, our usability and human factors people and industrial hygienists as well as the safety professionals. We were able to do all of this quickly as they all were under one group. If they had been situated in different groups this would have been more difficult and maybe impossible to rapidly get people working together with the same end point in mind. As it was, everyone had the same marching orders – identify the key components of the work and the tools needed and design workstations that were smaller but still met all of the needs for properly completing the work and meeting the personal needs of the users including ergonomics, anthropometrics and storage etc. There was also a tasking to ensure that all codes and applicable standards were met or exceeded including ergonomics, flame spread and evacuation. The tasks worked on by the individual sections were:

Safety – Health and safety codes including ADA and accessibility
Industrial Hygiene – Workstation component constituents and off-gassing and impact on indoor air quality, optimum lighting levels and colors for the work. Understand and consider the impact of noise on the employees and the work including the levels of sound (hearing damage?) in the headsets and the amount of noise fed back into the microphones when talking to members.

HF and Usability – the required amount of space for the work and tools include input and output processes, etc.

Ergonomics – The layout of the workstation based upon HF requirements and anthropometrics of users including chairs etc. Determine the types of equipment to be used and locations on the workstations and incorporate process engineering techniques into the project.

All of the groups worked closely together to determine the final solutions. The first analyses were completed in the work area to fully understand what the work was and identify the needs of the work. The employees doing the work were continuously included in the analysis and asked for their opinions to ensure buy-in to the process and that all factors were considered. Then, the studies were moved into the usability labs. Several workstations were moved in and the employees worked there for a week. All aspects of the jobs were tracked, videoed and analyzed. Overhead cameras were able to track exactly how much workspace was used for a given job. Work styles and differences in work tasks were also identified as was the required amount of personal storage space. The final results were based upon and specific to the different types of jobs being accomplished.

In the end, four different “compressed” workstation types were developed in the “Workstation 2000” project. They were rolled out in a test area where they received very high marks from the employees. All requirements were met including the needed size reductions and employee buy-in.

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