Reprinted from the ACJ - January 1996
Work? I love work. I could watch it all day long. Certainly you have heard, or said, these words before. Well now, through this amazing TV offer you can have that wish come true. Ergonomics, that's right, ergonomics. The fastest growing segment of the work force. Why do the work when you can watch someone else do it, and then suggest ways to improve. But unlike the hated time study guys who make you work harder, an ergonomist looks for ways to make your job less of a pain in the _____ (fill in your favorite body part).
Literally, an ergonomist, or human factors engineer, looks at work stations, work practices, and work loads with an eye toward making them safer, easier, and less stressful. Designing benches, tools and methods that make our daily chores easier. Now here is how you can get into this exciting field.
Take a day during the slow season to watch how the workers carry out their daily tasks. As you do, try to think of ways to make those jobs easier or less tiring. The most common work related injury is back strain. Lifting, twisting, or leaning over a work bench all day can result in an aching back. Continual repetition of a single task, like bolting down headers, can cause ligament or tendon soreness and swelling.
The most well known form of this type of injury is carpal tunnel syndrome. The carpal tunnel is an opening in the bones of your wrist through which pass the tendon that operates your thumb and wrist movement. Overuse of this tendon will cause it to swell. When it swells enough to rub on the sides of the carpal opening, it lets you know by swelling more, losing strength and burning like a hot poker.
Another example is tennis elbow. More in line with our daily lives would be "Rod Out Elbow," elbow tendons that swell and ache due to excessive use. Eye strain, sore feet, and tired shoulders are also common work place ailments.
The solutions may be complex, but more often than not there are easily implemented, low-cost ways to improve worker comfort. This in turn will improve morale and worker speed, resulting in better throughput and increased profits. Who knows, if it works well enough maybe you can take some time off to really get "tennis" elbow.
When trying to alleviate back strain, it is important to keep the back aligned during work. Use hoists for heavy lifting. Lift properly, with a straight back, when necessary. If a job requires repetitive lifting, use a back support belt. Set parts on low tables or carts to avoid bending all the way to the floor to pick them up. When standing at a bench for a long time, raise one foot up on a box or low shelf to align your back in the proper position. Believe it or not, that is why the bar at your favorite watering hole has a foot rail along the bottom. The more comfortable you are the longer you are going to stay there. Besides, it gives you something to pull yourself up on after you have had one to many.
Adjust bench heights to suit the individual worker so he or she doesn't lean or reach excessively. Take a look at the tools around the shop. A heavy torch or air wrench may be able to be suspended or counterweighted to take the load off of your arms and shoulders. Make sure that the lighting is adequate.
Use indirect lighting rather than having a glaring light bulb shine in your face. Check that the safety/warning signs in the shop are clear, easy to read and understand. Emergency shut-offs or safety switches on machines should be easily identifiable to reduce worker stress and therefore mistakes in an emergency. Automobiles used to have the same shape brake and gas pedal. This led to obvious mistakes in tense situations. Spreading the distance between the pedals and shaping them differently (brake pedals are wider now, and the smaller gas pedal is placed farther back) has helped to reduce the number of unintended "drive thru" facilities.
Reaching above your head to work, or reaching out while you work, gets tiring very fast. Lower the hoist if it helps reduce the reaching necessary. Stand on a box when working under the hood if it reduces the reach. Position work stations such that your arms hang relatively free and your elbows are not overly extended. Wearing cushioned shoes or standing on shock absorbing mats at the bench will help avoid rubbery, tired legs.
Although Henry Ford's assembly line idea of having one person perform one job and then send the unit to the next station works miracles to improve production efficiency, it does wear out the line workers in short order. Try to break up the jobs during the day. Have the people move from task to task to avoid static, uni-movement jobs. This type of stationary work is a great deal more tiring than multi-task assignments. Even if you trust only one guy to do your bench repairs, let him move around between jobs to break up his day. He will thank you for it and last longer without suffering job burnout.
So jump on board and start your exciting career in ergonomics. All it takes is an open eye and an open mind to improve the tools, work stations and/or work practices of yourself and your coworkers. They will appreciate it and you will see the benefits in reduced injury down time, improved throughput, and a new found sense of self esteem. And now back to our regularly scheduled program already in progress.
The above article was written by David M. Brown, Chief Engineer of Johnson Manufacturing Company, Inc. and is published by JOHNSON with the expressed approval of the National Automotive Radiator Service Association and the Automotive Cooling Journal. Other reproduction or distribution of this information is forbidden without the written consent of JOHNSON and NARSA/ACJ. All rights reserved.
JOHNSON MANUFACTURING COMPANY
114 Lost Grove Road / PO Box 96 / Princeton, Iowa 52768-0096
Phone 563-289-5123 or Fax 563-289-3825