On-Line Ergonomics Solutions for General Industry

Details

• Personal Author:
  MacLeod D
• Description:
  This project created a website of over 1000 practical solutions for common causes of workplace Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) in light manufacturing operations. These solutions were adapted from actual improvements in industrial settings that were made as a result of ergonomics consulting projects performed in over 1500 individual workplaces. The goal of Phase I of the project was to develop a prototype website and then receive feedback from potential users on how best to structure the information to be easy to access and understand. Phase II of the project will be to add 4000 more solutions and to continue to study how to make the site as user-friendly as possible. Phase I focused on Material Handling and Workstation Design in light manufacturing operations. Phase II will expand the topics to include Hand Tools, Maintenance, and Warehousing, along with other similar tasks in the service industry. In both phases, considerable emphasis is being placed on providing low-cost, low-tech solutions, including items that can be fabricated in-house. There were two primary findings of the evaluations of the Phase I prototype: (1) Users approach the internet search for ergonomics solutions differently, depending upon their background and experience. For example, manufacturing engineers are satisfied with skimming a long list of solution categories. However, plant nurses tend to approach the search more as a question, such as "How can I prevent back injuries." Consequently, in Phase II, new introductory portals will be added so that users with different styles of searching for information can access the solutions based on different frameworks and styles. (2) The target users of this website were initially anticipated as occupational safety staff and production engineers in larger workplaces. However, the website is sufficiently down-to-earth that the target group can be expanded to small industrial operations without professional staff. Furthermore, as the site becomes more comprehensive, its value is rapidly growing beyond a website filled with ideas for preventing MSDs. In many ways, it provides a primer on how to set up a production operation intelligently. MSDs continue to be a significant workplace problem, constituting about one-third of all injuries and about 70% of total workers' compensation costs. Furthermore, the same conditions that create the risk for MSDs also tend to increase time and effort, plus increase the risk of defects. As the solutions on this website show, the techniques that help prevent MSDs also constitute simply better ways of performing work Cost-benefit studies were not part of this project. However, the solutions were developed in manufacturing plants where their implementation typically yielded cuts in workers' compensation costs by at least 50% plus increased productivity by roughly 10-15%. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Mining Occupational Health Safety Safety Management
• Keywords:
  Computer Software Ergonomics Information Dissemination Information Systems Injury Prevention Manufacturing MSD Musculoskeletal Disorders Website
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-20
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20052288
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2018-101418
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, R43-OH-009354, 2010 Aug; :1-20
• Contact Point Address:
  Dan MacLeod, President, Dan MacLeod LLC, 305 E. Catherine St., Milford, PA 18337
• Email:
  dan@danmacleod.com
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• NORA Priority Area:
  Manufacturing
• Performing Organization:
  Dan MacLeod, LLC, Milford, Pennsylvania
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  09012008
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  08312010
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:fc6646cbd360540fe40f4b8b6993b7a897c1323bb74cab81f2efba5b749edc6479a9cba083789ac17ddfe4c5fa1bdcf0062dc1cb6a58e7583236a02e3aa9d88d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/218695/cdc_218695_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 95.04 KB ]