Podcast: Smarter, safer, stronger – the evolution of industrial ergonomics
Key Highlights
- Video capture simplifies ergonomics assessments, making them faster, cost-effective, and more engaging for workers.
- Visual tools help workers identify risks and drive solutions, increasing adoption and long-term safety improvements.
- Mature ergonomics programs reduce injury severity, boost worker health, and improve engagement across roles.
- Virtual and self-assessments extend ergonomic support to home and mobile workers, addressing new hybrid work risks.
In this episode of Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast, Kristianne Egbert, senior corporate ergonomist with Briotix Health, discusses the evolution of industrial ergonomics in recent years, and offers insights into how managers can cost-justify investing in ergo technologies to better protect their workers.
Below is an excerpt from the podcast:
AS: Let's look at industrial ergonomics. What has changed over the past few years? Is there a different strategy now than there was a few years ago?
KE: That's a really good question, and I like that one. And I think I like it because finally — after, you know, I've been doing this for the last 20 years or so — things are actually starting to change. I feel like it was stagnant for a long time, and we were all using the same tools that we've been using for the last 20 years: REBA and RULA and the NIOSH lifting equation, and that sort of thing, to assess ergonomic risk.
And over the last couple of years — I'll say, and it’s rapidly changing — we're getting some new stuff. The advent, or the accessibility I should say, of video capture is really a big one that has truly changed the way we do things. And the accessibility of it, the fact that the cost is relatively low, I think helps considerably. While we've had things like sensors, they're expensive and they're a little hard to use. But video capture — the fact that I can take my phone, take a video, and easily upload it and have it jumpstart my industrial ergonomics assessment — that's a change.
And it improves companies’ strategies overall because it's something that's doable, and people think it's actually kind of fun, which is probably also a change versus standing there with a clipboard and trying to circle postures that they see, and sitting there with a stopwatch trying to count. It makes things a lot easier. It makes it a little bit more hands-on — and a lot more fun.
In doing that, it also has created a change in the tool sets that we're using. So again, REBA and RULA — these things have been around for a really long time — and we're at the point now that those assessment methodologies are growing. They're morphing a little bit. A lot of companies, us included in that, are starting to take those assessment tools and, rather than making it for a moment in time — if you're using the REBA correctly, for example, you're looking at “What is my risk in a specific position?” — we're now able to understand what the risk is across an entire job task.
That is not how the REBA was intended to be used, but people were kind of starting to use it that way. And now these new tools are morphing out of it. And I imagine it's going to be any time now that these tools are going to be validated, and people are already using them — whether they're validated or not at this point. And I think that's really exciting, to consider that there's actually some change happening.
AS: Okay, wonderful to hear that there’s change. Looking specifically at the manufacturing workforce and those in the warehouses, what kind of solutions have changed or are people starting to use now?
KE: So again, the equipment — the stuff that's out there — I won’t say it's not changing. It is. There are robot and cobot bases that do a lot more things than they used to, and obviously all of that technology is constantly growing. But I think the biggest impact for those frontline workers — you know, the boots on the ground putting the things together that we all use every single day, and bringing that equipment to life for us — is the fact that people better understand the risk. And in better understanding the risk, they're able to advocate for change, right?
Because what used to happen is somebody — maybe it's a safety professional, maybe it's just somebody who's watching someone else work — and they're sitting there looking at it going, “Yeah, it doesn’t look right. Oh, that can’t be right,” right? And everybody has the ability to do that.
This way — using, again, video capture — to be able to take a phone and have an overlay show us “Here's where your ergonomic risks are,” it puts it into words. It gives us a way to communicate. So they can say, “Look, it's this. See this bending? That's what I'm trying to get rid of.” And you take that to the right team, and they'll say, “Oh, that's the problem — well, let's think about getting a lift table in there.”
Whereas if they don't understand what the problem is, they can't help drive forward those solutions. I think that's really the biggest change. I think it's also helpful from a communication standpoint to be able to show the worker themselves: “Here, this is what we're seeing.” And they'll look at it and go, “Oh — well geez, I don't really have to twist like that, right? I can do this instead.” Or, “Oh, maybe I should just bring this part a little bit closer.”
They know their work. They understand it. And so being able to help them visualize and see, with a picture or a video, what the problem is — they get to be part of the solution. And in being part of that solution, that's all the more likely it is that those solutions are going to stick.
AS: Okay, now to the least favorite topic: metrics. Everybody always wants metrics. I think over the years there's a better understanding of how important ergonomics is to safety and less to the bottom line — but I still think it's a question of having to say, “We've seen this.” So in your experience in the last 20 years and across industries, are you seeing metrics that have shown that it works, whether it's healthcare cost reduction, productivity, worker engagement? What are you seeing?
KE: It is all of those. I think the biggest would be, straight out of the gate, the reduction in the overall count of injuries. A lot of it really depends on where somebody is in their ergonomics maturity, as we call it, right? If they are simply reacting — “Oh, we have an injury, we need to change something” — okay, that injury is there, it exists, they need to deal with it. But the more mature an ergonomics program gets, what we really see is the reduction in the severity of those injuries. So that might mean fewer days away from work — or no days away from work. It might mean less restricted duty because we're able to say that people can do more jobs as we're able to minimize the risk exposed to them at each of those jobs.
So I think the reduction in injuries is probably the best one. And again, the employee engagement — the total worker health — is really important, and helping those employees feel like they are part of this process, helping them again understand what the problems are, letting them be a part of that solution, is truly a game changer as well.
AS: With these improvements, are we seeing that the EHS departments of companies are getting the budgets they need to implement some of these solutions? Or is it still a question of you have to kind of march them with ROI or you won't be included in the budget?
KE: One of the things I love with our ergonomics — our industrial ergonomics platform — is there's a picture of an outline of a person, and it highlights the body parts that are at risk, right? So if you take this outline of a human — and I actually did one this morning — and every body part was red, I was like, we put that into our reporting, right? That picture speaks a thousand words. And you can look at that and they'll go, “Yeah, we need to fix that,” right? And then if I can associate that directly to say, “Okay, here are the risk drivers, here’s what’s happening, and here are the solutions,” it is much easier for them to get buy-in when you've got that visual that goes with it to say, “Here's what the problem is,” versus truly needing to go through and consider the ROI.
I think that’s easier to do when it’s a lower-cost solution, right? If I'm saying, “Hey, we’re going to automate this whole thing, and it's going to be a $120,000 project,” okay, we're going to need to see some numbers on how big of a problem this is, right? But especially for that lower-hanging fruit — where a lot of times you have trouble getting buy-in — I think safety departments are having an easier time getting the budget freed up when they can explain that risk a little bit better.
AS: Let’s move to the home office. Obviously, after COVID, a lot of people moved home. Now it's a bit of a hybrid, but I wonder how much companies emphasize ergonomics at home. They're not sending people to the house to see how you're sitting, but I'm sure, given what percentage of the workforce has been working at home, you have to consider those costs. Are there any metrics on those costs — that things have gone up — or what companies are doing to address the ergonomics of an at-home worker?
KE: So again, on the metrics one, you're right — it's hard to capture that. I will say that while we aren't going into homes, I have had to do that before, and many of us have had to do that before. We're not physically going into the homes, but we do virtual assessments all day long. We do vehicle assessments, for that matter, right? You're working with somebody who is sitting in their home office or in their vehicle, and we're talking through their workstation setups with them.
I get personal calls all the time of like, “Hey, I'm working from home — can you help?” “Hey, what do you think about this chair?” People are wanting to take control of that themselves. And as a result, companies are realizing that, yeah, this is an issue, and we are asking people to work from home. And even if we don't want to address their home office — if they're not working in a good position at home and then they come to work three days a week, or two days a week, whatever it might be — that discomfort follows them there. And so it still is an issue, and it is being addressed.
Again, whether it's those virtual assessments or, you know, self-assessments — we have metrics for this — that we can address ergonomic issues with self-assessments with a certain percentage. I can’t remember what it is off the top of my head; I think it's like an 80 to 90% resolution rate just having somebody go through the self-assessment, right?
It's not rocket science. I wish — I wish it was. No, it's not. It's easy, right? Once people can understand, “Oh, this is how I'm supposed to be working — yeah, no, I'm not there,” they can fix a lot of this themselves. And it might need some tweaking, some fine-tuning, and that's when we can send in the virtual ergonomist to truly work with them to kind of polish it up a little bit. But having them go through that process is an important piece of that puzzle, and there, again, are metrics to go along with that.
AS: Has this become part of a formal safety program as far as ergonomics at home? Are you seeing this? Is this a question of the top-performing companies are doing this and everybody else needs to catch up?
KE: I would say 100%, the top-performing companies are doing this. Yes, that is definitely something that's happening. I think that, you know, smaller companies are probably not — it really just depends on the volume of those work-from-home employees that you have. And I think, again, part of that is based on the ergonomics maturity.
I'll go back to those vehicle assessments, right? That's something that is becoming more and more common. You have a mobile workforce. Everybody has a sales fleet, right? Anybody that's making something has somebody out there selling it. What about those people that are in the cars all day long? I've had a couple of interviews lately on the ergonomics of traveling — as somebody who sits in an airplane often and also trying to work on my laptop while I'm doing it, right?
There are risks that come with all of that. And so that's even more advanced in that overall ergonomics maturity of things that people need to be thinking about. The home offices are there, people are thinking about it — so I think that's just one more piece of that puzzle.
About the Podcast
Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast offers news and information for the people who make, store and move things and those who manage and maintain the facilities where that work gets done. Manufacturers from chemical producers to automakers to machine shops can listen for critical insights into the technologies, economic conditions and best practices that can influence how to best run facilities to reach operational excellence.
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About the Author
Adrienne Selko
Adrienne Selko is senior editor at EHS Today and Material Handling & Logistics. Previously, she was in corporate communications at a medical manufacturing company as well as a large regional bank. Adrienne received a bachelor’s of business administration from the University of Michigan.