“Ergonomics are not a safety and health issue—they’re a symptom of process inefficiency,”

“One third of all injuries and illnesses and 40 percent of all workers’ compensation claims are
caused by the ergonomic failure of an operating system. It’s an efficiency issue,”

Lean Ergonomics: What Is It?

When hearing the word ergonomics, most people think of improving the equipment they
use. Or they think of changing behaviors that will help to reduce injuries.

But this kind of approach to ergonomics leaves out a critical third element, explains Davis.

The critical, third part is to examine the entire system for inefficiencies.

Consider lean manufacturing, the process of eliminating inefficiencies so that a

manufacturing environment can achieve the most production, for the least cost. It’s a
systematic, results-oriented approach to eliminating inefficiency.

These same principles can be applied to other categories of our work, outside of
manufacturing, which is where the term “lean ergonomics” stems from.

“Ergonomics can be seen as an expense or [perceived as the] anchor that the boat is
dragging. Lean in itself is the most efficient way to run a business. By taking the ergonomic
principles and applying the lean principles to those, you can systematically remove those
inefficiencies and risk factors,” explains Davis.

The list of benefits when applying lean ergonomics across operating procedures is long.

Benefits include:
• Improved quality
• Improved efficiency
• Improved productivity
• Higher morale
• Improved on-time delivery
• Cost savings
• Improved safety and health of individuals and teams
• Reduction of key risk factors
• Reduction of injuries and disability

“You can see that when you remove risk factors that are identified as caused by
musculoskeletal injuries or injuries due to poor ergonomics, you will see an increase in
efficiency as a result,” says Davis. “The process becomes more efficient and the people
become more efficient.”
Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are a group of painful
disorders of muscles, tendons, and nerves. Carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis,
thoracic outlet syndrome, and tension neck syndrome are examples.
• Repetitive motion injuries.
•Repetitive strain injuries.
•Cumulative trauma disorders.
•Occupational cervicobrachial disorders.
•Overuse syndrome.
•Regional musculoskeletal disorders.
•Soft tissue disorders.

What are the risk factors for WMSDs?

•Fixed or constrained body positions.
•Continual repetition of movements.
•Force concentrated on small parts of the body, such as the hand or wrist.
•A pace of work that does not allow sufficient recovery between movements.

How can we prevent WMSDs?

•Job Design
•Mechanization
•Job Rotation
•Job Enlargement and Enrichment
•Team Work
•Workplace Design
•Tools and Equipment Design
•Work Practices

Looking at the Process for Change

Knowing that ergonomic problems can be viewed as process inefficiencies, Davis’ proposed
model is a systematic way of looking at employee behavior and culture.

Here’s a look at a few elements included in his process for change:

1. Analyze where you are at today.

You can begin by discovering inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and conduct an analysis of all jobs
for ergonomic risk factors. “When doing so, organizations must look beyond the traditionally
recognized symptoms of ergonomic injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome,” says Davis.
“Other symptoms of ergonomic problems are missed delivery targets, high scrap or rework
rates, returned goods, and customer dissatisfaction, to name a few.”

This analysis can shed light on many hidden safety and health problems (or risk factors) that
may often be overlooked. “For example, employees that are noncompliant in operation of
machinery with guards in place, may really be unable to meet production requirements with
them in place due to poor design,” says Davis.

2. Educate, train & certify.

The entire workforce needs awareness training. Start with education, followed by training,
and work towards certifications.
To start, ensure workers are aware of the answer to these questions:
• What are ergonomics?
• How are ergonomics part of everyday life (at work and outside of work)?
• What are the symptoms of Musculoskeletal Disorders? (Why does early reporting matter?)
• What are the risk factors? What other steps can we take to protect ourselves and to
prevent/reduce hazards?

“You need to be able to identify every function within an organization that needs training,
ergonomics training or lean ergonomics training,” says Davis. “Curriculum for the workplace
should be all-encompassing, including, as a minimum, plant management, engineering,
healthcare providers, HR, and awareness training for all employees.”

3. Foster a culture of problem-solvers.

A great objective is that the entire culture will embrace lean ergonomics. “It should be part of
all your systems. It’s part of the way you purchase equipment. It’s manufacturing equipment,
hospital equipment, office equipment. We call it ergo-standardization. If you have your
processes standardized, and it is part of your purchasing standards, then you prevent risk
factors from coming into your processes, across the company, to begin with,” says Davis.

we systematically tear the system apart when applying lean ergonomics. The only way you
can practice prevention is affected at a systems level.”

To foster that environment, you can start by:

• Creating a new set of ergonomic requirements that support lean ergonomic principles. This
includes anthropometrics, machine serviceability/ maintainability, human performance
capacity and environmental issues. These may be new, minimum requirements for
workstations, tools, and machines.
• Adopting tools that help to proactively prevent injuries, including leading indicators.
• Ensuring employees are trained in identifying the signs and symptoms of Musculoskeletal
Disorders.
• Embrace the concept of Yokaten—meaning “across everywhere.” If you have one process
that’s wrong, you find it, fix it, but then it’s about systematically communicating so you can
fix those issues across the company. “That’s preventive ergonomics,” explains Davis.

Toyota’s company-wide premise is, “Find a problem, fix a problem, and keep it from
reoccurring.”

Again, that reflects their systematic approach to problem solving.

A culture that embraces this idea can apply this kind of problem solving (and continuous
improvement) to all areas of the business. “This is a culture where every employee is
empowered to raise an issue based on continuous improvement. They have a mechanism
so that they can communicate that throughout the various parts of the organization. If it
is something that maintenance needs to fix, for example, they have the resources allocated
to do it,” says Davis.

“More importantly, they don’t view it as a problem—they view it as an opportunity to be

better, and it’s a cultural issue for them.”

4. Be sure it’s supported.

Be sure that team members are supported, and when appropriate, rewarded for their
implementation of lean ergonomics. Davis says having space for ongoing feedback about
work and the work environment is critical, too.

“It should be a culture where people know they can share what is going on, if something
is not working. If workers see things are not working, they should be able to speak up.”