Introduction
Ergonomics is the art and science of fitting work to suit the needs of the individuals who work in them. This is essential as it ensures that the working environment is set in such a way to ensure that employees are exposed to minimal elements of stress and strain that may arise while they are conducting their duties and obligations. This ensures that workers are not susceptible to ergonomic disorders such as trigger finder, tendonitis, and carpel tunnel syndrome. To ensure that all these disorders are avoided, ergonomics focuses on ensuring that employees have a conducive working environment. As such, ergonomics focuses on the design of the work environment, working stations, illumination, site safety and the presence and status of tools and equipments. Ergonomic hazards affect the musculoskeletal system of an individual. This arises as a result of an individual engaging in forceful and repetitive movements, poor working postures, poor design of working station and the improper use of tools and equipments. It is thus due to this fact that it is essential for an organization to develop and enforce and ergonomic plan that reduces these risk hazards.
Work Site Analysis
Once engaged with the task of developing an ergonomic plan, the first thing that a Safety Personnel should conduct is work site analysis. This is an essential step as it reveals to the personnel the hazards that are currently present in ever workstation, the operations that lead to the development of these hazards and potential sites where ergonomic hazards are likely to develop. In addition, the Safety Personnel is supposed to conduct a background check on injuries and injury related illnesses that have occurred within the firm to identify the trends and frequencies of occurrence of injuries.
The aim of conducting a background check with regards to injury frequencies is to determine whether there is a cumulative development of trauma disorders as a result of Ergonomic hazards. To ensure that confidentiality of the workers health records is maintained, it is essential for the Safety Personnel to conduct this process with the assistance of health workers. Consequently, this background check is conducted in order to determine the trends of trauma that arise within department, occupations and work stations.
For this process to be effective and efficient, a systematic approach should be followed. In this view, the Safety Personnel shall be able to identify the workstations that require a quantitative research to be conducted in order to determine the frequency, effects and outcome of ergonomic hazards on employees. Thus, to achieve all this, the Safety Personnel shall have to consider the following:
- Development of a checklist that contains factors such as components, posture, vibration and extreme weather conditions
- Identification of operations that expose workers at high chances of succumbing to ergonomic hazards
- Identification of low risk activities that may pose danger to employees
- Determination of risk factors that can be reduced or eliminated by the program
- Provision of analytical results to health care personnel in order for them to determine light duty activities
- Determination of activities, tools, processes and materials that may reduce the exposure of workers to ergonomic hazards
It will also be necessary of the Safety Personnel to conducts analysis and surveys of factors that may cause ergonomic hazards. In the process, he/she will always come up with better means of reducing these risk factors. Additionally, he/she should implement a system through which employees can alert the management with regards to the occurrence or development of an ergonomic hazard.
Controls
The analytical process of the workstation is the first phase of designing an ergonomic program. The main aim of the above process was to determine the possible ergonomic hazards might be present in a workstation. Once these hazards have been identified, the Safety Personnel is expected to come up with means through which these hazards can be avoided. It has always been known that the best way through which ergonomic designs can be eliminated is by having well designed workstations, jobs, tools and equipments. For effectiveness and efficiency, this program should have appropriate use of the following:
- Engineering Controls
- Work Practice Controls
- Personal Protective Control
- Administrative Controls
The main aim of an ergonomic program is to ensure that individuals are comfortable while performing their duties. Thus, the Safety Personnel has to ensure that engineering technology is used as much as possible in order to reduce strenuous activities of individuals while performing their duties through repetitive actions. In addition, workstations should be designed in a manner that they only accommodate workers within the station itself. These stations should also be designed to conduct specific activities and operations. This will reduce overcrowding. This will in turn reduce body stress. Tools should also have handles that increase the ease at which employees handle and use them.
Work practice controls are also essential in a working place. The Safety Personnel should thus ensure that he implements a program that is safe and understood by employees at all levels. A workstation should have proper working techniques. There should be proper cutting techniques, lifting techniques, regular maintenance procedures and adjustment and modification of tools and workstations. Employee conditioning should also be conducted at a regular interval especially with regards to new or returning employees. This will ensure that employees use and maintain proper working practices hence reducing the risk of ergonomic hazards.
Physical protection is also an integral part of the control procedure. The Safety Personnel should thus ensure personal protection of employees. This can be achieved with the help of protective gears and clothing. While determining the clothing and gears to be used, the Safety Personnel should determine the operation that the gear/clothing will be used for and the physical requirements of the job and that of the worker. These clothes and gears should fit perfectly on the workers who will be using them, they should not result into extreme temperatures in order to minimize stress on body joints, and extra clothing and ornaments such as neck-ties, watches, bracelets and so on should not be work in work stations especially if rotating machinery are present.
Finally, the Safety Personnel should include administrative control in his program. This will reduce the frequency, duration and severity of the ergonomic hazards within an organization. Thus, the target set for workers should be feasible, overtime should always be avoided, enough employees should be assigned to specific tasks and there should be pauses between activities to ensure relaxation of muscles and tendons. Additionally, employee rotation should be encouraged.
Conclusion
An ergonomic program is an essential tool in an organization as it aims at reducing the occurrence of ergonomic hazards that may lead to the development of ergonomic disorder. Therefore, while designing an ergonomic plan, careful assessment of workstations is essential. This will provide the framework for which control measures will be formulated on. This will lead to the development and implementation of a plan that will protect employees from ergonomic hazards.