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Chapter 7. (Abridged with Comments)
OHTA STUDENT MANUAL
Ergonomics Essentials
April 2009
This manual was originally developed by BP and University of Wollongong. The Occupational Hygiene Training Association Ltd would like to acknowledge the contribution of these organisations in funding and developing the material and is grateful for their permission to use and modify it.
Supported by OHTA, IOHA
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works Licence
7.1 STANDARDS FOR ERGONOMICS
The International Standards Organisation (ISO) aims to encourage international standardisation and to facilitate the exchange of goods and services through the elimination of technical barriers to trade.
To assist professional and other people who are interested in the design and function of workplaces and workplace equipment, the International Standards cover a wide range of topics of relevance to the well-being and behaviour of people at work. These Standards provide the user – be they a manager, an employee, an OHS professional or an ergonomist - with detailed technical guidance to compliment other information sources.
Technical Committee No.159 advises in the area of ergonomics, including:
• General ergonomics principles
• Anthropometry and biomechanics
• Ergonomics of human-system interaction
• Ergonomics of the physical environment
This Technical Committee in ergonomics deals with products, work systems and work equipment which are used all over the world.
This committee (ISO/TC 159) list the key benefits and aims of standardisation of ergonomics in business environments as:
• “To enhance health, safety and well-being of the users as well as meet the overall performance
• To prepare standards in the field of ergonomics, in order to meet the requirements for ergonomics and efficient products under the conditions of free trade
• To improve the usability of products; and
• To deliver a consistent set of ergonomics requirements as a reliable basis for a world-wide machine design (as ISO standards world-wide)”
(http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink/fetch/2000/2122/687806/ISO_TC_15
9__Ergonomics_.pdf?nodeid=1162319&vernum=0)
The committee has a list of priorities, including: making standards more consistent internationally; working of the ergonomics of new technologies;
working across the borders of occupational work; considering ergonomics for people with special requirements such as access; and considering the ergonomic implications of the ageing population.
One of the key Standards regarding occupational workplace ergonomics is the ISO 6385:2004 as this aims to provide an ergonomic framework by outlining the key principles to consider in workplace and work systems design and redesign.
7.2 TRAINING, EXPERIENCE AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT
Training is an integral component of human effort industrial engineering and workplace management system. The employer has a duty of care for their employees (see Section 7.3.1), and essential in fulfilling this duty of care, is appropriate training for their employees to make sure that all working as per ergonomic guidelines to prevent injuries and muscular strains and to see that operators are energetic and comfortable throughout the day.
Workplace training is an ongoing process. Few individuals start a job without needing further training or development of skills to perform the job. Continuing technological changes, differences between workplaces, promotional opportunities and multiskilling mean that employees are constantly required to learn new skills and understand different processes and procedures in order to perform optimally at work.
Training can be provided to employees in order to increase their knowledge and skills. It can be on-the-job, in a classroom at the workplace or off-site and can involve individuals learning different types of skills, such as technical (computer software), interpersonal (mentoring or different management techniques) or problem solving.
Adults learn best from their own experience and then move from this into new areas of knowledge and skill. It may be best to train adult learners in practical situations if they are not comfortable in a classroom. Some people like to see, others to hear and others to do. The best training provides a combination of these opportunities.
There is a wide range of skills that users may bring to a job. No two users of the same equipment will operate it in the same way. If it is important that equipment is used in a systematic and standardised way then much more training or relearning will be required. Cultural differences may also affect equipment operation and task execution (eg: carrying loads on head and shoulders vs in arms).
In complex and highly specific systems much time and money may be needed for training, evaluation of the work system and retraining. Airline pilots are a good example of how training can help people to use complex systems competently. However, pilots are also very carefully selected and well paid. Asking for the same amount of effort and accuracy from workers with little training and paid one quarter of the salary may mean that employers or managers may be disappointed in the workers’ performance.
7.2.1 Acquisition of Physical Skills
Physically skilled work involves quick and accurate muscular contraction, coordination of the different muscle groups involved, precision, concentration and visual control. Usually skilled work involves use of the hand(s) and in particular the fingers.
When a skill is being learned there are two phases: learning the movements and then adapting the body tissues involved. At first movements are done consciously and as training progresses the conscious part gradually reduces and the actions begin to become automatic. As the skill develops the movements change from jerky and uncoordinated to smooth and flowing. In the first stages of skill acquisition extra muscle work occurs. Less energy is required for a skilled person doing exactly the same job as an unskilled person. As time progresses the body tissues adapt to the work by increasing muscle size/bulk or cardiovascular fitness (eg: workers who perform heavy lifting tasks develop strong thigh muscles).
Short training sessions, breaking the job up into parts and providing strict controls and good examples can improve skill acquisition. Short training sessions are necessary because a high degree of concentration is required and people tire quickly under these circumstances. Breaking the job into parts allows more difficult or critical parts to get more attention during the training and allows the practice of parts before putting the whole together. It is important that the best technique is developed. This is facilitated if accurate feedback and supervision are provided during the learning process.
7.2.2 Skill Development and Individual Differences
Differences between individuals should be taken into account when any type of training scheme is developed or offered to employees. Key differences in employees include:
• Knowledge they posses before training begins
• The way that they learn new skills
• The speed with which they learn new skills
• Confidence in dealing with unfamiliar situations
Thus the type of training methods employed should be adapted to the learning needs of each individual. The main aim of skill acquisitions is that individuals achieve a satisfactory level of competence.
7.2.3 Training Needs Analysis
The first stage of the training process is a review of training needs. This analysis should be performed on three levels:
1. Organisational – what training should be performed in the organisation and where is it needed?
2. Task/ job (usually called a task or job analysis) – what skills or abilities are required to perform a specific task or job?
3. Personal – what are the training needs of each individual?
7.2.4 Types of Training
There are several types of training that can be conducted:
• Knowledge teaching - the provision of knowledge to employees regarding a specific operation or system. This aids in teaching individuals the reasoning behind safe operating procedures or other safety measures
• On-the-job training – job rotation and the use of mentoring relationships or apprenticeships where new employees learn the skills required to perform their job from more experienced workers
• Simulator training – workers practise their skills on a simulated situation eg aircraft pilots, military personnel and medical staff
• Part-task – workers are taught part of a task that often can require special practice or can be a particular skill that should be developed before comprehensive training is begun eg medical training
• Team-based training – training is provided to groups of individuals who often work in teams. As a member of a team individuals are required to perform their respective jobs successfully and to co-ordinate their efforts to meet team goals
• Refresher training – involves workers re-learning skills and can involve on-the-job drills eg evacuation drills or simulated exercises eg: first aid training. Refresher training is essential for workers to sustain skills that are used infrequently but are necessary especially in emergencies
Whichever training method is used, it should be evaluated. This is can be done in a number of ways (such as practical demonstrations, written reports, etc) but must test the skills and knowledge acquired with regard to what is required by the task.
Training Aids
Training aids are helpful for individuals who have acquired new skills to enhance their performance. They can include:
• Reference or procedural manuals
• Checklists
• Charts, notices or labels
• Decision trees or decision charts
• An in-house expert or outsourced technical support who can provide support when needed
Managerial Ergonomics
7.2.5 Education and Training in Ergonomics
Education of stakeholders is important for a successful ergonomics program. By definition ergonomics requires that the people doing the work must be involved in the design of that work if solutions are to be successful. As well, if money, time, and expertise are used to produce an ergonomically sound workplace, then employees should understand why it has been so designed and how it can best be used. Training should encompass both of these elements.
7.3.3 Measuring Health and Illness
As stated above in Section 7.3.1, workers require training and information regarding any health risks with their work and the action the employer is taking to mitigate the risks. They also require advice on the actions they can take to further mitigate the risks – such as wearing prescribed PPE.
Where the employer’s safety management systems have identified health risks to the workforce, they should conduct regular health surveillance/biological monitoring to check that the controls put in place are actually working. This system must be documented so that individual workers can be monitored over time. Some forms of health surveillance may be required under legislation, such as certain States and Territories in Australia under the guidelines for the Control of Workplace Hazardous Substances.
From an ergonomics monitoring viewpoint, reviewing injury statistics (after
the fact), or ‘near miss’ reports and hazard reports (before injury sustained)
are an excellent way to determine if ergonomics controls are working, in
particular for musculoskeletal injuries. Further details regarding measuring
the impact of ergonomics is in the following section.
7.4 MEASURING THE IMPACT OF ERGONOMICS
There are several measurement tools and techniques that may be used to measure the impact of OHS and ergonomics outcomes.
7.4.1 Positive Performance Indicators (PPIs)
PPIs can give information about the effectiveness of activities especially within OHS management systems. Ergonomics is one of the areas where these indicators can be useful. However, they will not tell the whole story nor will they in themselves improve performance - they are merely flags indicating progress or the lack of it.
Nevertheless PPIs allow an organisation to set standards that are above the minimum and allow efforts towards preventive health and safety programs to be recognised and encouraged. When benchmarking and making comparisons with other organisations or industries it is important that different measures can be compared. Therefore they need to be reliable (consistent), repeatable, comparable (with other areas or organisations) and valid (measure what they say they are measuring). This can be very complex when systems are so different. As a result organisations often resort to lost time injury frequency rates (LTIFRs) which are a negative performance indicator (NPI) (see below) but which can be applied across a range of industries.
Aspects that lend themselves to the development of PPIs for ergonomics include those used to define OHS systems.
Table 7.1 – Applying PPIs to Ergonomics
Systems Area Possible Measures of Performance
1. Commitment % of jobs with OHS and ergonomics responsibilities defined
2. Documentation Level of awareness and use of manuals by the workforce
Frequency and timeliness of document updates
3. Purchasing % of purchase orders with OHS (ergonomics) requirements specified
4. Safe working systems % of systems controls compared with individual controls
% of risk assessments results that have been included in systems management plans
5. Identifying, reporting and correcting deficiencies
Frequency of reviews and % of actions achieved
% of incidents/problems where remedial action was
taken within an appropriate time frame
6. Monitoring, recording and reviewing % of OHS standards conformance
Level of record keeping required by regulation against potential recorded events
7. Developing skills and competencies.
% of employees assessed as conforming to competency standards
(Source: McPhee – reproduced with permission)
PPIs are process indicators and the way they can be used is often not
understood very well. The development of PPIs is still in the early stages in
many organisations even though there are often significant positive actions
that can be measured and documented.
7.4.2 Negative Performance Indicators (NPIs)
NPIs such as the LTIFR only tell what has happened in the past and that
something went wrong. It gives no indication of what has been done well.
Simply measuring negative outcomes such as injury rates or the costs of
workers’ compensation claims may not give a true indication of what is
happening now and how effective current risk control measures are. In fact
they may give wrong information when they fluctuate or when there are
subtle differences in reporting criteria. They may also allow the concealing of
injuries to provide an apparently better result. Most importantly they are very
limited in predicting high consequence, low probability accidents.
However, they measure actual failures and they allow statistics to be
compared across industries and from company to company. Organisations
can benchmark themselves against others and this comparison can be
useful to a limited degree.
7.4.3 Injury/illness Rates
When used in conjunction with some or all of the above measures, injury
/illness rates can provide valuable information concerning program
implementation. It is important to recognise that there may be a latent period
before the rates begin to improve due to the time it takes to implement a
mature, effective safety program.
7.4.4 Program Evaluation
Evaluation of an ergonomics program needs to measure how well program
implementation is progressing as well as whether or not the program
objectives were achieved.
What is measured will depend on what is considered necessary to determine
if the program is on track. You can:
1. Determine if the process is working. For instance, if the program
involves consultation with users, the identification of problems and
development of solutions these can all be measured simply by
determining if they have been done and what they have achieved
2. Estimate or assess the risks associated with poor ergonomics in
broad terms and then reassess these after changes have been
implemented. People involved can be asked about the degree of
difficulty of the job, the number of near misses or other incidents and
perhaps the number of times accidents or injuries have actually
occurred
3. Ask how workers feel about solutions and if they have been effective
or not
However, in many cases it is difficult to show that injuries have been reduced
by the changes made. This is because there are so many causes of most
injuries and in some cases they develop over time (eg: chronic
musculoskeletal injuries). It takes time and sophisticated measurement
techniques to establish that particular interventions have lead to a reduction
of injuries.
It is important to develop methods of evaluating positive indicators of work
being done that address areas requiring improvement. Then these indicators
and resulting improvements can be measured over time. The use of both
positive and negative performance indicators give the most balanced
approach to evaluation and can act as effective safety program drivers if
used carefully.
7.4.5 Strategic Planning
Performance can be measured from strategic plans. The mission statement
of an organisation can be used to measure performance. The board can be
measured by the goals outlined for the organisation.
267.
The manager can be measured by the objectives and the staff can be
measured by action plans. Key performance indicators (KPIs) (see below)
can be identified from strategic plans.
7.4.6 Key Performance Indicators
KPIs are derived from the use of statistics in process control in
manufacturing. The basic concept of statistical process control is that
variation in outcomes is inevitable and that the control of this variation
determines the quality of the outcome. If there is reduction of variation in one
or more stages of the process, then there will be a consistent reduction in the
variation of the outcome of the process. Recently this concept has been
applied successfully to business processes. The result has been that the
whole business process outcome has been developed by the improvement
of key variables within the process. This method can also be applied to the
process of OHS and ergonomics in organisations.
7.4.7 Program Audits
These give a comparison over time of improvements in implementation. They
involve the using of a series of predetermined questions to establish how
much work has been done to implement and maintain a program. Information
provided at audit is verified through document reviews, random sampling,
discussions with staff, observation of behaviours and activities and physical
conditions surveys.
As with all audits there are always problems in getting the balance right. The
evaluation of a program is never black and white – there are always shades
of grey. These are hard to evaluate in questionnaires. However they need to
be recognised and some credit given where progress has been made but the
outcome has not been achieved fully. Therefore the development and use of
the audit tools is critical to how much useful information can be derived.
7.4.8 Accident and Incident Investigation
Accident and incident investigations are part of every OHS program. They
are undertaken to find the real and not immediately obvious causes of an
accident and to assess the risk of recurrence. Based on this information
appropriate control measures can be developed. These may involve changes
to the structure of the OHS program as well as fixing the immediate damage
or providing the injured person with appropriate medical treatment.
Poor ergonomics is often overlooked in accident investigations because it is
not always immediately obvious and its analysis may require specialist input.
Information obtained as a result of the investigations can also be pooled to
determine trends and used to assist program implementation planning.
7.4.9 Cost-Benefit Models
Justifying expenditure to improve OHS has been difficult in the past. Often
direct compensation and medical expenses were the only indicator that poor
OHS practices were costly. However, now it is possible to calculate the real
costs of injuries to companies using methods and programs that are
available commercially. These range in complexity from full company
accounting systems to methods that apply to individual jobs or groups of
workers.
The feasibility, availability and cost of changes needed to improve ergonomics may be considered in relation to the size and cost of the problem. Sometimes it may be necessary to justify the cost of change or of different changes (termed cost effectiveness) or the costs of doing nothing at all. This is where conducting a cost-benefit or cost effectiveness analysis can be useful.
Such analyses are best conducted prior to and after changes have been made. Where they are conducted beforehand payback periods can be estimated for budgets. If the payback period is short (3-12 months) this can be used to justify expenditures.
Cost-benefit and cost effectiveness programs require some basic information in the following five areas:
1. Actual number of productive hours worked per employee per year
2. Salary or wage costs per hour worked
3. Employee turnover and training costs
4. Productivity and product/service quality losses due to absent employees
5. Cost of implementation of intervention(s)
Costs per hour of OHS problems can then be calculated. To this, costs of solutions can be added and a payback period can be estimated. Not all the information is essential but the more that can be supplied and the more accurate it is, the better the true costs and benefits can be predicted. The costs of wasted product, increased time to undertake the tasks, inadequate or poor quality workmanship, and damage to equipment and product as may have identified in the process can also be added to the OHS costs.
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