Everyone loves free stuff—especially if it of value and makes our lives easier. I’m always looking for tools that can make my job and/or that of my clients’ easier and quicker to assess ergonomic risk. Auburn Engineers offers free versions of three common ergonomic assessment tools—REBA, RULA and NIOSH lifting equation which they call eREBA, eRULA and eLift respectively.
If you’re like most people, myself included, you probably spend a good portion of your day in a seated position. Avoiding sitting is very difficult these days, as computer work predominates. In addition, you may spend many hours each week driving to and from work.
The research is growing that suggests sitting for extended periods of time is an independent risk factor for poor health and premature death. Even if you are very fit and exercise regularly, if you uninterruptedly sit for a great percentage of the time, you’re still at an increased risk of dying prematurely.
It seems as though everyone is doing Lean these days—Lean Office, Lean Manufacturing, Lean this and Lean that. Lean is a very good process improvement methodology started by Toyota.
In Part 1 we reviewed the changes that are occurring within the today’s workforce–the increased percentage of older workers. With this in mind employers need to adapt their work environment to meet the needs of the workers–which coincidentally and most importantly benefits all ages of workers.
Ergonomic Workplace Design Recommendations
