Ergonomic Assessment: What is it?
One of the things I frequently do as a consultant for my clients are ergonomic assessments because of this I often get asked about what an ergonomic assessment is and what does it involve? Well, I hope to answer this question and some others about ergo assessments in this blog series. Of course, ergo assessments can vary as what I look at and analyze depends on what it is I’m specifically assessing but the nuts and bolts of an assessment are the same.
Basic components of an assessment
An assessment consists of 5 components. The first is gathering all of the background information and data regarding the job. This is where we fill out the answers to who, what, where, when, why and how. This is followed up by several more “Whys?”. This is the general information needed to determine what’s going on, who does x, why do they do x, why to do they it that way, etc.
The second component involves ask a series of questions related to the three categories of ergonomics—physical, cognitive and organizational. This helps me to zero in on the problem and determine all of the factors involved in the job being assessed. When asked to review ergonomic assessments done by others, I often times see the physical category being completely analyzed but the assessments lack consideration of the cognitive and organizational categories. I find this true in taking about ergonomics in general. Most people understand and believe ergonomics only to be concerned with the physical aspect of job, i.e. heights, reaches, etc. They don’t know about cognitive or organizational, or if they do their understanding is very minimal. In my next blog I’ll cover the type of questions one should ask that address physical, cognitive and organizational ergonomics.
The third component is the analysis/assessment part. This is where I’m considering all angles of risk in regards to safety, efficiency, productivity, quality and errors. The analysis tells me if the job puts unreasonable demands on a person’s body and/or mind. It also shows whether the work flow, policies, procedures make sense and are efficient. The result of the analysis is the determination of the root cause(s) and/or gaps in the system.
The fourth component is all about solutions. This is where all possible options are explored and each one evaluated for effectiveness, timeframe, cost, simplicity and organizational fit. Of course, the priority of each factor is determined by the impact of the problem and the company’s desired level to reduce and/or eliminate the problem.
The fifth and final component is implementation of solutions and tracking the improvements. I can’t emphasize enough the last part—tracking the improvements. The ROI of ergonomics is usually a question in the minds of CEOs and CFOs as well as other number tracking individuals in companies so having metrics is invaluable to prove the success of ergonomics. Of course, not every ergonomic solution will have outstanding ROI. Some solutions may not turn out as planned (if this happens I would advise doing an audit of your initial ergo assessment to see where mistakes were made) but that’s ok as the purpose of doing anything is to do it, learn from it and then improve upon it.
In my next blog I’ll discuss in more detail the questions that can be asked that relate to physical, cognitive and organizational ergonomics.