ergonomic assessment

Although sit-stand workstations have been around for several years their popularity has only recently grown.  This has been primarily due to research on the negative effects of prolonged sitting which has been labeled “Sitting Disease”.   To combat sitting disease in an office/computer work environment employers and employees should modify the work environment and tasks to allow for a reduction in the amount of time spent sitting and increase the amount of time spent standing and/or walking—hence the upsurge in demand for and use of sit-stand computer workstations.

This is the third part out of four in the article series on the 4 M’s to effective and sustainable ergonomics systems.   The third M stands for Mindset.  According to the Merriam Webster’s online dictionary, mindset means “mental inclination, tendency, or habit”.  Another definition is offered by thefreedictionary.com, “A fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person’s responses to and interpretations of situations.”  Mindset is the third key principle on which successful ergonomics systems are built.  One must determine whose mindset must be understood. 

This is the second of the 4 part blog series on the 4 M’s to Effective Ergonomics Systems in the Short and Long Term.  The second “M” is Marketing.  By marketing I mean that the ergonomics systems and associated projects should have a brand.  Consider the following:  What company name comes to mind based on the following:  a Swoosh and the tagline “Just Do It”?  Or what company comes to mind if I tell you the logo is a red bullseye?  If you said Nike and Target you’d be correct.  What about the company you work for?  Does it have a brand—a logo and/or tagline?

“Sit-Stand” Keyboard Tray Arms

There are times when I have a few free moments that I will ‘surf the net’ and see what headlines grab my attention.  I was doing this last week when I came across this headline “AIG’s Benmosche, Speaking From His Seaside Villa, Says World Will Need To Retire At 80” which was posted on www.zerohedge.com.  Mr.

In my previous blog I described the how behavioral based safety and ergonomics are not the same and definitely do not utilize the same approach.  That being said, companies are really good at identifying “bad” employee behavior and using policy, observations and enforcement to correct it.  So the question becomes how do companies who aren’t versed in ergonomics learn how to change behavior through workplace design?  Let’s start with a simple framework on which built upon.

There are basically 7 steps to determining design solutions to change behavior.

I recently attended a presentation in which the speaker was trying to make the case that behavioral safety and ergonomics are virtual the same and go hand in hand together.  He started off by saying that bad behaviors are caused by bad ergonomics and that good ergonomics can produce wanted (good) behaviors.  I totally agreed with him but then he gave the following example:

Another Versatile Mouse Option:  The OysterMouse

Over the remainder of the year I’m going to blog about some of the lessons I’ve learned through the years through practicing, facilitating and consulting on ergonomics, lean and process improvement.  Today is the first blog in this series on “Lessons Learned”.

Standing has become the thing (preferred posture) to do at the office these days thanks to all of the attention and hype on “Sitting Disease”.  When working with office-based clients the question that always comes up from the office manager is how they can cost effectively provide standing workstations since the majority of their workers are now requesting standing workstations.  When I teach my office ergonomics class on “How to make your workstati