ergonomic tips

I recently gave a presentation on ergonomics from the shop floor to the office to a manufacturer’s work group.  One of the attendees asked a question on where he could find ergonomic tools to assess work areas.  The single best website that contains several quantitative and qualitative tools is offered by the College of Public Health at the University of South Florida.  Here you will find basic tools and tools that focus specifically on the back, upper extremities and whole body.  There are other websites that offer free ergonomic tools but this one contains the most on a single web page. 

This is the fifth blog in the series on deer hunting and Lean, Ergonomics (Human Factors, Six Sigma and Systems Thinking (L.E.S.S.).

This is the fourth blog in the series on deer hunting and Lean, Ergonomics (Human Factors, Six Sigma and Systems Thinking (L.E.S.S.).

In my last blog I explained how a couple of Lean principles are used pre and post-hunt.  Well, those same principles can be used once the hunter arrives in the woods.  As a reminder, two of the primary principles Lean are to reduce waste and non-value added activities.  The goal of hunting is to spend as much time as possible hunting, i.e. in the stand/blind, and minimize the time spent on preparation.

Final pre-hunt preparation

This is the third blog in the series on deer hunting and Lean, Ergonomics (Human Factors, Six Sigma and Systems Thinking (L.E.S.S.).

This is the second blog in the series on deer hunting and Lean, Ergonomics (Human Factors, Six Sigma and Systems Thinking (L.E.S.S.).

There are many factors deer hunters must consider when choosing their equipment—their own body and physical characteristics as well as the environment in which they hunt, i.e. location (woods vs. swamp, brushy vs. clear), temperatures, hunting from the ground or a stand, etc.  A hunter must be keenly aware of their physical size and abilities when choosing equipment so that it fits and supports their hunting abilities instead of being a hindrance.

One of the things that I and my company specialize in is “Do More with L.E.S.S. (Lean, Ergonomics/Human Factors, Six Sigma and Systems Thinking).  It’s a unique approach to solving business problems related to organizational system and employee performance, efficiency and safety.  This same Do More with L.E.S.S.

Pushing and pulling is involved in many tasks and jobs in a wide variety of industries.  In order to avoid injuries and optimize efficiency it is important to properly design pushing and pulling tasks.  A good online resource that explains the ergonomics of material handling in general and then goes into the details of pushing and pulling tasks is called “

As an ergonomist, I am often asked what my opinion is on post-offer, pre-work (POPW) screens for new hires.  My first response is to ask why they are asking that question.  The normal answer is because they have a injury rate higher than what they’d like and wonder if it’s related to their workers’ fitness for work.  I have several follow up questions that help me understand the root cause of their injuries.  As much as possible work should be designed so that the majority of the population can perform the job.   This is becoming more and more important and imperative to organizations due t

Today I want to share with you a guest blog that highlights an important ergonomic issue in schools–the desks.  Enjoy!

In my last blog I stated that I attended the Ergonomics Applied to Retail and Distribution conference in Minneapolis.  One of the people I met there was the Steve Lippert from Hamilton Caster.  As an ergonomist working on material handling issues a question that frequently comes up whenever material is pushed or pulled is “what is the best equipment/wheel/caster combination for this situation?”  I learned from Steve that Hamilton Caster had published a white paper on Rolling Resistance and Industrial Wheels.  The paper provides an overview of rol