A couple weeks ago I attended as well as presented at ASSE’s Safety 20125 professional development conference. I always enjoy spending time in the exhibit hall looking for new and innovative products. There were two products that caught my attention this year. The first I will highlight in this blog and the second in another blog.
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
The challenge for balancing productivity and safety exists for all industries but especially in the tree care industry where there are many variables that impact both. Tree care companies experience costs related to incidences involving damage to their own property and/or that of the client as well as employee injuries. Often times these incidences are accepted as the normal cost of doing business. The bills are paid and business continues as usual. However, these costs have a significant impact on the amount of extra business a company has to bring in in order to cover these costs. Th
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
Last month I attended the Ergonomics Applied to Retail and Distribution conference in Minneapolis. It was my first conference I attended that was strictly devoted to this sector. While I was attending I was thinking that there could almost be an ergonomics and human factors conference devoted to each industry and/or sub-sectors because there are enough unique work tasks, needs and nuances that could support what occurred at this conference—that was speakers specific to the industry presenting their current challenges, attempted changes and full or partial solutions to their issues.
Basically every task performed by a worker requires the use of the hands. Often times a certain level of hand protection is needed. For tasks that involve exposure to cuts or puncture wounds, finding a glove that protects the hand but yet allows for good dexterity can be difficult. Gloves that fit poorly can result in earlier hand fatigue and reduced moderate to fine motor movements. There were many glove exhibitors at Safety 2012 but one caught my attention—TurtleSkin.
I recently attended ASSE’s Safety 2012 PDC. It was the first time attending this conference. I was impressed with the expansive exhibit hall. There were a few products which caught my attention which I will highlight in this and upcoming blogs.
