process improvement

I was meeting with a health and safety manager recently who shared that his manufacturing company’s H&S numbers weren’t very good. His supervisor wasn’t happy with the numbers and was given the directive to improve his numbers and rejuvenate the H&S culture of the company.  He went on to say that the safety committee met on a regular basis but the employees didn’t really want to be there.  In short, the company lacked energy and enthusiasm for safety.

When I left the “comfort” of the my corporate position to start Kelby Ergo Design I was immediately struck by two things:  1) the majority of the people I met at business networking events hadn’t heard of my title, “ergonomist”, although most had heard the term ergonomics, and 2) they shared similar misconceptions of what ergonomics was and the impact it could have on business.  I thought I’d address the top three common “myths” that I see as an ergonomist.  There are definitely more than three but I’ll save those for other posts.

Myth #1—Ergonomics is just about safety

Are productivity and efficiency mutually exclusive of employee safety, comfort and zero injuries?  The answer is obviously no.  However how many meetings and projects occur between management, quality and employee health and safety departments?  This answer is almost never.  Why? 

One of the things that continues to amaze me is how many people, safety and ergonomic professionals included, believe that it is impossible to have a workplace that is free of hazards and therefore free of injuries.  I’ve heard many times from supervisors and even safety directors that it is impossible to remove all of the hazards from the workplace so they don’t even try.  They believe that achieving zero lost days or zero recordable injuries isn’t realistic.  Obviously situations, equipment and people change over time which makes it hard to identify and control hazards.  It requires commi