Page 12 - Occupational Health & Safety, September 2017

MATERIALS HANDLING
Engaging our Mature Workers for Better Sustainability, Safety, and Efficiency
Prioritization of tasks and planning the work
are the keys to keeping the momentum of the team.
BY DIANA J. SCHWERHIA
n many fields today, the labor force is tight. Em- ployers can’t find new employees and recent hires may jump ship for the next best opportunity. What is a company to do when the work keeps coming
also are the most expensive type of injury for a compa- ny. If you can reduce forces, improve worker postures, eliminate slips and fall risks, and reduce repetitions, you will be decreasing the possible risk of an injury.
Improvements to the process that reduce injury risk also have the potential to increase the quality and efficiency of a process. For example, let’s say you have a process where you can reduce manual materials handling and also redesign the workstation so that the employee can maintain a more neutral posture. That employee will most likely not fatigue as much. The less-fatigued employee may be able to focus on quality more and also maintain the desired production rate. A good improvement creates a win-win situation: better for the employee and better for production. In- tegration of safety with process improvement is what supports better and more sustainable processes.
As an ergonomist, I have always seen processes this way. I don’t think that you can separate ergonom- ics from production. We were fortunate to receive funding from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compen- sation that allowed us to create a training program focused on integrating safety with process improve- ment. Our training program consists of core materials that allow a team to identify, prioritize, improve, and document interventions at their site. The materials al- low the employees to constantly integrate safety with production. They encourage communication and the breaking down of silos.
In addition to the core tools, the package has train- ing modules on reducing distraction and improving kaizen events. The training package includes Power- Points, instructions, and the tools (which are Excel based). All of the materials may be accessed free of charge and are available at https://www.ohio.edu/engi- neering/safety-training/.
We encourage you to start integrating ergonom- ics with process improvement in order to retain your older workers, improve communication, and create efficiencies!
Diana Schwerha, Ph.D., is an associate professor of in- dustrial and systems engineering in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology at Ohio University in Ath- ens, Ohio. She is the director of a training project grant in occupational safety for NIOSH, has published nu- merous journal articles and conference papers, and has given presentations in the United States and Europe.
in but the staffing isn’t always adequate? The answer is simple: Go back to your loyal, older employees and ask them to share knowledge and improve processes so that efficiencies can be created within safe working environments. Not only will you end up with better processes, but your employees will be motivated by your concern and acknowledgement of them.
But the question remains, how to do this? The first step is to identify the goal. This can be done by creat- ing a cross-functional team and identifying the chal- lenges within your workplace. The team should have both mature and new employees on it, as well as main- tenance, production, supervision, and quality repre- sentatives. During meetings, team members should agree on their goal(s), such as reducing lost-time inju- ries, reducing ergonomic risks, identifying leading in- dicators, or improving efficiencies, so demand can be met with current staffing (and maybe no overtime!).
Within a series of meetings, the goals can then be mapped onto processes that can be improved. For instance, you may want to reduce lost-time injuries, but in order to do that you need to know which tasks have caused the injuries and what are the risk factors involved. At this step, it’s important to prioritize so that that the team can start improving processes in an incremental way and see small successes in a relatively short amount of time. The prioritization of tasks and planning the work are the keys to keeping the mo- mentum of the team. You’ll see leaders emerge who can set the new culture and encourage buy-in from employees who aren’t always present in the meetings.
One of the reasons it’s important to have an age- diverse team is that your mature employees bring a wealth of knowledge to the table. Most importantly, your older employees are willing to help, and they are the ones who most likely are still going to be on site when the new hire leaves.
Reducing Musculoskeletal Injury Risks
When you’re brainstorming your projects, one of the most impactful types of improvements that can be made to processes is that which reduces the risk of musculoskeletal injuries. Musculoskeletal injuries can not only lead to pain and future limitations, but they
12 Occupational Health & Safety | SEPTEMBER 2017
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