Our entire team is heading south next week to participate and present at the Applied Ergonomics Conference 2023 If you are coming to New Orleans, please find us to say hi, and come to our presentations to support our ergonomists! As an “applied” conference, we know that next week’s program will energize us with ideas to tackle future projects.
If you’re missing the conference, here are the topics that we’ll be presenting. If you belong to a group of safety, engineering, or HR professionals from various organizations, we’d welcome the opportunity to present at a meeting.
On Wednesday at 1:30, Carrie will talk about the joint Fanshawe/Taylor’d Ergo/SONAMI project that we undertook last fall:
Using Six Sigma and Lean principles to cost-justify ergonomics interventions
Cost-justification is a common practice used to compare the potential financial gains of a modification against the expenses. Several tools are available for ergonomists and safety professionals to cost-justify ergonomic modifications; however, these tools focus primarily on injury costs. A job with ergonomics problems is often associated with decreased productivity, increased error rates, and poor job satisfaction. The inclusion of alternative metrics in a cost-justification protocol provides a more effective way to express the benefits of ergonomic implementations. Six Sigma and Lean tools are leveraged to explore the benefits of quality and productivity initiatives. This presentation will describe our experience with applying these concepts to ergonomics interventions
On Wednesday at 4:00, Alex will present:
From good to great: Key skills for success as an ergonomist
Over the past 30 years, we’ve mentored dozens of ergonomists. They all start out with the education to be a good ergonomist, but some of them really soar in the field. In this presentation, Alex will share what we’ve learned about becoming a “great” ergonomist by:
- Connecting with people
- Developing competent writing skills
- Thinking and focusing strategically
- Using an analytical approach
- Being creative
On Thursday at 8:00, Christina and Callum will present:
If we don’t ask, they won’t tell!
This presentation is aimed at new ergonomists. It presents some of the lessons that we’ve learned about approaching workers, particularly where communication challenges are present. Have you ever been declined permission to take photos? Have you ever had trouble communicating with a worker who didn’t understand English, or who couldn’t hear you in a noisy environment? Have you taken photos of workers performing their job, and later learned that they were not wearing the appropriate PPE? Have you been unsure what questions to ask the worker during the assessment?
Learn how to prepare for these and other challenges, so you can get the assessment done more effectively.
On Thursday at 10:30, Carrie will present:
What to ask: How to cost-justify ergonomics interventions without injury costs
This presentation shares the specific questions that we can ask of workers, supervisors, managers, quality managers, and engineers, when looking for opportunities to implement ergonomics improvements. Each of these parties has access to knowledge and information that can help us to cost-justify a change, even when injuries have not occurred.