Ergo Successes in Manufacturing and Office Settings

Presenters:Ben Zavitz, C.P.E.
, corporate ergonomist
, General Dynamics, Bath Iron Works and Tom Albin, Ph.D., executive director, Office Ergonomics Research Committee

This webinar is divided into two sessions. First, in "From OSHA Citation to Ergo Cup® Celebration," Ben Zavitz will share how General Dynamics, Bath Iron Works evolved its program from one that was cited by OSHA to an employee participatory program that has won three Ergo Cup® awards and has had 50 percent reduction in injury rates. In the second presentation, "Office Ergonomics," Tom Albin goes over the changing landscape of office ergonomics. Twenty years ago, computer ergonomics practitioners were concerned with individual fixed-location, seated and desktop workstations. Common variables of interest were adequate adjustability of chairs and work surface height and tilt, monitor positioning, computer pointing devices, lighting and performance. The slogan was "the best posture is the next posture." Concerns were visual discomfort; neck, shoulder, back and upper extremity discomfort; and injuries or illnesses.Currently, practitioners continue to deal with desktop workstations, but a rapidly increasing amount of computer work is performed on mobile devices in many different (nondesk) locations, and wearable computing devices are increasingly common. New models of computer work include collaborative and multi-user workspaces; concerns continue to include those of 20 years past, but now include sedentary work, blurring of work/nonwork time and performance. Still, the practitioner ergonomist's function remains the same: characterizing and analyzing the human-machine system with regard to enhancing users' comfort and productivity.

Ben Zavitz presentation | Tom Albin presentation | View Recording