Essay on Ergonomics Evaluation at Acme Manufacturing Co.: Enhancing Safety and Productivity

The studies are carried out at Acme Manufacturing Co., specifically at the packing line. The ergonomics evaluations of the company help improve employees' productivity, and quality and improve employee engagement. With these advantages, employers will yield maximum results out of their company, hence obtaining profits and company growth. A more refined culture of safety is produced, leading to a community of better employees being created. With the rise in low back pain and associated injuries received from manual lifting jobs, most companies opt to have an ergonomics evaluation. The employees at Acme Manufacturing Co. are at a high risk of experiencing LBP since the lifting index is above 1.0.

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The employees at the packaging line lift rolls of paper, estimated to be around 35 lbs from a cart. The workers then reposition the rolls on their hands and hold them by the sides to put them in a machine. While lifting, a tremendous amount of control is required. The manual worker has to hunch over at the lift so that proper support for paper rolls in front. There is no asymmetrical lifting in any action. The coupling is inadequate because the employee has no option but to reposition their hands at the lift, as stated earlier. Also, there is a considerable control requirement while at the lift.

From the assessment, the recommended weight limit of both the origin and the destination is lower than the weight that has to be lifted. The RWL at the origin is 28.028 lb. while the RWL at the destination is 18.14 lb. From the NIOSH formula, the lifting index at the origin is 1.25, while at the destination is 1.92. It can then be concluded that work at the beginning is a little bit stressful initially, but then it slightly eases at the destination. It is from these values that the redesign suggestions get made (Temple & Adam, 2000).

Recommendations

The primary purpose of redesigning is to reduce the possible risk of LBP and injuries bound to happen at the workplace. The most suitable redesign, in this case, would be permanently adjusting the cart as this reduces the efforts used in lifting the rolls. If this suggestion is not possible, then the employers should opt for the reduction of the roll sizes, which will reduce the work done by a single worker. Also, the coupling can be improved so that the coupling multiplier factor increases (Fox et al.,2019).

Conclusion

The study's goal was to calculate the RWL and LI at Acme Manufacturing Co. and determine the acceptable ergonomic limits according to the NIOSH lifting equation. From the values, real changes could be made to improve the working situation of the employees there. Often at times, the redesigning of the machine may not be practical since it may be expensive. In these types of situations, a mechanical lift is preferred. With this occurrence, the aspect of manual lifting is eliminated and hence less cheap and strenuous than redesigning the working machines involved.

Calculations

RWL= LC×HM×VM×DM×AM×FM×CM

At the origin; RWL= (51×0.67×0.98×0.93×1.0×1.0×0.9) =28.028

At the destination; RWL=51×0.50×0.85×0.93×1.0×1.0×0.9=18.14

Lifting Index (ORIGIN)=35÷28.028 =1.25

Lifting Index (Destination)=35÷18.14 =1.92

References

Temple, R., & Adams, T. (2000). Ergonomic analysis of a multi-task industrial lifting station using the NIOSH method. Journal of Industrial Technology, 16(2), 1-6.

Fox, R. R., Lu, M. L., Occhipinti, E., & Jaeger, M. (2019). Understanding outcome metrics of the revised NIOSH lifting equation. Applied ergonomics, 81, 102897.