Making people and machines compatible - adjusting machines and workplaces to meet peoples' needs

We are surrounded by an agglomeration of hardware, tools, furniture, and fittings that can make us remarkably productive, incredibly speedy, and highly informed.

Yet these innovations can also chisel away at our health and our lives, so they must be managed with keen sensitivity to people.

The best organizations place people ahead of their machines and are always on the lookout for ways to adjust the machines to their workers' needs.

Ergonomics-the relationship between people and their machines-is the backbone of these healthy workplaces. Ergonomics may entail small adjustments, say to numbers on a telephone, or it may encompass the refitting of an entire assembly line.

When the ergonomics are right, with employees and their tools fitting well together, good health and productivity follow. But when the fit is skewed and a person must constantly strain his or her body and mind to do the work, then something must give--usually the employee.

In time, this adjustment causes an assortment of disorders that go right to the bottom line.

The best workplaces manage their machines for compatibility and flexibility whether in an office or a factory. Compatibility means machine and tools adapt to you, not vice versa. They are designed and constructed not just for function and efficiency, but for people to use. Their shape, size, and operation take into consideration the human form and how human beings move and work.

Flexibility recognizes the inevitability of change in the workplace. Few people do the same work year in, year out, and the equipment and environment are constantly updated.

So people have to be flexible and adapt to new technology, and existing technology must be flexible enough to accommodate different people.

At Mazda Motor Manufacturing (USA) Corp., in Flat Rock, Mich., ergonomics and operations are meshed like a synchronized drill team. The assembly line can move at an erratic pace, and workstations are usually designed for function, to complete a task, and thus people sometimes have to twist, stretch, and crawl. "The most efficient way of production is for each person to do the same thing over and over," explains a manager at Mazda. "But that's the worst thing for humans."

To make itself ergonomically sound, Mazda anticipates and redesigns jobs that could produce injuries and ferrets out and corrects mismatches between workers and machines.

To head off problems, the company inaugurated a formal ergonomics program that studies jobs and people, listens to complaints, and recommends changes. So far, the program has made these changes:

* Altered tool designs to reduce repetirive-motion injuries;

* Rotated workers in the most repetitive jobs every two hours;

* Rebalanced the assembly line by having workers do a couple of tasks rather than only one.

These ergonomics programs have improved employees' health and costs. In one year, overall repetitive-motion injuries dropped 27 percent, while such injuries in Mazda's largest department, trim and final, plunged 40 percent.

At the same time, workers' compensation costs have begun to decrease even though the company anticipated doubling these expenses because of higher production levels.

To be productive, people also need the right kind of space--a balance of privacy and group interaction. When employees have no visual or audiprivacy, they may feel pressured and distrusted, and their cramped quarters create antagonism and discontent. At other extreme, working alone, people may feel little connection to the organization.

Eventually, these unhealthy conditions can push up absenteeism and benefits costs.

Office spaces should be designed with the practicalities of dally work in mind. Often they are put together piecemeal, and the question of how employees fit and use their furniture is an afterthought. To make work spaces healthier:

* Consult with employees or outside experts on how to make these areas more comfortable and more efficient.

* Ensure that every employee has enough privacy--acoustical (privacy from distracting noise) and visual (privacy from being constantly on view).

* Ensure that chairs, desks, and work tables are flexible and adjustable.

* Ensure that lighting levels and positioning are adjustable.

* Eliminate crowded work areas and loud or distracting noise.

* Adjust the ringing level of loud telephones.

* Give headsets to employees who use the phone a lot.

* Allow people to decorate their own work space. Their office is their home away from home.

* Provide an array of group spaces-- formal conference rooms, rooms for informal team meetings, areas for relaxation breaks, and kitchens.

Ergonomics is everywhere. It demands that every manager make sure jobs are tailored to people and that people are not twisting and stretching themselves all the way to the medical department.

Companies must continually adjust and be sensitive to the human and technological evolution of the workplace. Only employers and employees who contend dally with the demands of their work can determine, together, the ideal fit between a person and a job.

Robert H. Rosen is president of Healthy Companies, in Washington, D.C., and an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at George Washington University. Lisa Berger is a writer in Washington, D.C.

COPYRIGHT 1993 U.S. Chamber of Commerce
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group