“The future of industrial ergonomics isn’t a person with a clipboard checking workers’ posture,” writes The Wall Street Journal (March 6, 2020). Warehouse operators and manufacturers are now testing wearable technology intended to stave off injuries from repetitive tasks like lifting boxes that can exact a significant toll on workers’ bodies over time. Overexertion in lifting or lowering was one of the most common events leading to occupational injuries.
Companies including Walmart and Toyota are experimenting with sensors that identify when workers engage in risky movements—say, bending their backs without squatting—and prompt them to change their form in real time. The devices also collect data that employers can use to assess how new equipment, tasks or changes in production volume affect worker safety. “It’s not about productivity or pick rates or any of that,” says an Australian exec. “It’s about reducing the chance of people getting hurt.”
Kinetic is a startup whose pager-like sensors clip on to workers’ belts to measure their body mechanics. Document-storage company Iron Mountain began using Kinetic’s devices 3 years ago to reduce at-risk postures that contribute to sprains and strains among warehouse staff and drivers who collect paper for shredding or storage. The technology takes the motion of the wearer’s hip and uses artificial intelligence and algorithms to reconstruct what that person’s body must have done to make it move that way, then determines whether the motion is high risk. Iron Mountain says it has experienced a 45% reduction in at-risk postures with the devise.
Direct observation, which we discuss in Chapter 10, isn’t as precise because it can cause people to alter their movements.
Classroom discussion questions:
- Why is ergonomics so important in many jobs?
- Some firms are also testing “exoskeletons,” which we have blogged on recently. How do these exosuits differ from the sensor approach?