Ergonomics, Insight, Workplace Safety

Ergonomics Reimagined

by Lauren Wandell

When a manufacturing company has a recurrent occupational injury from a task, they have been encouraged to seek out an Ergonomist, but now there are technologies which are helping us to reimagine the effectiveness of ergonomics.

An Ergonomist uses interviews, recording equipment, predictive equations and experiential expertise to evaluate a job or task to identify the high risk postures that can contribute to injury over time.

These postures cause injuries called musculoskeletal disorders. They’re many of the same injuries that occur in athletes, injuries involving muscles, tendons, and nerves. They are injuries that compound over time and tend to have a longer recovery time than acute injuries.

A human ergonomist, however, can only do so much. Human observers have uncovered high risk postures, tasks and jobs that have reduced musculoskeletal injuries and incidents, has saved companies thousands of dollars, and has redesigned work to be safer for future workers.

But it has never felt like a complete approach.

    1. An Ergonomist is brought in only after enough injuries have been reported, and musculoskeletal injuries are notoriously underreported in workplaces

    1. We rely on one or two worker’s perspectives on the amount and duration of their tasks without seeing the population of workers approach for perspective

  1. Ergonomists make recommendations based on our expertise and predictive formulas. While these are the most informed results of current work observation, the lack of actual data makes it easy for stakeholders to avoid or ignore the recommendations

Now is an exciting time for the Ergonomics industry with the emergence of Industry 4.0.

With the emergence of machine learning, computer learning, and AI, the field of Ergonomics has an opportunity to collect actual work posture data.

By developing AI to observe, identify and count awkward postures, prolonged non-neutral postures and repetitive postures, Ergonomists can now access real-time data. This allows the Ergonomist to take a larger perspective on workplace evaluation.

This means an Ergonomist doesn’t have to wait for injuries to accumulate before intervention is warranted. By knowing where high risk work is occurring, we can focus ergonomic evaluations on, not only the postures of work, but the pace of work throughout the day and week, the interaction between workers, the organization of work, and the larger organizational approach to work safety. Now our recommendations come with real data and video review, showing stakeholders what is actually occurring in their facilities and why.

Workers should expect to go home at the end of the day with enough energy to live their private lives. Manufacturing workers put in long hours of physical labor, and in many cases these workers spend most of their lives, 20, 30, even 40+ years doing this work. A truly essential part of working as an Ergonomist is striving to ensure that physical labor doesn’t guarantee a sentence to disability. That’s best for the individual, but it’s also best for the organization as a whole. When a workplace encourages safe work practices and provides safer work, workers can, and want to, work there longer. That means reduced injury, reduced turnover, reduced retraining and hiring costs, and increased morale and loyalty for an organization.

Latest Posts

AI, Event, Workplace Safety

October 17, 2023

AI Tools for Safety

AI Tools for Safety: A Pre National Safety Council Webinar   AI is rapidly transforming workplace risk. Now, CompScience gives safety professionals tools to quickly report risk, train workers and measure improvements which we will demo in the Safety Tech Pavilion at the NSC Congress. Join the webinar plus QA with CompScience CEO Josh Butler […]

Read more
AI, Event, Workers' Comp, Workplace Safety

June 20, 2023

Workplace Safety AI: The Webinar for Workers’ Comp Agents

Learn why AI is rapidly transforming workplace safety into a differentiator and how you can use safety analytics from CompScience to help clients lower injury rates and lower costs. Mike Seling and Jacob Geyer explain how AI is rapidly transforming workplace safety into a differentiator for agents and how you can use safety analytics help […]

Read more
Ergonomics, Resources, Workers' Comp, Workplace Safety

April 27, 2023

How To Reduce DART Rates

Reducing the dart rate is a critical goal for any safety manager, as it directly relates to the safety and well-being of employees in the workplace. The dart rate, also known as the days away, restricted, or transferred rate, measures the number of days employees are away from work due to occupational injuries or illnesses. […]

Read more
Event

October 30, 2024

Revolutionizing Workplace Safety: CompScience’s AI-Powered Integration with Verkada’s Camera Systems

At CompScience, we’re dedicated to using AI-powered safety analytics to help organizations prevent workplace injuries and enhance risk management. By integrating with Verkada’s state-of-the-art camera systems, we’re providing safety professionals with unparalleled insights and the tools needed to create safer work environments.   In our recent webinar, we highlighted how this seamless integration between CompScience […]

Read more
AI, Computer Vision, Ergonomics, Featured

October 1, 2024

The Power of Data in Ergonomics

At CompScience, we’re excited to share our recent feature in Business Insurance, which highlights how our AI-driven approach to ergonomics is helping companies create safer, more productive workplaces. The article, “Data Key for AI-Based Ergonomics Strategies,” emphasizes the critical role data plays in transforming how businesses approach workplace safety and injury prevention.   The Power […]

Read more
AI, Computer Vision, Event, Workplace Safety

July 15, 2024

Josh Butler on the Predict and Prevent Podcast

Tune in to the latest episode of the Predict and Prevent podcast to hear our very own Josh Butler discuss his motivations, the origin story of CompScience, and how AI and computer vision are revolutionizing injury prevention and transforming the insurance industry and workplace safety.  

Read more
AI, Computer Vision, Workplace Safety

July 2, 2024

Revolutionizing Workplace Safety with SafetyBriefAI

The quest for workplace safety has advanced significantly with SafetyBriefAI, a mobile application designed by CompScience to identify potential hazards on job sites using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology. SafetyBriefAI offers a groundbreaking, simple solution that enhances safety management processes, ensuring compliance with safety regulations and proactively preventing accidents and injuries.   Designed for Safety […]

Read more
AI, Broker Portal, Computer Vision, Event, Workers' Comp, Workplace Safety

June 27, 2024

CompScience at InsurTech Insights

We were honored when Josh Butler, CEO of CompScience, was invited to speak at InsurTech Insights in New York. His talk highlights the transformative potential of AI in reducing workplace injuries, which cost society over $4 trillion annually. Advances in computer vision and data science allow for real-time hazard detection and predictive analytics, leading to […]

Read more
AI, Broker Portal, Case Study, Computer Vision, Workplace Safety

May 13, 2024

Gerlinger Steel Leverages AI to Improve Worker Safety

  It’s giving them something obvious to look at, a true example, instead of me saying “You are not supposed to be standing next to that lift while it’s moving, right?” – Scott Gerlinger, Gerlinger Steel & Supply   It’s a set of tools that help companies understand the risks that their employees are exposed […]

Read more