Every day, operations employees complete tasks, many of which require physical labor. These actions range from sitting in a chair to lifting heavy items and repetitively operating complex machinery.
Although these might seem simple, these everyday actions can cause what are known as cumulative trauma Injuries — injuries resulting from various physical efforts completed many times per shift.
The Lubrizol site in Franklin, Wisconsin hoped to address just this when, beginning in 2019, they started on a new initiative at the plant devoted to Ergonomics. With help from an Ergonomics Consulting firm, Ergo-ology, Inc., Scott Fredrick, the plant’s HSES Manager, began raising awareness on how the company can engineer ergonomic solutions to everyday processes that might cause strain/sprain type injuries.
Since 2019, the plant has implemented 67 modifications to prevent injuries utilizing the ergonomics Program. The program has resulted in an 80% reduction in injuries, and the plant has had zero ergonomic injuries since December 2021.
The essence of the program enables employees to submit ergonomics concerns they have with a process. Then, a Core-Ergo team works to solve the problem. The facility then manufactures and implements these solutions in-house or utilizing Ergo-ology’s engineers to mitigate ergonomics risk and increase productivity. Since inception, Franklin has calculated over 1.5 M in projected cost avoidance for the next 10 years with the solutions implemented.
Plant Manager Dave Knudtson noted how important this collaboration and employee input was toward solving these ergonomic issues.
“It’s a great team effort for us. Good ergonomics is good business (productivity, quality, employee morale and retention, etc.). Everybody plays a part, and we all succeed when we work together.” – Dave Knudtson, Franklin Plant Manager.
Though the program has had great success in the past, Scott’s desire to hold an Ergo Day was purposed to continue to drive awareness, especially with newer employees. “We have experienced ~ 30% turnover in the past year and needed a boost to continue sustaining awareness and stimulate new ideas. Scott reline
Corp. Senior HSES Manager Rick Liston, has sponsored the partnership with Ergo-ology, Inc. and the ergonomics program at Franklin since their start with hopes that this program (ELP) continues to be a model for other sites to replicate.
“We have many talented resources throughout Lubrizol and leaders like Scott that come up with innovative methods to accomplish their goals. With Ergonomics accounting for 45% of our company’s total injury profile, we need all sites to have some level of focus on ergonomics. Ergo-ology has the ability to understand that each of our sites are unique and their experience to sculpt a custom program continues to show benefits for Lubrizol,” stated Liston.
In the end, “Ergo Day” was a success, with employees, particularly engineers, responding with a readiness to continue addressing ergonomics-related issues and preventing injuries.
Please congratulate everyone involved with this program!
