It shouldn’t be news that bad work designs can spell major problems for employers in terms of lost production time, workers’ compensation claims and injuries. All of these take deep cuts out of the bottom line. But poor design can hurt you where you least expect it such as in turnover rates, damage to your brand and bad rankings in best place to work surveys. Because of these factors, ergonomic design should be a top priority for any food or beverage company.
“Ergonomics is a vital component of industrial engineering because it improves efficiency or process system performance,” says Jeff Smagacz, vice president/ergonomist, Marsh Risk Consulting, workforce strategies practice. “We try to optimize the human component of a system to take out the risk.”