Posted on 7th Oct 2011 @ 2:49 PM

Few would argue that ergonomics are not important. Even if companies don't care about worker satisfaction, there's ample evidence that ergonomic improvements save money by decreasing sick time -- itself, a perpetual leader in Corporate America's loss-of-money sweepstakes. But one supposed benefit of ergonomics, increased workplace productivity, is more difficult to prove. We examined the evidence.

A recent case study conducted by ergonomics expert and author Dan Macleod examined financial benefits of ergonomics improvements at a small die cast plant in Central Ohio. The plant made a large number of ergonomic improvements, including the installation of equipment such as pallet lifts, improved use of existing equipment like power washers, and employee education. The study examined benefits for the decade following the improvements.

Macleod did a cost-benefit analysis, determining that the company made a one-time investment of $495,000 for improvements and saw $1,910,000 annually. In his benefits breakdown, he specifies that Worker's Compensation claims decreased by 93 percent, absenteeism decreased by 67 percent, and turnover decreased by 94 percent. Most significantly for our purposes, though, was the productivity factor: The plant saw a 54 percent increase in productivity.

The results were measurable and clear. Overall production rates on the plant floor increased from 125 per hour to 150 per hour. A single packing job took 10 seconds per 3 products, as opposed to 23.5 seconds previously. This wasn't, in other words, the kind of vague claims of productivity improvements generally seen in similar studies.

But Macleod's case was special in a few ways: namely, there was a pretty small sample size (100 employees) and a large number of changes. However, the results don't seem atypical. Other studies, focusing on call centers, note a 17.8 percent productivity gain (or $367 per day per employee) as a result of installing ergonomic furniture and training employees to use it properly.

In most cases, productivity gains center around the following areas:

1) Decreased time spent on a given task. Specialized ergonomic equipment, such as the pallet lifts in Macleod's study, substantially reduce the amount of time needed to do a job.

2) Increased numbers of tasks per unit of time. Reduced time on individual tasks = more tasks per hour.

3) More employee hours. Employees who benefit from ergonomic equipment and training are less likely to miss work and more likely to stay with their present employer. This is turn reduces training costs and lost work time that comes with replacing and training new workers.