the business case for safety and ergonomics · 1 the business case for safety and ergonomics ......

1 The Business Case for Safety and Ergonomics

Essential Productivity for the Safety and Health ProfessionalRegina M. Barker, CPEMaster Black BeltCargill Meat Solutions


Disclaimer

The pictures contained in this presentation have been made available for use by a number of AMI

members. Pictures, practices and recommendations offered by this presenter do not

represent the views or practices of Cargill.


Definitions

• Safety: freedom from danger, risk or harm• Health: sound physical or mental condition• Ergonomics: fitting jobs to workers• Quality: performance to requirements• Productivity: effective in bringing about or

producing in abundance


What is Quality?

• Airline flight• Hotel room• Safety program

Your definition of a quality program will define your standards. As long as your definition meets or exceeds regulatory standards, you define quality performance for your organization!


Productivity and the S&H professional

• Safety and Health professionals manage a process that must be controlled

– Every plant has metrics or standards for Safety– Every safety and ergonomics control impacts

production– Safety and Health functions are often viewed as

support or “overhead”

People have a process capability that must be considered if they are expected to work safely!


S&H contributes to the bottom line

• Typically, changes to the job that improve safety also make it more efficient

• JSA and Ergonomic analyses can be part of a process map or ISO work instructions

• Unsafe acts are “non-value added”


Learning the Lingo

• Six Sigma• Lean Manufacturing• Process Improvement• Continuous Improvement


What is Six Sigma?• A business initiative that is focused on improving

quality in a manner that is measurable, sustainable and customer focused.

– Relies heavily on metrics– Assumes world class quality as evidenced by 6σ

performance• 3.4 defects per million opportunities (dpmo)

– Projects deliver bottom line results in a short amount of time ($200,000 minimum savings)

– Many of the problem solving tools are used in our ergonomics teams!


Statistically speaking

6.03.499.9997%

5.032099.98%

4.06,20099.4%

3.066,80093.3%

2.0308,00069.2%

1.0690,00030.9%

Your Sigma is…Your DPMO is…Your Yield is…

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The Business Case for Safety and Ergonomics

In a Six Sigma World3 Sigma

– 54,000 incorrect prescriptions in a year

– 40,500 newborns dropped during delivery per year

– 5 crash landings per busiest airport per day

– 54,000 lost pieces of mail per hour

6 Sigma– 1 incorrect prescription in 25

years– 3 newborns dropped during

delivery in 100 years– 1 crash landing in 10 years

– 35 pieces of lost mail per year

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Important 6σ Terms

• Quality• Black belt• Green belt• DMAIC: Define Measure Analyze Improve Control

• Metric• Value Added• CTQ: Critical to Quality 6σ

6σ

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What is Lean Manufacturing?

• A process that reduces non-value added waste and maximizes product flow based on customer demand (pull)

– It is not simply cutting the fat– You may hear the term “value stream mapping”– It is often associated with work cell technology– Utilizes the concepts of continuous improvement– Often you hear of Lean Six Sigma

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Why is Lean important to me?

• When reducing cycle times, S&H professionals must ensure that we have not exceeded the limits of the worker

• Unnecessary motions are also non-value added and the S&H professional is on the look out for reduction of these activities

• 5S activities improve housekeeping and in turn improve the safety of an area

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Continuous Improvement

• These are the “go do” projects that may not require the rigorous process laid out by Six Sigma

• If there are straight forward solutions to a project, then it becomes an issue of managing the process

• Projects must still be cost justified

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Ergonomics is a tool for:

ProductivityEfficiency

QualitySafety

incr

easi

ng

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Ergonomics meets Productivity

But what about Safety!

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To apply Ergonomics, we must first understand jobs• Jobs can be identified

uniquely• Jobs may have common

tasks• Tasks may have risk factors

associated with them• Every job has a map

– In the quality world, it is a process map

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Process Map• Graphically defines steps in a process• Identifies inputs into process• Shows steps of the process required to transform inputs• Maps all outputs of the process

Pull up to pump

Choose grade

Pump gas

PayTank full? yes

no

How is this different from the left hand column of a JSA?

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The flesh and blood machine• Quality initiatives are focused on process capability• Improvement programs goals are to limit variability• People have inherent variability

– Capabilities differ– Size (anthropometry) varies– Knowledge and skill levels are not consistent

• Ergonomics is about leveling the playing field– Design jobs to meet the capabilities of large percent of workers– Design equipment to adjust to the sizes of workers

People are part of every process: we must account for and reduce product variability that results from people variability!

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When we understand jobs

• We can identify risk factors• We look for the signs:

– Awkward postures– Forceful exertions– Repetitions

(30 second rule)– Environment

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Equipment has limits

Consider the case of a slicer operator

– 43 pound log– 1500 logs/shift– 60,000 pounds per

shift– 50 racks @ 1900

pounds per rack

People have limits!

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We don’t ignore MSDs

• Musculo-skeletal disorders are a symptom of inefficient design

• MSDs help us find the places we need to focus

• MSDs are lagging indicators

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Ergonomics tools can quantify risk (metrics)

• NIOSH lifting equation• Push/Pull tables• Anthropometric data• RULA• Trained eyes…

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Safety depends on Metrics• Hours without a lost time• Recordables• Work comp reserves and actuals• Audit scores• Others…

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In God we trust:all others bring data!

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Which are the right metrics?

• Hard numbers that are not easily manipulated• Data that makes sense

– Near misses may not work if we have recordables daily– If using a Behavior Based Observation process,

behavior must be clearly defined• Any metric directly tied to production

– Downtime resulting from injury– Product losses

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Leading vs Lagging Indicators

Reduction in MSDs = yield, productivity, profits

Reduction in waste Increased yields

Increased efficiency Increased productivity

Increased yields Increased profits

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The iceberg analogyDisability

Lost time

Restricted Duty

Recordable

Medical Treatment

Pain

Discomfort

Fatigue

Risk Factors

Lagg

ing

Lagg

ing

Lead

ing

Lead

ing

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Cost Pyramid

Disability

Lost time

Restricted Duty

Recordable

Medical Treatment

Pain

Discomfort

Fatigue

Risk Factors

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Where do we focus our efforts?

• Prevention (below the red line!)• Quality programs will be working in near miss

categories– Risk factors not symptoms!

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Work Smart and Not Hard

• Safety and Ergonomics is about process capability– Defining the capability and capacity of the human

machine– Identifying the “Critical To” opportunities for quality

performance

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My Company Wants Me to Learn Martial Arts!

• Consider being a part of your company’s quality initiative

• Projects with hard line sustainable savings will get priority over those that have only soft dollar savings

• The tools of the quality initiatives will be invaluable in helping the S&H professional to accomplish more through operations

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the business case for safety and ergonomics · 1 the business case for safety and ergonomics ......

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