November Safety Focus: Ergonomics

Lowering the risk of injury begins with identifying the risk of injury.

Ergonomics is the study of people’s physical efficiency in their working environment. Simply put – it’s fitting a job to a person to prevent or lower the risk of injury.

Ergonomic Review Process

An important part of the ergonomic process is a periodic review of the facility, workstations, procedures and overall production processes. We’re doing these types of reviews each time we complete the following:

• Job Safety Analysis
• Near Miss Report
• Injury Report

Ways to Reduce Injury

Simple solutions are available that can help reduce our risk of injury and solve ergonomic issues. Issuing personal protective equipment, establishing administrative and work practice controls and creating engineering controls are methods we use to reduce our risk of injury. Additional ways to reduce risk of injury include:

• Modifying existing equipment
• Making changes in work practices
• Identifying new tools or other devices to assist in the production process
  

Questions? Need help?

To learn more about the ways we’re reducing the risk of work-related injuries at Olympic Steel, contact your division’s Safety Manager.

Safety First. Always. And, it starts with me.