Worker's Risk Postural Improvement through the Application of Ergonomically Integrated Lean Management

Lean Management strategy currently represents a worldwide competitive tool for improving productivity in the manufacturing industries globally. The application of lean principles and practices oblige to delineate novel approaches to manage the whole organization and consequently the safety management system. Ergonomics is a Near – miss-management system concerned with safety fit between man-machine interfaces for designing equipment and machine for ease of human comfort and also match the physiological and psychological characteristics and capabilities of the worker. This paper present an innovative approach based on the integration of ergonomics and lean management for musculoskeletal, psychosocial and occupational safety. The study applies the standard operation procedures and analyses the practice to get the idea to identify the problem occurred and improve their production process. Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) is one of the techniques that integrate ergonomics and lean and allows to measure large set of operator posture parameters and assessment of human risk factor. The result of this study gives a clear picture to the workers and management on their improved working conditions and improved productivity after implementing the RULA results. Thus, this technique is used to fit the process to the worker, rather than making the worker fit the job Ergotech.