Removing the Strain

Not all industry training takes the form of a structured learning module, delivered in a location removed from the regular working environment. The experiences of Goodyear highlight that training can be akin to a component in a machine, one part amongst many but essential for its proper functioning.

Towards the end of 2004 a number of senior executives at Goodyear examined data on workplace injuries at the company’s facilities. What surprised them was not the occurrence of injuries commonly associated with a factory environment, such as cuts, grazes and the occasional more serious mishap – it was the prevalence of strains, sprains and other preventable injuries. As a company that has long made efforts to minimise workplace hazards, Goodyear decided the figures indicated room for improvement.

The US tyre major turned to Michigan based Humantech Inc., a company Goodyear has been working with for more than 12 years, for a solution, and this ergonomics specialist proposed implementing what it calls the “30-inch view” – improving a worker’s immediate surroundings in order to reduce injuries and improve productivity, 30 inches being the average distance from a worker’s shoulder to his or her immediate work environment.

To achieve this Goodyear and Humantech obtained through various means, including photographs and video, data regarding workplace practices, and used this information as a basis for developing site-specific materials and strategies to be employed subsequent ‘RAPID’ events conducted by Humantech.

RAPID events – short for Risk and Performance Improvement Deployment –are four days of focused effort in which team facilitators appointed by Humantech, experienced professionals in the field of ergonomics, implement ergonomics programs and practical, cost-effective workplace improvements. These are supplemented by action plans for additional improvements by the site’s workforce. This last point, according to Goodyear Dunlop UK health and safety manager Darren Green, is the main difference between the programme Goodyear developed through the RAPID events and traditional programmes – the Goodyear process involves the worker.

“The process involves and engages the workers,” says Green. “They are trained to recognise the at risk body posture, help to identify parts of their job at risk for ergonomic injuries/illness and then are involved with solutions.”

The lessons learned and strategies adopted through the RAPID events form the core of the Goodyear Ergonomic Process, a scheme that has been rolled out at numerous Goodyear facilities around the world during the past couple of years. The first of the Ergonomic Centers of Excellence (ECOE), as facilities having undergone this process are known, was established in the US during 2005. The process came to Europe this same year, reports Green, with facilities in Amiens, France and Izmit, Turkey the first to benefit.

Those employees involved in identifying and correcting any ergonomic practices during the set up of an ECOE are provided with four hours of training with practical exercises, and are then given the opportunity to practice their acquired skills in the workplace. Every worker at a new ECOE is also provided with a one-hour Ergonomic Awareness training session. Overall, training and educating employees and then implementing the process reportedly takes about six weeks.

The benefits gained when a site becomes an ECOE are apparent when looking at injury rate statistics. Goodyear reports that strains and sprains have decreased by 35 per cent since 2005, and at the five facilities where Humantech’s programme was first introduced as a pilot scheme ergonomic injuries have decreased by 47 per cent. And while Darren Green reports that no direct statistics regarding injury rates and ECOE are available for Europe at present, traditional safety data (number of incidents) have improved in these plants and in total over 4,000 ergonomic improvements have been implemented in these locations. “The Amiens and Izmit plants have also reported a positive shift in safety culture in the plants as a result of this program,” he adds.

The training workers receive is intended to instill the concept that their own ideas towards workplace safety and ergonomics can be a useful contribution to the working environment. ”What we are really trying to do is change the workplace,” Humantech vice president Walt Rostykus told US media. “The floor employees are the ones identifying problems and coming up with solutions.” The example was given of a number of freshly trained employees who designed a motorised cart that eliminated the need for workers to lift tyres weighing more than 30 kilograms.

Feedback from existing ECOE sites has been positive. According to Darren Green sites have experienced reduced cycle times as a result of unnecessary motion being eliminated from various tasks, and employee feedback shows a very favourable response to improvements made to ECOE workplaces. Thus, the rollout of ECOE sites continues, both here in Europe and worldwide. Goodyear facilities in Debica, Poland and Krank, Slovenia received the Ergonomic Process work over in 2006, reports Green, and numerous sites in Germany have been converted to ECOE facilities during 2007. The most recent, at Fürstenwalde and Riesa, began the implementation process in September.