How can work organization help prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) that can result from using hand tools?
People working at a correctly designed workstation and using the best available tools can still get injured. It happens where their work is poorly designed. Work organization involves: • job content — task variety • work pace • work breaks • rest breaks • adjustment or acclimatization time • training Task variety Where a job involves using only one kind of tool for one or a few tasks that vary insignificantly, the same small group of muscles is used over and over again. The resulting overload on the same part of the body can cause pain and injury. A greater variety of tasks allow for changing body position to distribute the workload over different parts of the body, and to give overtaxed muscles some relief and recovery time. • Rotate tasks among workers; have workers move from one task to another according to a schedule. • Add more tasks to the job. • Assign a larger part of work to a team: workers form a team and each member of the team shares several different tasks. Work pace A fa
People working at a correctly designed workstation and using the best available tools can still get injured. It happens where their work is poorly designed. Work organization involves: • job content — task variety • work pace • work breaks • rest breaks • adjustment or acclimatization time • training Task variety Jobs that involve using only one kind of tool for one or a few tasks that do not vary in the movements and muscles used can cause an overload of those muscles, ligaments, tendons or tissues. The resulting overload on the same part of the body can cause pain and injury. A greater variety of tasks allow for changing body position to distribute the workload over different parts of the body, and to give overtaxed muscles some relief and recovery time. • Rotate tasks among workers; have workers move from one task to another according to a schedule. Ensure tasks are different in the type of movement and body parts used. • Add more tasks to the job. • Assign a larger part of work to
People working at a correctly designed workstation and using the best available tools can still get injured. It happens where their work is poorly designed. Work organization involves: job content — task variety work pace work breaks rest breaks adjustment or acclimatization time training Task variety Where a job involves using only one kind of tool for one or a few tasks that vary insignificantly, the same small group of muscles is used over and over again. The resulting overload on the same part of the body can cause pain and injury. A greater variety of tasks allow for changing body position to distribute the workload over different parts of the body, and to give overtaxed muscles some relief and recovery time. Rotate tasks among workers; have workers move from one task to another according to a schedule. Add more tasks to the job. Assign a larger part of work to a team: workers form a team and each member of the team shares several different tasks. Work pace A fast pace of work is
