Like Superpowers, but Better

With just one click, you can have the latest Harlan Coben thriller, a new pair of shoes or even fresh food delivered overnight, directly to your front door. However, the convenience that has such a huge influence on our daily lives in this modern age still presents many obstacles for the workers that make it happen. We often forget the physically demanding work that this industry is built on. So what we need is a way to reduce the physical and mental stress on logistics personnel (a frequently neglected factor) – something like superpowers, but better.  

The way we live our daily lives these days simply would not be possible without the transportation or storage of goods. In spite of this, the workforce in this sector tends to receive fairly shabby treatment. “The research projects that have been carried out in this area clearly show that companies do not give sufficient attention to the recording and assessment of physical and mental hazards. This is exactly where Fraunhofer IML’s Ergonomics Quick Check comes in: It addresses two key issues in the operational logistics sector, the shortage of skilled workers and high levels of sick leave, by contributing to the prevention and avoidance of physical and mental risks,” explains Semhar Kinne, a research associate at Fraunhofer IML. Using a wide range of methods, including objective and subjective assessments of mental and physical demands, this service analyzes and evaluates occupational health issues and then provides individual measures for the companies. The analysis is conducted on a step-by-step basis in order to identify as many different areas of optimization potential as possible and to enable the development of ergonomics measures that take a holistic view of the workplace. The first step involves quantifying the physical ergonomics situation by using a motion capture system to conduct a systematic stress analysis. The motion capture technology records body postures, movement sequences and physical stresses for one representative employee per workstation. Subsequently, a workshop withresponsible process managers is conducted to determine the relevant Key Indicator Methods (KIMs). The next step involves quantifying the cognitive ergonomics situation: A representative group of employees is asked to complete an anonymous survey on their subjective perception of the physical and mental work demands and any health complaints they may have. This includes all work-related conditions on the one hand, such as the work content, tasks, organization, social relationships and working environment, and health and well-being circumstances on the other, such as current state of health, musculoskeletal complaints and workload. The initial results are drawn from these two primary avenues of analysis. The Ergonomics Quick Check finishes by providing an overview of the health hazards and risk factors, along with some initial recommendations for designing ergonomic workplace and processes. This should ensure compliance with physiological stress limits and help prevent occupational hazards across the board.

This basic version of the Ergonomics Quick Check can be expanded to include other elements, such as an analysis of workplace and working environment conditions. In this analysis, the workstation dimensions are compared with the current German regulations on working height, grip space, arrangement of displays and controls, movement space, light intensity and sound levels. Another optional extra involves testing out exoskeletons. In this case, employees and managers receive in-depth training, and professional exoskeleton experts provide support for the entire process. Once they are introduced to the technology, volunteers can put it on and adjust it to their needs. The initial tests on the relevant workflows are then conducted again, but with the exoskeletons. A survey is also used to evaluate this process in order to gain an accurate representation of the benefit added by the technology and to collect feedback from employees. This combination of measures makes it possible to improve working conditions at an individual workstation level and, ultimately, to counteract large-scale problems that affect the entire industry, from workload stress and health conditions, to skilled worker shortages in companies. The only way to make physically demanding professions both more attractive and more future-oriented is to introduce occupational health and safety measures that target work and health conditions; taking these steps into account will also ensure that logistics workers can keep pulling off the small acts of heroism that make all of our everyday lives easier.