As we began discussing Friday, pending health care reform could wind up taking a big bite out of businesses’ bottom lines. Businessmen who take proactive measures to bring down medical costs today will realize significant savings going forward. As we noted in our last post, largely preventable musculoskeletal injuries account for 33% of workplace injuries.
In 2007, U.S. workers suffered 335,390 musculoskeletal injuries requiring a median nine days away from work. National Safety Council statistics for 2008 list the following medical costs for common musculoskeletal injuries:
$15,313 – Upper back
$23,820 – Lower back
$12,726 – Hand, finger, wrist
$21,577 – Arms, wrist, shoulder
And that doesn’t include the cost of missed work days, insurance, workers’ compensation, disability, decreased productivity or low morale. Ergonomics can drastically reduce and generally all but eliminate the risk of musculoskeletal injury. Ergonomics is the science of adapting the equipment to fit the worker. Ergonomics recognizes the breadth of human differences and designs equipment that will accommodate those differences while supporting worker performance. The result is decreased injuries, improved productivity and increased worker morale. Costs go down and profits go up.
All this from a simple, well-designed piece of material handling equipment. Except there’s nothing simple about ergonomic design. Hours of careful observation, consultation, statistical analysis and engineering expertise go into the ergonomic design of each of DJ Products’ powered tugs and motorized carts. Every element in our ergonomic material handling equipment is strategically placed for optimal efficiency and ease of operation by the widest possible pool of workers. DJ Products’ ergonomic carts and tugs significantly decrease the risk of worker injury. Many of our customers report recouping their investment well within the first year of operation.
Don’t wait for health care costs to gobble up your profits. To learn how you can proactively reduce workplace injury, talk to one of DJ Products’ ergonomic experts today.