NOTE: This document is provided for historical purposes only.
Presentation by Robert Morency, L.L. BEAN
MR. ALBIN: Thank you, Nancy. It is now my pleasure to introduce Dave LeGrande. Mr. LeGrande's background in the field of labor and management relations and occupational safety and health includes some 28 years of work and academic experience. He was initially trained as a nurse in the healthcare industry, and in the furtherance of his academic skills, Mr. LeGrande took leave of absence from employment within the trade union movement to attend the School of Labor and Industrial Relations at Michigan State University where in 1975 he received his masters degree. In 1979, Mr. LeGrande became the Director of Occupational Safety and Health for his present employer at Communication Workers of America. Dave.
MR. LeGRANDE: Thank you, and as all of you know who was here yesterday, Tom is the ergonomics specialist at 3M. I think the really useful element of these presentations is that we learn that practice and theory or theory and practice actually comes together and works as it regards ergonomics and the office environment. Our next presenter will further example that point. Robert Morency, Jr.* has worked for L. L. Bean for 17 years. Since suffering from bilateral carpel tunnel syndrome in 1988, his focus has been on reducing the risk of cumulative trauma injuries to fellow employees. His current responsibilities in employee health management include assisting L. L. Bean's management and employees to recognize, evaluate and develop controls for ergonomic concerns and company work environments.
In addition to his work with L. L. Bean, Bob is also President of R&D Ergonomics. In that regard he designs unique office environment products, of course ergonomic in nature, focusing on providing upper extremity support while performing computer-related work.
MR. MORENCY: I would like to thank the organizers for the opportunity of presenting today.
My role at Bean is to help employees and management to reduce the risk of injury illness. I, personally, suffer from bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome. My wife has even a much more severe limitation. She has had two elbow surgeries and has limited use of her dominate (right) hand. So when it comes to ergonomics we, my wife and I, both really feel that it is important to prevent injury because we know that once it gets to a severe state it is very, very difficult to control.
I work in all of Bean's environments, whether it is production assembly, or material handling and the retail environment, which is a mix of all environments. I was asked to speak on offices environments today.
Bean has about 4,000 regular employees. We have approximately 9,000 at peak. Sixty percent of our business is done in about a 12 week period around the Christmas season. So that poses some very unique opportunities for us, some obviously very unique problems also. We have 28 facilities from Elsworth, Maine to Lincoln City, Oregon. Luckily, most of them are focused along I-95 in Maine, so I really don't have to travel too far. We did around $1 billion in sales, and again about 60 percent of that in a 12 week period in 1995. We have 24 hour customer support, which is very similar to the telephone folks who have been speaking before me where we have to have multi-shift, multi-user work environments. We also send out 150 million catalogs, answer 13 million calls and two million in December alone. So the old phone lines are really humming. We have 4,000 computers, and we, like all of the other folks in the industry, are using technology to service our customer better and also to reduce cost.
In 1991 I was transferred from the Manufacturing Division where we were successfully reducing injury/illness rates by approximately 79 percent, to Corporate Health Management. The management had just sponsored a team of folks to look at the injury/illness rate in the telephone areas, which was running about two times that of Material Handling and the production assembly, which was unheard of at that time. We had a group of folks look at the environment, a real multi-disciplinarian analysis. We had a company doctor, a physical therapist, an RN and some employees and myself look at all the issues that were involved. What we did, along with some employee surveys, was identify these risk factors; unsupported upper extremities; the wrist flection and extension; incorrect point of operation height; -- and that is my favorite acronym, POOH, point of operation height -- unnatural neck postures; lack of back support; leg support and glare.
We had management's commitment and support. What we had to do is go back and get a budget. We were fortunate enough that with state required VDT training, and I believe we are one of the few states that actually mandates VDT training, we started to train folks. We started with employees in management, and then we went to the Purchasing and Facilities folks, which I must point out is absolutely imperative that you work with the Facilities folks and the Purchasing folks. If they don't buy what you need and they don't install it in a correct manner, it is really not going to do you a lot of good.
Then we created our work station set up guidelines. We tried to keep them as simple as possible because we knew that from an employee health perspective we wanted to push the guidelines down the organization right to the hourly folks so they could do the work, as they were closest to it. Then we researched and created our toolbox. I like to call anything that is used from an ergonomic perspective in the office a tool. We don't call them accessories. We like to relate to a carpenter with a hammer. If you take his hammer away, he can't work effectively, and we feel that if you take the ergonomic tools away from an officer worker, they can't work effectively either.
After we developed that took box, we created a three ring binder with pictures of all of those tools and distributed them to the office planners, the installers and all of the folks that would need that toolbox. We created a system for analyzing the work stations and modifying them in the high risk areas. Facilities went in and modified the work stations. Then we went in reanalyzed, validated and did a comfort survey, which I will get into in a few moments.
These are the work station guidelines that we use, and, again, we try to keep them as simple as possible because in some areas, depending on how good the work station has to look, in the executive area there is obviously much difference than the computer areas that are next to a computer control conveyer that don't have to look quite as well. So we set guidelines so that we could allow people to fit the work station, but it wasn't really dictated how it had to be done. We like to see the wrist straight and forearm supported in the category of wrist and forearm. What we find is that I can usually do this in every crowd. I can't see a lot of you folks. If you look around at the folks next to you, you will see that they are trying to find a way to support their upper extremities. Now, luckily, the people at the front desk have a table, but in theater seating like this, if you look around virtually everybody is finding a way to support their upper extremities. Do you see anybody holding their arms out in front of them while they are working at a keyboard. It doesn't work.
So the next thing that we would like to do is limit the reaching, and that was especially effective when we started getting the graphical -- the mice were coming into our environment. The next thing we like to see is the neck straight and the head over the shoulders. A lot of time that is created by really poor work station design. Back support, in a seated position only, and you can see where our guidelines allow people to be in a sitting and/or standing position. One of the things that we find is that when you can allow people to sit or stand while they are working on a computer or talking to a customer, their freedom to move allows them to increase the blood circulation, not stiffen up and generally be more comfortable during the day. That is one of the important features of our program. The last thing is leg support because if your feet aren't supported, then you are not very comfortable.
We have a preferred work station design, and if you look at it, it is a corner and sometimes a U. What we have found is that a corner or a U-shaped work station much better replicates the normal, comfortable reach zone for a human being, which is basically windshield wipered shaped in nature. If you look there is overlapping and center and then towards the sides. When you put a computer user in a corner, put the computer in the corner, that obviously increases the depth too, which is one of the concerns now with the larger computer screens. L.L. Bean is like many other company leverage of technology. Split screens and 24-inch monitors are not uncommon in some areas. Then the keyboard usually spans the corner, and we, again, advocate using a forearm support, of which I have some pictures a little later. We find that forearm supports support a much larger part of the human anatomy, the neck muscles, the shoulder muscles, the forearm muscles, and we have had very good success, especially with folks whose capacity has been reduced, using forearm supports.
This is generally what we are looking for. When we go in to improve a work station, if we can say that we have made changes, positive changes in these types of areas, this is what we are looking for. We want to provide upper extremity support. Like I just indicated, when people do not have anything to support their forearms, a lot of times they really tense up and that is very demanding on the upper extremities.
We want to provide engineering controls to straighten the wrists and straighten the neck, straight work stations, large screens. If the screen is not in front of the user, you are twisting, that is not very comfortable. We like to adjust the work station to the point of operation height, and we determine that by simple measurement, comfortable seating position, arms at approximately the right angle. Take the tape measure and measure it, and that is where we would set the point of operation height or the work surface height. We do not advocate the use of keyboard trays because what we have found is that keyboard trays drive the person away from the work station, increasing the reaches to the mouse and/or the other tools, which could be the telephone, rolodex, fax machine, printer or whatever tools that person needs to complete their task. Unless you have a keyboard tray that is made very, very strongly, it does not provide any forearm support. If you lean on it, it will go down. Also, we want to make sure that we do provide back and leg support and eliminate and reduce glare.
Some of the key features that we have found using our work station guidelines are: we do adjust the work surface to the seated or standing point of operation height; elbow height; and we do that by maintaining a database. We measure the folks and single shift, single user work stations are set up for that person so that when they come into work everything actually fits them. Then we will adjust up and down, depending on the personal preference. We have had to do that before.
We have found that when you provide someone with adequate forearm support, their comfort level increases, and we definitely advocate the use of sit/stand work stations, especially for folks with back issues. What we have found is returning people back from surgery, allowing them the ability to sit or stand has greatly increased the rate at which they can tolerate working. It has been very, very successful for us. At first people said you can't key or you can't work on a computer while you are standing. Well, that is because no one ever really tried it, but it does work very effectively. I realize that some of the folks at this conference have made reference to the misuse of EMG data, and I must say that this EMG slide is not intended to be considered research. It is definitely only meant to be as an indicator because what we have found is that when you actually do support your forearms, there is a drastic reduction in the amount of upper extremity muscle activity needed to maintain in that position.
What do we do for a single shift, single user work station? Well, we have training and education, which right now is a videotape. We are in the process of going to intranet VDT training. The offices are set up to the individual's needs, and we really try to get to the needs versus the wants. We really focus on the needs of the individual. If they need a chair, we get the appropriate chair for them.
The offices and the computer work stations are designed and built to the office ergo guidelines by facilities incorporating the latest ergonomics research.
The employees adjustments or modifications are tracked on a database, and that allows employees adjustments to move with them.
Many multi-user work stations have user sit/stand height adjustability. Sixty percent of our permanent work stations are user sit/stand adjustable. These work stations will go from 24 inches to 38 inches by the user just releasing the lever and bringing the work station up. We also have ergo reps to help those folks to find the necessary tools. We have a variety of tools accessible at the different locations so employees can find what they need.
Here is the survey results from 1992, which is the first year after we implemented the program, you can see that we asked the folks to rate their before and after comfort. Their before comfort in 1992 was running about 2.1. Their after comfort was running about 4.1. We took another look at it in 1995. As you can see, there was a significant improvement of the before and after work station comfort. In 1995 they were running just about the same. What you will notice is a difference in after modification comfort of 4.35.
We did get a significant reduction in loss time injuries. Lessons learned, educate purchasing and facilities. Stock all necessary ergo tools. Everything that we use is stocked. We like to say that commitment isn't asking someone to wait six to eight weeks if they are in pain or discomfort to get the tools that they need. They need to get it quickly. In the handout you will see a rush request usually gets addressed in about 2 to 3 days. It is very quick. I have had times where I asked and received a 24-hour turn around. Incorporate ergonomics into facilities, office planning and installation standard operating procedure. Now, they do it, and I only get called when it is a real serious issue. Be flexible. Things always change.
That is a typical before the work station. This is one of the work stations that has been modified. You can see it is a corner. There is a wrap around forearm support that literally looks like a horseshoe. It actually looks like a high chair tray, and it provides a lot of forearm support for our folks. This is one of the multi-shift user work stations. As you can see, the point of operation height is too high. The person's elbow is below the work station, and there is really no forearm support.
This is one of our sit/stand work stations, and as you can see, the person can get their elbows actually in relation to sitting and standing anywhere because it does go up to 24 inches and 48 inches. That is in the seated position. Note that it is a small corner work station. It has forearm support. It has an adjustable CRT stand, and the work surface does go up and down. This is the same work station probably 20 seconds later, and the whole transition takes about five seconds, from standing to sitting. People actually do it when they are talking to customers, and you can see that person go from seated to standing.
This is just one picture at the end. We have found that some folks do need alternative keyboards for different reasons. It is a very small percentage of our folks, but we do have needs sometimes to go to specific keyboards for reaching issues or shoulder issues. We also do have those too. Thank you.
