NOTE: This document is provided for historical purposes only.
Welcome by Suzanne Rodgers, Ergonomics Consultant
DR. RODGERS: The purpose of these sessions are to share success stories, and you will see that here for sure. I think it is to share things that we learn by trying things that didn't work, too. So we are going to share some failures as well as some successes. But I think you will find a fairly common thread throughout them.
In this work analysis section, we have tried to include some methodologies for you. I am sorry if we don't have a handout for you now, but there will be a proceedings available that will include those bits of material for you.
Just one comment from me. I'm Sue Rodgers. My work is as an independent ergonomics consultant. I have had the good luck of being in this field since 1968. And one of the things that happens when you are in a field, is the older you get, the simpler you get. So I am going to focus on those things that are simple that we can do, because our focus is on the small- and medium-size businesses, especially those that may not be able to afford people like me, but who can do things for themselves in a very effective way in the ergonomics field.
The main point I want to make about worksite analysis is that I believe it should begin the solution generation when you do the analysis itself. It shouldn't be something you do separate from the solving of the problem. And the same group needs to be involved. The people who do the jobs really need to be involved in the solutions. They can't be asked to identify the problem and then be sent out and asked to come back when the engineers have done the problem solving. What is fun when you do involve them throughout the process is the incredibly positive feeling you get when everybody is looking at a problem together and all the information is there to use in the solutions.
I think you will find, in listening to some of these papers, that job analysis is done in a lot of different ways, but I think in all cases we depend entirely on the person who does the job for the information about the job; and, then, we all use that for the creative solutions.
