General ergonomic knowledge, learned from an ongoing ergonomics program, can be used to build a more prevention-oriented approach. Management commitment and employee involvement in the planning activity is essential. Decision-makers planning new work processes, especially those involved in the design of job tasks, equipment, and workplace layout, must become more aware of ergonomic factors and principles. Designers must have appropriate information and guidelines about risk factors for WMSDs and ways to control them. Studying past designs of jobs in terms of risk factors can be useful when considering enhancements or changes.
Design strategies emphasize fitting job demands to the capabilities and limitations of workers.
Deciding which functions can be done best by machines and which by people is a primary objective. Design strategies try to target the causes of potential musculoskeletal problems. For this reason, engineering approaches are preferred over administrative ones because they eliminate the risk factors as opposed to simply reducing exposure to them. For example, having machines do monotonous, repetitive, forceful work is better than subjecting workers to these risk factors.