Management commitment and employee involvement in the planning activity are essential. For example, management can set policy to require ergonomic considerations for any equipment to be purchased, and production employees can offer ideas on the basis of their past experiences for alleviating potential problems. 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 offer useful input into their deliberations about needed improvements.
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. For example, for tasks requiring heavy materials handling and transport, ready use of mechanical assist devices to reduce the need for manual handling would be designed into the process. Large-sized units could be broken into smaller, more manageable ones, and equipment could be selected that most helps the workers using it. 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.