CA A successful approach for controlling work-related musculoskeletal disorders has been developed that intricately involves the worker within each step of the process. It has been applied to a variety of job categories and has been particularly useful in characterizing nonstationary activities such as custodial work or drum handling. The ergonomist's role is teaching basic principles and consulting on behalf of the workers.
Workers become aware of their ergonomic problems and identify high-risk procedures.
Ergonomic tools are used to gather and analyze data on these high-risk procedures and form an exposure assessment. Tools can be as inexpensive as video for posture analysis and targeting, or as intricate as three-dimensional motion evaluation systems. Workers fully assist in gathering and analyzing data, then in identifying and implementing solutions. Workers from the team become qualified to assist in developing their own periodic training programs to reinforce ergonomic lessons learned. What is feasible, however, is to provide employees with a tool that enables them to do their own assessment of the tasks that they perform that may pose an ergonomic risk.