Like any other business process, ergonomics should be managed within a well-defined system. Without a system, it is nearly impossible to have an effective ergonomics process you can sustain over long periods of time.

Now that you’ve conducted an Establishment Audit, you’re ready to create your Ergonomics Management System. You should have actionable information you can take from the Establishment Audit you can use to generate your management system.

Ergonomics Management System Deliverables

Your Ergonomics Management System should be documented with policy, standards, and guidance documents.

Management defines ergonomics and MSD prevention policies to describe how the organization wants to reduce MSD risk factors.

After policies are outlined, standards define the mandatory rules that will be used to implement the policies.

Finally, management should create guidance documents that describe the procedures used to follow the standards that support the implementation of the policy.

Policy: Why do we need to do this?

Your Ergonomics Management System policy is a high-level plan that describes the goals of the process and the vision your organization has to get there.

Before you write your policy, you need to determine your overall goal for the process. What do you want to accomplish? How does this ergonomics initiative help your organization achieve its larger objectives? What is your vision for how this benefits the employees at your worksite?

Standards: What is required?

Standards provide the support and direction for your policy. Standards documents commonly include:

• Roles and responsibilities
• MSD prevention process requirements
• Specific goals and target dates

Guidance: How do we do it?

Procedures and guidelines should be documented that provide instruction for how each person with a role in the process can meet their responsibilities.

Procedures are step-by-step instructions to achieve a given task.

Guidelines are recommendations for when specific standards do not apply. Guidelines, by definition, should be open to interpretation and don’t need to be followed exactly in every situation.

The ErgoPlus System

The ErgoPlus System is the process we use when we engage clients to help them design and develop a customized ergonomics management system.

It is modeled after the PDCA continuous improvement cycle so it can easily be modified to fit into whatever management system/continuous improvement model you use (examples include ISO 45001, OHSAS 18001, Six Sigma, and the Toyota Production System to name a few).

You can use this as a framework to draw inspiration from and follow best practices.

If you would like an expert in your corner as you develop your ergonomics management system, get in touch. We love working with clients to solve complex problems and deliver tangible value.