Learn how to use the NIOSH Lifting Equation to arrive at a Recommended Weight Limit (RWL) for lifting and lowering tasks.
What is the Recommended Weight Limit?
The Recommended Weight Limit is the primary output of the NIOSH Lifting Equation, an ergonomic assessment tool used to evaluate MSD risk factors related to lifting and lowering tasks.
The Recommended Weight Limit defines the maximum acceptable weight (load) that nearly all healthy employees could lift over an 8-hour shift without increasing the risk of a musculoskeletal disorder to the lower back.
Calculating Recommended Weight Limit
The easiest way to calculate the Recommended Weight Limit is to simply enter the task variables of the NIOSH Lifting Equation into a calculator. The calculator should spit out the multipliers along with the final Recommended Weight Limit.
The other way is to do a manual calculation. To do that, you’ll need to go through the extra step of calculating each multiplier by hand. Here are the steps for a manual calculation:
As you can see from the manual steps, it can be quite involved and you can save a huge amount of time by using an ergonomics software tool to do the calculations for you. If you use a calculator, all you need to do is enter the task variables into the tool and click “calculate”. Everything else is done for you.
For more detailed guidance on exactly how to measure and record the task variables in the NIOSH Lifting Equation, you can click here to check out our step-by-step guide.
Download step-by-step guides to all of our recommended ergonomic assessment tools
Ergonomic assessment tools are a foundational part of your ergonomics process. It can be difficult to conduct fast and accurate assessments you can be confident in, so that’s why we created a series of step-by-step guides to our recommended assessment tools.
You can click here to download these guides at no charge. We’ve also created a software platform that makes managing all of the data you’ll generate from your assessments easy and intuitive. If that sounds interesting, you can click here to schedule a software demo. Talk soon!
