Helping workers stretch away strain: a semiconductor equipment manufacturer slashes its on-the-job injury rate with a low-tech program and 16 minutes a day

Business & Health, Nov, 1998 by Shelly Reese

A company whose average worker is only 27 might seem an unlikely candidate for a progressive, on-the-job wellness initiative, but Applied Materials, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based firm with manufacturing operations in Austin, Texas, refused to be lulled into complacency by its young and healthy staff or low lost-time incident rate. Instead, it took a different tack, designing an on-site stretching program that cut its incidence of sprains and strain - previously its No. 1 lost-time culprit - by more than half. In the process, Applied Materials found that an investment in wellness can have a significant impact on employee morale.

A manufacturer of capital equipment for the semiconductor industry, the company employs roughly 2,100 people at its Austin plant. About 900 of them build massive equipment, some of it the size of a small house trailer. Frequent bending and twisting to reach various components made sprains and strains the company's lost-time leader.

To combat that trend, Applied Materials introduced its Industrial Athlete Stretching Program two years ago. The voluntary program encourages the manufacturing crew to take two five- to eight-minute stretch breaks during each shift.

The sessions are led by a trained "stretch leader" - either a member of the company's wellness staff or a department volunteer - and designed and timed to complement the duties of workers on a particular shift.

The program kicked off with two pilot groups. One consisted of 130 employees, who reported back to the wellness department after 7.5 weeks; the other involved 80 workers and a 6.5-week trial. The results are impressive:

* Strains and sprains fell from an average of 1.2 per month in the six months before the program to .5 per month immediately after the pilot.

* Strain and sprain injuries fell further in the months that followed, as employees continued to stretch. After six months, both groups reported an incidence of .3 per month. After a year, the first group's rate dropped to .25; because of departmental restructuring, the second group had no follow-up data.

* Direct cost savings from medical and time-off expenses averaged $800 a month for the pilot groups. That figure doesn't consider the cost of implementation, nor does it account for the program's "soft" benefits.

Those intangible benefits include the improved mood and decreased tension participants experienced immediately after the stretch breaks. The company found out about the boost in mood through focus groups and questionnaires, reports Tre McCalister, wellness manager for the Austin facility.

The program's effectiveness is the likely result of a handful of factors, McCalister figures. Regular participants no doubt improve their flexibility and, by warming up their muscles, decrease their susceptibility to injury. But even the less diligent - the findings include volunteers who participated in no more than two sessions - probably increase their awareness of postural and safety measures, she says.

"The fact is the program does reduce injuries, whether it's because of the actual physical stretching or increased safety awareness or improved mood and morale or even a combination of those things," McCalister points out. "For whatever reason, it affects productivity because those people were on the job and they weren't out with injuries."

While the whys of the program's success may be debatable, the results are indisputable. Since the pilots, Applied Materials has introduced the program in about half of its manufacturing departments, beginning with those whose workers were at greatest risk.

While departments and trainers are added continually, McCalister says about 520 employees have signed on so far. (Participants are asked to register and fill out a health questionnaire so the company can determine whether they have a preexisting condition that might require program modification.) Just over half of them are still involved.

The program has helped the manufacturer maintain a lost-time incident rate that's less than half the industry norm: 1.86 per 100 employees vs. a 1996 industry average - the latest available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics - of 3.8. Eighteen percent of on-the-job injuries at Applied Materials are from strains and sprains, significantly less than the 26 percent industry average.

With the number of strains and sprains down sharply, the company is targeting new types of work-related conditions. During the past several years, repetitive stress injuries have been on the rise. That's due in part to technological advances that have made the company more efficient but workers' jobs more repetitive, McCalister says. RSIs now represent 14 percent of Applied Materials' lost-time incidents, a significantly higher share than the 8.4 percent industry average.

The company's response? More stretching. Earlier this year, the firm began adapting its industrial program to one that can be used by its office workers, who have the highest incidence of repetitive stress injuries.

A pilot of the newly designed exercises drew more than 60 participants. The manufacturer plans to gather data on their experiences and to introduce the twice-daily sessions to additional clerical departments soon.