Mass producing ergonomics: two of the world's largest automakers are also two of the biggest success stories when it comes to ergonomics and worker safety

Risk & Insurance, Oct 15, 2008 by Joshua Clifton

For the remainder of the orientation program, each new employee's day is split into quarters--75 percent of the day alternating between performing tasks on and off the assembly line and 25 percent spent on physical conditioning.

"Every day during the orientation period, new employees spend the last part of their day in the in-house wellness center, where they perform physical conditioning exercises, such as cardio training and stretches," Blackburn says. "This really helps workers better prepare for their environment."

Blackburn says the feedback from new employees has been very positive. "We've also seen a decrease in injuries among these employees," he says.

MOTION CAPTURE

Ford Motor Co. recently unveiled its virtual manufacturing technologies that the vehicle giant says have played a major role in the company's improving quality performance and falling injury rates.

At a recent manufacturing symposium, Ford displayed its advanced motion capture technology, which is commonly used in animated movies and digital games. The technology is combined with human modeling software to design jobs that are less physically stressful on workers.

"The benefits are fewer injuries, lower cost of tooling changes, higher quality and faster time to market," says Allison Stephens, ergonomics technical specialist with the company's vehicle operations manufacturing engineering division. "We're seeing improvement in every one of those metrics and our virtual technology is a factor."

Ford has been advancing its approach to digital ergonomics work since it began using virtual tools to improve ergonomics in 2000. The company is collaborating with the University of Michigan as part Of a technology consortium as well as participating in the Virtual Soldier Research program with the U.S. Department of Defense and the University of Iowa.

"Among the project objects are to predict the ergonomic impact of long-term repetitive motions and to better predict complex human motions," Stephens says.

At the Siemens PLM Software Digital Manufacturing Symposium, Stephens demonstrated the ergo technology in a virtual assembly plant. Ford's virtual manufacturing process begins by applying product specifications to the manufacturing plant to create a computer-generated virtual assembly line. An engineer, outfitted with a special harness and gloves, performs an assembly operation exactly as the plant operator would on the line. The engineer uses the virtual tools to help guide his or her movements. Production parts are represented by physical props. A head-mounted display can also be used when three-dimensional viewing is required, such as when placing a part inside of a vehicle body.

Stephens says the operator's actions are then captured by sophisticated cameras that track the movement of sensors on the harness, gloves and head-mounted display. In addition to movements, the engineer's size is captured and loaded into a computer program, redrawn as a digital employee---an avatar called Jack and displayed on a large screen. Human modeling software then determines the ergonomic and