Ergonomics is part of preventive occupational safety in the workplace. An unergonomic office workstation leads to neck and back pain for employees in the long term. What start as minor complaints can later result in pain and sick leave. To avoid this, an ergonomic design of the workplace is recommended.
What does a workplace that has a positive effect on employees' mental health look like?
Employee satisfaction affects their productivity. In an open-plan office, companies create an employee-friendly atmosphere if each workstation has a minimum area of ten square meters. This gives employees sufficient freedom of movement. They can stretch their limbs or take a few steps to prevent tension.
For a workplace with a "feel-good factor", the following are recommended:
- good lighting,
- a humidity between 40 and 60 percent,
- a temperature between 20 and 22 degrees Celsius,
- a low noise level.
For comfortable seating, employees need an office chair that they can adjust to their individual needs. Ergonomic models feature adjustable armrests and backrests. This enables varying working postures. In a favorable sitting position the legs are bent at a 90-degree angle and the feet rest comfortably on the floor.
For the desk, a minimum height of 80 centimeters is recommended. The width should be at least 160 centimeters. Height-adjustable desks have a positive impact on workplace ergonomics. How these affect employee productivity is examined by the study „ERGONOMIE-BENEFITS“ of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA.
Can a Cobot help prevent physical strain in everyday work?
Strenuous and unergonomic movements have a detrimental effect on employees' health in the long term. Injuries and the resulting absences represent an economic loss for the company. To provide lasting relief for employees, companies may consider integrating human-robot collaboration into everyday production.
In this setup, a collaborative robot, Cobotcalled, with an employee working on the same components. Without spatial separation, both share the workspace to make manufacturing processes more efficient and more economical.
Collaborative robots help relieve human workers mentally and physically. By taking on strenuous and unergonomic tasks, they protect employees from long-term health complaints. Cobots spare people from strenuous activities thanks to unlimited endurance and strength. They are also suitable for work steps that demand an unhealthy posture from human employees.
The collaborative robots resemble a human arm in form and function. They effortlessly carry heavy loads. A Cobot from the company Universal Robots is suitable for a payload of up to 16 kilograms. Three students from Denmark founded the company in 2005 as the first business to produce commercially usable cobots.
Conclusion
For work in the office or in production there are ways to improve ergonomics and thereby relieve employees. Investing in ergonomic workplace equipment or collaborative robots offers companies a long-term economic advantage.
