Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ergonomics Education,
Awareness, System Evaluation,
& Recording Tool
User’s Guide, DOE Download Version
June 1999
Prepared for
the U.S. Department of Energy
under Contract DE-AC06-76RLO 1830
This material was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States
Government. Neither the United States Government nor the United States Department of
Energy, nor Battelle, nor any of their employees, MAKES ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, OR ASSUMES ANY LEGAL LIABILITY OR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE
ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OR USEFULNESS OF ANY INFORMATION,
APPARATUS, PRODUCT, SOFTWARE, OR PROCESS DISCLOSED, OR REPRESENTS
THAT ITS USE WOULD NOT INFRINGE PRIVATELY OWNED RIGHTS.
ErgoEASER was developed for the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Environment,
Safety, and Health by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory under contract DE-AC06-
76RLO 1830, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense, Environmental
Security.
iii
iv
Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Loading the Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
How to Use This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1&Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Working with the Getting Started Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Screen Layout and Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
How to Use the Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
How to Use the References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3&Lifting Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Working with the Lifting Analysis Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Screen Layout and Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Overview of Analysis Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Lifting Analysis Quick Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Starting an Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Entering Task Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Eliminating Potential Strains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
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ErgoEASER User’s Guide
Saving an Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Analyzing Multiple Lifts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Generating Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Additional Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Operator Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Lifting Index Threshold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Task Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Changing Units of Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Lifting Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5&Online Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Working with Online Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Overview Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Context-Sensitive Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Quick Reference Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64
vi
Contents
Figures
Introduction
Examples of Buttons used in ErgoEASER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Examples of Fields used in ErgoEASER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Chapter 1
Introductory Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Getting Started Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Glossary Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
References Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 2
Introductory Awareness/Reporting Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Operator Information Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Tasks Window with Example Tasks Defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Sample Risk Factor Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Reported Task in Awareness/Reporting Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Associating Tasks with Risks in the Awareness/Reporting
Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Reported Task List with a Task Selected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Recommended Analysis for Awareness/Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Setup Lifting Analysis Dialogue Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
A Sample Upper Extremity Checklist Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
A Sample Lower Extremity Checklist Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
A Sample Manual Handling Checklist Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Chapter 3
Single-Task Lifting Analysis Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Initial Lifting Analysis Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Lifting Analysis Human Data Entry Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Lifting Analysis Job Data Entry Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Lifting Analysis Object Data Entry Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Lifting Analysis ORIGin Data Entry Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Lifting Analysis DESTination Data Entry Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . 32
Lifting Assumptions Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Lifting Analysis Hints Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Multiple Lift Analysis Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Report Preview Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Operator Information Dialogue Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Dialog Box to Change the LI Threshold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Lifting Analysis Variables Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Lifting Equation Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
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ErgoEASER User’s Guide
Chapter 4
VDT Workstation Analysis Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Initial VDT Workstation Analysis Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
VDT Workstation Analysis Human Data Entry Control Panel . . . . . . . 48
VDT Workstation Analysis Job Data Entry Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . 49
VDT Workstation Analysis Chair Data Entry Control Panel . . . . . . . . 50
VDT Workstation Analysis Inputs Data Entry Control Panel . . . . . . . . 51
VDT Workstation Analysis Display Data Entry Control Panel . . . . . . . 52
Workstation Assumptions Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Workstation Analysis Hints Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Report Preview Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Operator Information Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
VDT Workstation Analysis Variables Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Chapter 5
Overview Help Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Context-Sensitive Help Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Lifting Analysis Quick Reference Help Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
VDT Workstation Analysis Quick Reference Help Window . . . . . . . 64
viii
Introduction
This user’s guide provides step-by-step instructions for using ErgoEASER, an interactive Ergonomics
Education, Awareness, System Evaluation, & Recording tool. The introduction provides essential
information for loading the software and using this guide. The chapters that follow describe the major
components of the tool: Chapter 1&Getting Started provides an overview of the program and introduces
its three main components; Chapter 2&Awareness and Reporting describes ergonomics concepts and
issues with examples from the workplace, helping users to better understand risks associated with
potentially hazardous postures, and also describes an electronic risk analysis checklist that provides
feedback on work postures; Chapters 3&Lifting Analysis and 4&VDT Workstation Analysis provide
more- detailed, analytic support; and Chapter 5 describes the Online Help functions.
1
ErgoEASER User’s Guide
Conventions In this guide, button names and menu options appear in Bold Face and
initial caps for easy identification. Window names are shown in
SMALL CAPS.
2
Chapter 1--Introduction
Pull-down menus are available from the menu bar at the top of the
window (see example at left). One letter of each menu label is
underlined to indicate the corresponding keyboard accelerator key
(e.g., T for Task). The accelerator keys enable you to select pull-
down menus without clicking the mouse. To use an accelerator key,
hold down the Alt key and press the designated accelerator key on the
keyboard. When the Alt key is pressed, any pull-down menu currently
displayed will close.
Various types of buttons and data entry fields are used by ErgoEASER,
as shown in samples. A mouse click on a pushbutton typically invokes
an action, such as displaying a new window. Radio buttons provide a
mutually exclusive choice; only one radio button in a group may be
selected at once. Check boxes may appear alone or in groups and
allow selection of one or more choices.
Examples of Buttons
used in ErgoEASER
Data entry fields may be accessed via the tab (or mouse-click), and
values may be entered using the keyboard or by clicking arrow buttons
to increment/decrement values. If the change involves only one or two
units, the arrow buttons are convenient; otherwise, it is often more
convenient to enter the value using the keyboard. Some fields (those
with only a limited set of possible values) have associated pull-down
selection boxes that may be easily accessed via the mouse click.
Examples of Fields
used in ErgoEASER
Data Entry Field Selection
Box
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ErgoEASER User’s Guide
4
1--Getting Started
1—Getting Started
ErgoEASER has four major components: Getting Started, Awareness/Reporting, Analytic Tools, and
Education/Training, as shown in the INTRODUCTORY window below. The Education/Training
component is described in the Appendix.
Introductory Window
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ErgoEASER User’s Guide
How to Use the To view the Glossary while in the Getting Started component, click on
Glossary *ORVVDU\ in the topic list or use the arrow buttons to move to the
Glossary page. To use the Glossary, scroll through the terms shown in
the scrolling field on the right side of the GLOSSARY window.
6
1--Getting Started
Glossary Window
You may also access the Glossary from outside Getting Started. To do
this, click on the +HOS pull-down menu and select the *ORVVDU\ menu
item. The Glossary will be displayed in a separate window overlaid on
the current display. To dismiss the GLOSSARY window, click on
Close.
How to Use the To view the References while in the Getting Started component, click
References 5HIHUHQFHV in the topic list or use the arrow buttons to move to the
References page. To view the References, scroll through the
references shown in the scrolling field on the right side of the
REFERENCES window.
References Window
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ErgoEASER User’s Guide
You may also access the References from outside Getting Started. To
do this, click on the +HOS pull-down menu and select the 5HIHUHQFHV
menu item. The References will be displayed in a separate window,
overlaid on the current display. To dismiss the REFERENCES window,
click on Close.
Resources
Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. Fitting the Job
to the Worker: An Ergonomics Program Guideline. 1994.
"OSHA Draft Proposed Ergonomic Protection Standard." BNA
Reporter Special Supplement, Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National
Affairs, Inc. March 22, 1995, Pp. S-56 to S-61.