Over the past decade, many companies have embraced behavior-based safety as an important element in overall corporate safety and incident reduction. The Centralized Maintenance and Services Division (CM&S) of Eastman Chemical Company launched its behavior-based process in 1991. At that time, the majority of the division's 1000 associates worked as maintenance mechanics where forceful, repetitive tasks were being performed, many times while in awkward postures. As the process gained momentum, it quickly became apparent that any serious behavior-based attempt at reducing the division's overall incident rate must incorporate sound ergonomic principles to address these issues.
Fairly generic critical behavior statements were originally developed for the maintenance area. However without a solid knowledge of the risk factors associated with cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs), the maintenance mechanics had difficulty understanding those ergonomics-related behaviors.
This paper summarizes the basic training course developed by the corporate ergonomist to define CTD risk factors and generate specific examples to illustrate proper ergonomics-related behavior-based observations. Through this course, observers were not only taught "what" to look for but "why"!
First, the primary observers were taught the basics of ergonomics. They learned that ergonomics was "concerned with the interaction of people, equipment, and the environment to balance the job demands with the human capabilities." They also learned that all of these job demands are mental, physical, or environmental in nature.
Observers were taught that cumulative trauma disorders are a series of musculoskeletal conditions, which develop gradually over a period of time due to repeated stresses to the tendons, muscles, and nerves. These stresses, also known as risk factors, are excessive forces, awkward positions, and excessive repetitions (Putz-Anderson 5). Observers were taught that most ergonomic-related behaviors also fall into one of these three categories.
When the ergonomic-related training was developed, it was a prerequisite that it continue to use the framework already used for the division's standard behavior based safety process. With this process, primary observers had to conduct observations of their peer group throughout the month. Observations were classified as "Safe" or "At Risk" and were summarized on a "Critical Behavior Invention" (CBI) Checklist. The checklist contained six subdivisions (people, personal protective equipment, procedures, tools, environment, and body mechanics). While the Eastman Chemical Company process was called BAPP (Behavior Accident Prevention Process), it was based upon the BST (Behavioral Science Technology, Inc., Ojai, CA.) process. Eastman had contracted with BST for basic process development. It was during the implementation phase however that Eastman observers began having problems making good ergonomic-related observations. At this point, all ergonomic-related training was too generic to be meaningful to observer. The Eastman Ergonomist was requested to evaluate the existing process, develop specific examples relative to chemical maintenance activities, and deliver the training for the maintenance mechanics.
