A Precursor to Ergonomics Best Practices for the Shipyard Industries

Many of the job processes being performed today in ship construction, repair and recycling yards do not differ significantly from those same processes as performed fifty years ago. The complexity of vessels may have increased dramatically in the past fifty years but many of the job processes have not kept pace with changes in tech-nology. Due in part to the mismatch of technology between work processes and product design, researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), in collaboration with the National Shipbuilding Research Program Advanced Shipbuilding Enterprise (NSRP ASE) and the Maritime Advisory Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (MACOSH), have conducted a series of ergonomic analyses of work processes at a number of domestic shipyards. These analyses have identified specific work processes within the shipyards that have resulted in numerous, severe, or costly musculoskeletal injuries to the shipyard work-force. The mitigation of the occupational risk factors associated with these processes was the focus of targeted ergonomic interventions.