A Cost/Benefit Justification Framework to Reduce MSD in the Workplace

摘要

Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD) have been the main Health and Safety problems in the workplace that resulted in millions of dollars in additional health related expenses to companies. For a number of years, OSHA has proposed an Ergonomics Program Standard in order to reduce and eventually eliminate such problems. Yet, companies are skeptical about such a standard and do not want to invest in the ergonomics program. A Cost/Benefit justification framework to build managers' awareness of the full benefits that can be gained from such Ergonomics program is needed. This paper proposes such framework for justifying Ergonomics investments which could be developed for targeting MSD problems. Data were collected from various sources including Bureau of Labor Statistics, Healthcare Utilization Project, and OSHA's proposed Ergonomics Standard Program. Results showed that the value of ergonomics project could increase up to 2.43 times of the original project value when an embedded option is under consideration.