Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
productivity costs in a generic form, an arrangement that enterprises could use to improve working con-
ditions. Most of her work was published in Swedish but she has summarized some of her ideas in English
(Kupi et al., 1993).
A Special Issue of Applied Ergonomics (Vol. 34, 5, September 2003) was devoted to cost effectiveness.
Unfortunately, none of the articles in this Special Issue proposed a generic method that could be used by
ergonomists and others wishing to implement ergonomics solutions. Each author took their case study
and showed its financial effectiveness, but the methodology was unique to that case and could not easily
be used in other workplaces.
It was a similar situation at the European Conference on cost effectiveness (Mossink and Licher, 1997)
in that very few papers indicated useful working models that could be used by ergonomists.
It seems unfortunate that more models are not developed for occupational health and safety on the
market so that users would be able to choose the model which best fits their needs. Cost-benefit
models that are not suitable are, for example, engineering ones that only derive from the technology
of the design or process and do not express the affect on, and the effect of, the workers and other
persons concerned. It is, at least partly, to fill this gap that the Productivity Assessment Tool (and its pre-
decessor, the Productivity Model) has been developed and will be discussed later in this article.
4.1.3 Using Financial Arguments
By not using financial arguments, ergonomists and other occupational health and safety practitioners are
not presenting a balanced view when it comes to arguing for funds to be expended; to just present the
cost of a project does not reflect its value to the enterprise. Cost-benefit analysis is one tool that can be
used to rectify this absence of balance.
Cost-benefit analysis is in its infancy for ergonomists but engineers have long made use of the tool to
look at, for example, the value of replacement versus maintenance of existing plant and buildings. This
analysis may be given names such as “return on investment,” but essentially it is an attempt to look at
both costs and benefits of a projected change, hence a cost-benefit analysis. Over time engineers and
others have gained more confidence and have developed a way of putting a monetary value on what
is, essentially, a prediction about future performance.
It is our hope that using the concepts of cost-benefit analysis will give ergonomists and other occu-
pational health and safety practitioners a similar level of confidence to that of engineers, accountants,
managers, etc., with whom they need to argue for funds.
By these means ergonomists will not just present the costs for implementing ergonomics solutions but
also quantify the benefits. The costs derive from the implementation of better working conditions while
the benefits come from a safer workplace with lower injury costs, higher productivity, reduced warranty
costs, improved staff retention, multi-skilling, etc.
4.2 Financial Modeling
Ergonomists commonly assert that their projects will benefit an enterprise citing these benefits qualitat-
ively while presenting the costs of the project quantitatively. When it comes to arguing for funds to be
expended, to just present the cost of a project does not reflect its value. If several projects are competing
for funding then, in financial terms, the project that provides the greatest value to the enterprise should
be funded first. Financial modeling can be used to calculate the value of a future project, incorporating
both its costs and benefits quantitatively. This requires access to the enterprise's costs data, selection of
those items that the project will affect and estimation of the size of the effect.
In the engineering field data are selected, costed and benefits estimated on the basis of custom and
practice. What can ergonomists learn from the engineers' approach?
Ergonomists are often cautious about making predictions on the benefits of a project; epidemiology
tells us that we cannot know, for instance, that there will be injuries among a particular team of workers,
just the likelihood of injuries. How then is it possible to say that an intervention will prevent injury and
Search WWH ::
Custom Search