Calculating Return on Investment Ergonomic Interventions

Articles

Despite overwhelming evidence that ergonomics interventions result in a return on investment ranging from 3:1 to 15:1, organisations continue to struggle to obtain appropriate funding for their programmes
To many managers, Ergonomics is not part of their business strategy.
There traditionally has been a lack of clearly defined performance metrics in ergonomics
There are two types of costs considered when calculating the ROI
- Direct Costs: Incurred in response to an injury or discomfort, most notably worker's compensation and additional medical care costs
- Indirect Costs: Include increased insurance premiums, lost productivity and decreased work output, administrative time, Turnover, new personnel, replacement costs of materials, tools and property.
Indirect costs can outweigh Direct Costs by more than 3:1
When calculating ROI costs can be categorised into three areas:
- Costs Saved
- Costs avoided
- New opportunities.
In 2009 in the USA, there were over 3.2 million over extension injuries (1:100 people) - eliminating or controlling repetitive motion injuries is estimated to save a company US$ 27,700 per case