America’s Changing Work Force: Ramifications for Ergonomic Modeling

America’s workforce is becoming more diverse. Generally, this diversity includes workers with different anthropometry (size, shape), capabilities, work experiences, and ethnicities. More importantly, the workforce is also aging and becoming heavier. However, the impact of aging and obesity is typically not considered in traditional ergonomic modeling. This paper explores the potential impact of these factors and proposes several ways to factor these characteristics into ergonomic models. Research is underway to quantify and empirically test new methods for evaluating work place risk. This paper details the application of an age modifier to the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation (RNLE) (Waters, Putz-Anderson, and Garg, 1994) and proposes how such methods could be expanded to obesity and other worker personal characteristics. The RNLE is perhaps the most widely used manual material handling (MMH) evaluation method in use. Effective modifications to the RNLE have been demonstrated. For example, Sesek et al. (2003) modified the RNLE to allow analysis of one-handed lifting tasks. The predictive ability of the tool was maintained, but the number of jobs capable of RNLE analysis greatly increased. Modifying the RNLE to account for age will not increase the number of jobs capable of being analyzed, but rather has the potential to improve the predictive ability of this tool when dealing with older and presumably more at risk populations.