Platforms to Step-Ladders: Deciding How to Elevate Workers

摘要

Overhead work is very prevalent in almost any occupational setting. Picking apples, stocking store shelves, operating valves in chemical plants, threading strip material through the rollers of a tower accumulator, performing maintenance on equipment, and changing light bulbs are examples. Wherever it is performed, overhead work often requires elevation of the worker. There are literally dozens of ways to elevate workers, ranging from portable ladders, to fixed platforms, to boom lifts and other vehicle-mounted platforms. Facility and equipment designers often assume that maintenance and other activities can be performed at any elevation, giving little consideration to how workers will reach areas above floor level. A few studies have looked at the ergonomics of ladder carrying (Beyer et al. 816), setting up ladders (Young and Wogalter 111), and ladder climbing (Bloswick and Chaffin 17). Rather than focusing on climbing or the process of getting to an elevated position, what this presentation addresses is the ergonomics of performing work from elevated platforms. That is, the focus is on activity after the means of elevation has been positioned and the employee is somewhat stationary. Very little research has been conducted in this specific area, so we are left applying what we know from non-elevated work studies to explain observed phenomena.