Operation P.EE.Q.: Cost-justifying ergo change using Productivity, Employee Engagement, and Quality metrics

Cambridge, ON

In this one-day workshop, participants will learn to use tools from Lean and Six Sigma principles to identify and cost-justify changes that benefit organizations ergonomically, while simultaneously improving Productivity, Employee Engagement, and Quality (PEEQ). Why "Operation"? Because we use the game "Operation" throughout the course!

Course outline:

• What are the barriers to ergonomics implementation?
• Productivity, quality, and employee engagement – How are these measured in the workplace, and how do they relate to ergonomics?
• Identify the problem – how do we know that this issue that has been labelled “ergonomic” is really a problem for the organization? How do we use a “fishbone diagram”? What is 5S and how can it help me? What survey and interview questions can I ask supervisors and workers to help me understand and capture the costs of the problem?
• Analyze the problem – What is the root cause of this “ergo” problem? What is it costing the organization? How can we use “waste walk” and “spaghetti diagrams” to quantify productivity improvement opportunities? How can we find and summarize the financial costs of this problem?
• Develop solutions – How can we fix it? What does “DOE” mean? How do I quantify the effect of a proposed solution?
• Implementation (cost justification) – What are the costs of the intervention, and how can we anticipate its impact on productivity, quality, and employee engagement?
• Documentation (prevent the reoccurrence) – How can I show what I’ve accomplished and build it into future projects?
• Case Studies – Practice with a variety of mini case studies. This course includes our cost-benefit analysis spreadsheet.
• Getting a seat at the table – How can ergonomics and safety professionals integrate themselves into the productivity, quality, and employee engagement processes?

Feedback from a participant:

"Just wanted to say thank you again for hosting the awesome workshop late last year on cost justification.  I haven’t had a project to use the tool yet, but the workshop was simply awesome.  I know I said that before but it is worth saying again."