Do You Think Enough About Ergonomics?

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Vitorio Lorenzini, a workstation design expert with Assembled Product Specialists, discusses the importance of ergonomics in the workplace. He emphasizes the value of early involvement in workstation planning to optimize space and resources, ultimately enhancing workflow efficiency. 

Barry Matties: Let’s start with an overview of your company. 

Vito Lorenzini: We have been in business for 20 years. We focus on designing workstations and installing them for labs and production floors. These can range from single standalone stations to inline stations for production lines, hand assembly, and QC workflow. 

Matties: It seems like there are many areas where your products fit.

Lorenzini: Yes. One area many people don't look at is shipping and receiving. We can outfit this as a full-pack bench where you have tape dispensers, reels, and everything like that. We can get it overhead for ergonomics and workflow. We also do inventory systems with the shelving and seating. We can set up full tool cribs and cages. The options are endless. Some of our benches have electronic or hydraulic height adjustments, so they'll put them in their R&D labs because the engineers are working at their desks but also need to tinker. 

Matties: Benches and workstations aren't something people think about daily or when looking at their factory or capital investments. 

Lorenzini: Right. We always say it's CapEx-adjacent because the dollar amounts for many of these come up to what would be considered capital equipment. But at the same time, there is no big planning or expenditure unless you're expanding. 

Matties: When should companies look to talk with you?

Lorenzini: If you’re expanding into a new lab or moving buildings, and you’re in that phase of talking with the architects, that's when it's best for us to come in. Getting involved earlier would be better because we're setting up the workflow and will give you the CAD drawings. If you can give us aerials, we'll do all the blueprinting for you. That's the best time. The other best time is any time you have. 

Matties: Like most things, resources can be saved by bringing you in early. 

Lorenzini: Yes. It often comes down to space and the utilization of that space. So, you don't necessarily even need to buy new frames or tops. But what can we do with the accessories? How can we utilize your space or redesign it to something that makes sense? Many people will make things up as they go because they need this.

Matties: In some instances, people will just go down and buy a workbench at the local hardware store, something that fits, or a table that they can set up and use in a shipping department. But when you start looking at the application-specific bench like this, there are real considerations. There must be something that says, “Maybe there's a better option.”

Lorenzini: There are some catalysts. Usually, it will be a new engineer who comes in from a facility that had it, or they come to a show and see some options, or they've maximized their space to the best of their capabilities, and now they need to look at an engineered solution. 

Matties: Companies need to start thinking about it more. For example, I was in a shop recently, and I noticed a rather tall engineer hunched over their desk. I commented about it to the CEO, and for them, it was invisible; their mind is elsewhere. 

Lorenzini: Sometimes we're so goal-oriented that we don't see the errors right before us. We offer fresh eyes to look at full solutions in ergonomics. This is one of the main pillars of what we've built our business on. Let’s say it comes from seating, and it can be as simple as picking the right size—you have desk height, mid-height, and high.

Matties: So, when someone's walking through their shop, and they see what I described—the person hunched over and they clearly don’t look ergonomic—that should be some sort of trigger for them.

Lorenzini: It should be, but it isn’t always. Part of that is just the knowledge of what it should look like vs. what it looks like, and there's just not enough information on what proper procedure should look like. There are ergonomic shows and some ergonomic “policies,” but nothing that's truly been advertised to the masses. That’s something we work to do.  

Matties: Well, this is certainly a topic that does not get enough coverage. I appreciate your time and insight.

Lorenzini: Thank you.