|
|
| |  | |
| Workplace Safety and Health |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ergonomics
One reason John Deere employees are so safe on the job is the company's long involvement in ergonomics—designing work and workstations to eliminate repetitive and awkward movement.
Doing so helps reduce stress and eliminates many potential injuries and disorders associated with the overuse of muscles, bad posture, and repetitive tasks.
Continuous improvement (CI) teams also contribute to John Deere's enviable safety record. In the CI process, teams of production employees set quarterly goals in quality, safety, efficiency, and delivery. The teams then undertake projects to make their workplaces safer. Hundreds of safety-improvement projects are completed every quarter and the results widely shared throughout the company.
The practical application of ergonomics remains a primary driver in John Deere's efforts to reduce workplace injuries through continuous improvement principles. As part of that effort, the safety department at the John Deere Waterloo (Iowa) Works built a virtual reality theater, dedicated to optimizing ergonomics in manufacturing. Virtual reality lets engineers and others immerse themselves in a computer-generated representation of a work environment to examine product and component designs for potential safety and ergonomic hazards before manufacturing begins.
|
|
|
|
