MSD prevention: who should be included? 

 Are you an ergonomist or HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) officer? Or an employee who wants to implement an action plan to prevent the onset of MSDs? And you don’t know how to go about it, or where to turn?
 

The prevention of musculoskeletal disorders should be seen as a 360-degree approach, since it involves a large number of players within an organisation. Here’s a look at the different profiles involved in this major problem, which is the number one occupational disease in France.

Direction
 

Direction  needs to be included in a company’s MSD prevention project. It is they who will be able to initiate the project and ensure its continuity and sustainability. With the will, priorities and resources – human and financial – that it is able to release, the MSD prevention approach can quickly become a real success. 

The production manager 
 

By virtue of their role, production managers are close to operators. Because they supervise several employees, they have an overall view of the realities of the job, of how operators feel, of how the team works… And they are also directly affected by MSDs, because they are the ones who have to manage the smooth running of the teams during absences or medical restrictions.
 

And if they implement an MSD prevention approach, production managers can map their workstations, in particular using the KIMEA solution. This makes it easy to analyse production lines, giving them an overall view of their site from a physical and biomechanical point of view.
 

The methods engineer 
 

Since the methods engineer designs, organises and optimises a company’s production, he is also a good person to include in the MSD prevention process.
 

Here too, the KIMEA solution is a great asset. The methods engineer can easily identify any discrepancies between the prescribed range times and the actual times. In addition, by entering each task for each workstation, the methods engineer can produce a detailed activity diagram (time, MSD risks, joints involved, etc.). 

This data, which is extremely useful for preventing musculoskeletal disorders, provides real support to the methods engineer, who can then develop workstations that are better adapted to the operators.
 

The operators 
 

Speaking of operators, they are the first to be affected by MSDs. Pain, disability, reduced motor skills and – for some – loss of employment: they are among those who bear the full brunt of the physical consequences of France’s number one occupational disease.
 

As well as knowing and understanding MSDs and the action plan put in place by the company, operators must be fully involved in the prevention process. They have a detailed perception of their work and its constraints, and are also as close as possible to the realities of the job. Operators are therefore key players, particularly during the analysis and search for appropriate solutions.
 

And thanks to KIMEA, operators can become fully involved in the MSD prevention process. Because it’s easier to capture their movements, they can be easily called upon. 

Employee representatives 
 

Here we can talk just as much about the CSE (Comité Social et Économique) as the CHSCT (Comité d’Hygiène, de Sécurité et des Conditions de Travail). These two institutions represent staff and protect their health and rights.
 

More specifically, the CHSCT is a point of contact that can provide concrete information to improve understanding of MSDs in the company. The committee can monitor the situation or collect the difficulties encountered and expressed by operators. Note that not all companies have employee representatives.
 

Occupational medicine 
 

The occupational physician and his team are key contacts, providing all their knowledge of pathologies, work situations and employee monitoring.
 

Thanks to Moovency, the occupational health physician can also use the KIMEA solution to obtain an overall view of a workstation, as well as the scores for each operator’s joints. The solution will provide him with reliable data on the risks of MSDs. Coupled with his expertise, this data will enable him to identify the company’s priorities.
 

Occupational physicians and their teams can also use KIMEA to :
 

• obtain information on workstations and their biomechanical constraints; 

• design the company file 

• improve workstations; 

• or better target the workstations where an operator can return to work in the event of a contraindication.