Case Studies of Robots and Automation as Health/Safety Interventions in Small Manufacturing Enterprises.

ABSTRACT: This paper reviews the experiences of 63 case studies of small businesses (< 250 employees) with manufacturing automation equipment acquired through a health/safety intervention grant program. The review scope included equipment technologies classified as industrial robots (n = 17), computer numerical control (CNC) machining (n = 29), or other programmable automation systems (n = 17). Descriptions of workers' compensation (WC) claim injuries and identified risk factors that motivated acquisition of the equipment were extracted from grant applications. Other aspects of the employer experiences, including qualitative and quantitative assessment of effects on risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), effects on productivity, and employee acceptance of the intervention were summarized

SUBMITTER: Lowe BD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10191138 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature