The AF group
ErgoView
Workers’ compensation insurer AF Group halved its budget for site safety visits in a year after introducing technology in 2021 that allowed on-site staff to remotely measure workers’ ergonomics to prevent injuries.
Once the data is available, the insurer also expects to see a reduction in musculoskeletal injuries linked to the implementation.
AF Group partnered with technology company TuMeke Inc. to create ErgoView, a program that allows on-site safety personnel to record video of workers in action – in industries such as manufacturing and construction – to detect awkward movements and use artificial intelligence to suggest modifications. Experts have long pointed to musculoskeletal injuries as one of the most common – and often most costly – in the labor industry.
“ErgoView has helped really limit the types of injuries, such as sprains and strains, that take people out of work,”
; said Sam Hosey, Lansing, Michigan-based chief innovation officer for AF Group.“ErgoView is a tool that helps identify unsafe work habits and practices, whether it’s lifting and squatting and twisting. It really helps limit and mitigate some of those injuries, he says.
Mr Hosey said the pandemic helped spur development of the tool.
“Our people couldn’t get on site to do these ergonomic assessments because they would normally drive to sites, fly to cities and go into these facilities to look at the work habits and make sure things were safe,” he said. “During the pandemic, nobody was moving anywhere. To have a remote tool like this was really just what was needed.”
ErgoView reduced AF Group’s travel budget for safety site visits from $1.7 million in 2019 to $843,000 in 2021, while adding six more site visits a month starting in spring 2021, he said.
Having set its sights on improving ergonomic practices in manual work, AF Group also saw potential in administrative office environments, Mr. Hosey. The company is partnering with San Mateo, Calif.-based TuMeke to address ergonomic safety for people who sit and type for a living and are at risk of injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome.
The company “is digging into these fine motor skills now, where we first looked at the larger joints, the lower back, the knees and the arms and shoulders; now we’re getting into the weeds a lot more about hand positioning and hand movement.”
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