No matter if an employee is assigned to an office, a lab/test facility, production, shipping, or any of our other work environments, ergonomic principles and standards are applied to help minimize incidents stemming from workplace configuration and/or repetitive motion. For example, Seagate has online ergonomic self-assessment tools available for office employees and, when required, professional ergonomic evaluations are provided. In the manufacturing areas, we have developed a process to integrate EHS requirements into our factory equipment designs. For manufacturing equipment purchases, the equipment is evaluated against the SEMI ergonomic standard (SEMI S8). For existing equipment, Seagate is implementing workstation assessments with improvements targeted to reduce ergonomic risk factors.

One example of our programs and projects in this area is:

Wafer Box Redesign (Normandale, Minnesota, USA)

A cross-functional team was established to resolve ergonomic issues associated with a box for transporting wafers, which was causing wrist strain during handling. Early analysis of the ergonomic issues pointed toward the need to design a new box. Concept designs were gathered from many involved parties and refined with feedback from surveys, design team suggestions, ergonomic input, and a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis.

While working to resolve employees' safety and handling issues, the design team also incorporated several design improvements to improve overall business efficiency and reduce costs by more than 75 percent. While this was not the only factor, this project contributed significantly to the decrease in ergonomics injuries shown in the following chart.