General Motors Global Ergonomic Manufacturing Engineering Process Appling consistent strategies and methodologies for success

Abstract

General Motors (GM) ergonomics activity began over 30 years ago as a decentralized, ad-hoc effort in various plants and divisions. In the mid-80’s GM and The United Automobile Workers (UAW) Union participated in an ergonomics pilot project with the University of Michigan (resulting in several published articles). In 1990 UAW-GM- Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) entered into an agreement on Ergonomics. These were the catalyst for Ergonomics Program in General Motors. By the mid-2000’s GM recognized how critical it was to shift more attention to “designing in” ergonomic principles and guidelines early in the vehicle and powertrain development process. Today, our Global Manufacturing Engineering Ergonomics team (Program Ergonomists) consist of individuals around the globe that execute our ergonomics process across several functional groups, as a single voice to ensure: Vehicle and Powertrain Product Engineering (PE) teams implement ergonomic principles in the products we make, and Manufacturing Engineering (ME) teams implement ergonomic principles when launching new programs in the manufacturing plants. Our primary focus is to design out systemic product and manufacturing issues and prevent future ergonomics issues before the product goes into production. GM’s ergonomics process is based on proactive assessments using internal and external ergonomic tools, research, and guidelines.