A note from Karil:

I write a lot about catching things early, the aches and pains people push through, the moment before a small problem becomes an injury. But prevention has another half I don’t talk about as often: the work itself. How a job is designed shapes how people move through it, often long before anyone’s attention or effort comes into play.

That’s Mark Anderson’s expertise. Mark is a physical therapist and Certified Professional Ergonomist with more than 35 years spent at the intersection of biomechanics and the production floor. I asked him to share how he sees this work, because designing the job well and noticing strain early aren’t competing ideas. They’re two halves of the same one. Get the design right, and you remove what strain you can. Stay close to your people, and you catch what’s left before it becomes an injury.

Here’s Mark.

About the Author

Mark A. Anderson, MA, PT, CPE, is the principal of ErgoSystems Consulting LLC in Plymouth, MN. A licensed physical therapist turned Certified Professional Ergonomist, Mark has more than 35 years of experience bridging clinical biomechanics and practical workplace design. He is a trusted partner of WorkWell and the developer of the Ergonomics On-Demand! professional training program.

You’ve heard it a hundred times: “We keep telling people to use better body mechanics.” And yet the injuries keep coming. The awkward postures persist. The strains and sprains accumulate.

Here’s what’s actually happening, and why it matters for every employer trying to get ahead of musculoskeletal injury costs.

Design Drives Behavior, Every Time

Imagine a worker assembling components on a surface set at knee height. Watch what happens: they bend at the waist, knees straight, back flexed. Every time. Not because they’re careless or undertrained, but because the workstation design drove them there.

This is one of the foundational principles of ergonomics: Circumstances Predict the Response. When a job is designed a certain way, workers will respond in a predictable, biomechanically costly manner. Automatically, consistently, regardless of how many times you remind them to “be careful.”

Telling workers to stand straighter when the work surface forces them to lean is like throwing a ball into the air and asking it to stay there. You cannot override physical design with verbal reminders.

What This Means for Your Operation

When you see a worker in an awkward posture, the productive question is “What about this setup is putting them in that position?”, not “Why isn’t this person using better body mechanics?”

• Worker leaning forward? Check monitor or task distance and height.

• Shoulder elevation during assembly? Check work surface height relative to the task.

• Repeated forward bending on the line or in the warehouse? Check where parts and materials are stored.

Change the design, and you change the response. Reliably, sustainably, without depending on behavior change that erodes the moment the production floor gets busy.

The Business Case

This principle is why targeted ergonomics investments have a measurable financial return. A rolling mechanic’s stool, a height-adjustable workbench, a repositioned pallet. Low-cost solutions that stay solved. You change the circumstance once; the problem doesn’t come back.

Contrast that with the alternative: repeated training cycles, recurring injuries, workers’ comp claims, and turnover driven by chronic discomfort. Those costs compound and problems do not get solved. A well-designed workstation is different. You invest once, and it keeps paying off.