Innovation is a key part of any industry or sector. No matter where you go, innovation is valued, because of all the advantages it gives.
This is also true when it comes to ergonomics. After all, ergonomics is a field like any other, and to get better in it, you'd have to come up with newer, more creative ideas to keep moving forward.
Why Do You Need Innovation in Ergonomics?
Innovation is necessary if you want to add value to your offering – whether that is a business offering, ergonomics or even something in the creative field, like art. At the end of the day, you don't want to be stagnating, and to keep going up, innovation is necessary.
Innovation is also important if you want to stay ahead of your competition. Of course, with workplace ergonomics there is only so much competition you'd have to deal with, but doing better at ergonomics means that competing businesses can actually help indirectly – through attracting new talent and making your employees happy.
Innovation is also necessary in our current world; technological evolutions are faster than ever, and that means there are always newer ways to go about your ergonomic solutions. It also means that newer technologies will keep bringing up newer ergonomic problems, and you'd have to be innovative to come up with solutions to them!
OF course, innovating means you'd have to come up with new ideas to improve safety and ergonomics, which isn't easy. When you've been doing things a certain way for a long time, it's a lot easier and more convenient to stick to it.
But the core purpose of ergonomics is to solve the problems of pain and discomfort caused by workplace setups. Without ergonomics, workers' health and safety are at risk, as well as their productivity and quality of work.
In ergonomics, innovation takes on two major roles: creating more effective solutions, and understanding the problem at hand at a much deeper level.
Further innovation in the field can lead to reducing costs much further while improving comfort and performance at the same time.
Innovation in Ergonomics: How to Go About It?
A key part of innovation is creativity. That is, coming up with new, original ideas to do much better than what is being done right now. Without the ideas to drive innovation, there will probably be no change, either.
But innovation is also not about simply sitting back and waiting for ideas to come to you on their own. There are plenty of ways you can approach something and get ideas from it.
New Perspectives
A major part of creativity and innovation in general is to look at the same, existing problems from a new perspective. When we've been dealing with something a certain way, it is rather difficult to switch to something brand new. In some cases, we don't even realize that we're clinging to the same kind of solutions, either!
To get new ideas around how to solve a problem, you have to first look at it from a new perspective. This will help you look at the same situation with a brand-new approach, and find solutions you wouldn't have found otherwise.
Getting Maximum Information
Sometimes, we tend to jump into solutions to problems without looking at the whole scenario. To solve a problem at its root, you have to consider all the information available about it, rather than simply looking at what is on the surface.
This is especially true when it comes to ergonomics. Since ergonomics is about safety and health, you have to consider the root cause of the pain or discomfort to really address it, rather than simply propose possible solutions that may not cater to the actual problem.
Taking Others' Input
As employers, it is necessary to get input from workers on how they feel about your current ergonomic setup and how it can be improved. This once again ties in with the idea of new perspectives – your own approach to a problem will be limited by the scope of your perspective, and to some extent, you will not understand the problem as well as those who are directly affected by it.
Therefore, by getting input from your employees' around how they feel workplace ergonomics can be improved, you can come up with better and more innovative ideas to make your ergonomic efforts even more effective.
Don't Rush Your Ideas
When a new idea comes to you, it is easy to get swept away by it and rush to put it in motion. But not every new plan or idea is a good solution to a problem, and in your excitement, you may have missed out on some major loopholes or problems, too.
When you come up with a new plan, it is best to sit on it for a while to let it mature. Take input from your employees around whether they think the plan would work or not, and try to figure out any problems with it that may arise in the future.
By allowing the idea to mature, you can consider it from every angle and come up with ways to improve on it as well.
Reverse Engineering
A great way to come up with new, innovative ideas in ergonomics is to take the ideal situation and reverse engineer it. For example, it is very much possible that the first person to come up with standing desks had first considered the ideal – a desk that allowed you to sit and stand while you work.
From here, they could have gone to work using what existed – a desk – and making adjustments to it to make it work as a standing desk. Then, as technology progressed, we moved from manual adjustments to motorized ones, and got the standing desks we know of today.
At the end of the day, innovation is necessary to make improvements in the workplace, particularly when it comes to ergonomics.
But until this innovation comes along, we do have to stick to some of the things we already have – which were innovations of their time – to keep the workplace a safe space for employees to work in.
Pro Plus Standing Desk
Flexispot's Pro Plus Standing Desk E7 is one such innovation. While standing desks are nothing new at this point, Flexispot is consistently making improvements to their ergonomic furniture to make it suitable for workplace – and home – use.
The Pro Plus Desk E7 has a height range between 22.8 and 48.4 inches, which makes it perfect for use by adults and kids alike.
The desk uses a carbon steel structure for its base rather than the more commonplace aluminum, which gives the desk its added durability and sturdiness. It is also built with thicker leg columns for the same purpose, and the embedded-installed junction also helps make it more stable.
The E7 is stable regardless of what angle or height you set it at, so you can be sure that all your multitasking is done without worrying about wobbling – whether you're working, or gaming, or simply sitting at the desk and writing. The desk also has a weight lifting capacity of about 350 lbs, so you don't have to worry about your devices adding too much load to the desk either.
Since the Pro Plus E7 is a standing desk, it comes with the height adjustment option you'd want from a standing desk. Again, the height range is wide enough to include kids and adults. It comes with a dual motor that can help with the transition between heights, and you don't have to go through the tedious process of shifting the desk to suit your needs.
The advanced keypad allows you to program your height preferences so you only have to put in the numbers and the desk will adjust on its own. You also don't have to worry about the steadiness of the desk as it moves. All your devices and things will stay in place even while the height is being adjusted.
If you're worried about space, the E7 frame is flexible enough to be paired with different desktop sizes, so you can easily fit the desk within the smallest of spaces.
It also comes with an embedded cable tray to hide all your cables and wires across your workstation, making sure it looks clean and decluttered.
This desk, and others like it, are all products of creativity and innovation. As the field of ergonomics keeps growing and improving, newer products will keep coming and offering more efficient ergonomic solutions at much lower costs.
For now, Flexispot is providing ergonomic furniture to resolve the problems that have already been identified.
