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The Current Situation - Safety
Due to the quality and financial effects of job-related injuries, the automobile industry is concerned with job and machine safety assessment. A serious injury, which shuts down a line for several hours, can have a dramatic financial and production impact as most companies are using Just-in-Time-Inventory. As well the assembly lines have been become increasingly automated. As a result of these developments, the automotive industry has become a leading participant in developing machine tool and robotic risk assessment methods.

Workers in the automobile industry face higher rates of injury and illness than in other manufacturing industries. In 2002, work-related injuries and illness for automobile and equipment manufacturing averaged 12.1 per 100 full-time workers. In comparison, the average rate for all manufacturing industries was 7.2 work-related injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers, while the average rate for the private sector overall was 5.3 per 100 full-time workers.

According to the 2004 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index, in 2002 serious work related injuries and illnesses (those that kept the worker of the job for 6 days or more) cost US businesses $49.6 billion. This figure is merely the direct cost paid to the injured employees and their medical care providers; in 1996, Lee Smith of Colorado State University estimated that the indirect costs of workplace injuries were about 20 times the direct cost. The top three serious workplace injuries (those which result in the employee missing 6 days or more) cost US businesses $24.7 billion in 2002 or 49.9% of the $49.6 billion. These three injuries are:

  • Overexertion. These are injuries caused by excessive lifting, pushing, holding, carrying or throwing an object. Overexertion accounted for $13.2 billion or 26.6% of the total financial burden.
  • Falls on the same level. These injuries are caused by slipping and tripping on water, ice, grease, holes and other potential fall hazards and landing on the same level of floor. Injuries from falling on the same level accounted for $6.2 billion or 12.5% of the total financial burden.
  • Bodily Reaction. These injuries are caused by bending, climbing, slipping or tripping without falling. Bodily Reaction injuries accounted for $5.3 billion or 10.8% of the total financial burden.

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