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A Lowe's Hardware Store Is Trialling Exoskeletons To Give Workers a Helping Hand (theverge.com)
slew writes: Okay, this isn't Aliens 2, but hardware chain Lowe's is "outfitting employees with a simple exoskeleton to help them on the job," reports The Verge. "The company has partnered with Virginia Tech to develop the technology, which makes lifting and moving heavy objects easier. The non-motorized exoskeletons are worn like a harness, with carbon fiber rods acting as artificial tendons -- bending when the wearer squats, and springing back when they stand up. Lowe's has issued four of the custom-built suits to employees at a store in Christiansburg, Virginia. The equipment has been in use for over a month and the company says early feedback is extremely positive. '[Employees] wear it all day, it's very comfortable, and it makes their job easier,' says Kyle Nel, the director of Lowe's Innovation Labs, adding that Lowe's is working with scientists from Virginia Tech to conduct a proper survey of the technology's usefulness. 'It's early days, but we're doing some major studies,' he says."
If it means keeping manual labor more effective than current or emerging automated technology while improving their overall health and well being, I'd say the answer is yes
Nope... It won't... It provides no additional strength, just support.
This thing is more like wearing a spring... As you squat, the spring makes it easier to push back up... Consider it a reverse squat machine..
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I see new technologies making manual labor less of an effort as categorically good.
If these devices wind up increasing worker injuries on the job, due to increased demands they lift or move around heavy objects? Then that's a management failure ... misusing or misunderstanding the capabilities the device gives people.
Every Lowes store I've been in has at least one person driving a forklift type vehicle around to do most of the moving of really large objects. I don't think that's going to change. This sounds more like an aid for the existing situation where people working on the floor are expected to assist customers carrying purchases out to their vehicle, or getting one specific item for them from a shelf.
Generally this set up is beneficial to the worker as well as the company.
First of all, they tend to get paid more money. Not a straight percent increase - if they do 30% more work, they tend to get 20% more money. Also, the job itself moves closer to skilled labor, among other things.
Secondly, the conversion is rarely exactly equal, and is more often in the favor of the worker. If the machine eases human effort by 34%, they are often expect to work 30% more, but occasionally it goes the other way and they are expected to work 40%. If it goes the other way around, the employees give the machines a bad recommendation saying they don't do what they promise and the company stops using them.
Thirdly, even if that is not the case, the law of regression to the mean makes this helpful. That is, assume you set a goal that only the 20% strongest can achieve. Your employees would range from the top 19% to the top 1%, and the average worker would be in the top 10%, having a 10% 'easy job' factor. The machine gives a 50% increase in power, so now the average employee has a 15% 'easy job' factor.
No guarantee, but the odds are in the employees favor.
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Are you really helping workers if, once given the exoskeleton, you expect them to lift much heavier items more often?
In this case, it looks to me that the benefit to the workers and company is that the device keeps the worker's back straight and enforces good lifting posture. Where I see how it can help some with the load, it's not going to really be that helpful. However, enforcing good posture will be effective in reducing back injuries it will be a huge benefit to both the company (and it's workers compensation insurance costs) and employees.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
And if they fall asleep or die from exhaustion, the endoskeleton will keep on working until the shift is over.
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We don't really know if these things are superior to, equal to, or inferior to the existing back-braces. I imagine that's why Lowe's is only using it in a single store at first. You know, test bed, evaluation, all that good stuff.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not entirely sure about the universe - Einstein