The Need to Present Actual Costs After an Ergonomic Intervention

Abstract

The importance of costs in Ergonomics has been demonstrated through several studies over the last years. Generally the studies tend to be biased to financially justify the ergonomic intervention, using estimated initial data. This paper aims to demonstrate that there is a need for a new cost verification at the end of the intervention, in order to present the actual values to the top management of the company, making the technical report more complete and useful to the several company’s departments, and specifically the accounting and financial ones. The applied methodology was adapted from Lahiri et al. (2005) and Mafra (2004) in a case study in the food industry. The estimate presented by the team at the beginning of the work was R$ 30,380 but at the end it turned out amounting to R$ 36,479, an increase of 13%. This variation, in addition to being significant on its own, is relevant for several departments of the company, since it facilitates other decisions, as well as allowing the recognition of the values in the accounting and financial statements.