A Poisson model for work-related musculoskeletal disorder cost estimation

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) incidence time-interval analysis can provide early indication of a change in WMSDs and provides a budgeting tool for WMSD control. This paper documents research into WMSDs occurring at a used garment sorting facility, with a focus on utilizing the Poisson distribution model and associated time-interval analysis for modeling WMSD occurrence. The resulting WMSDs impact the organization's production capabilities and add both direct and indirect costs to the target company's sorting processes. This research focuses on investigating the applicability of the Poisson distribution to model the target company's history of WMSDs in order to determine an appropriate value for the rate of WMSD per unit time-interval (lambda), and subsequently applying the model in estimating near-future WMSD costs. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.