Newequipment 76 Plant Operations Workers Assembling Engine
Newequipment 76 Plant Operations Workers Assembling Engine
Newequipment 76 Plant Operations Workers Assembling Engine
Newequipment 76 Plant Operations Workers Assembling Engine
Newequipment 76 Plant Operations Workers Assembling Engine

Pump Up the Jams: Workplace Wellness Dances to a New Beat

April 2, 2015
Pump Up the Jams: Workplace Wellness Dances to a New Beat

Honda taps into uses the power of music to shore up safety on the line. 

Music blares from the overhead speakers as the first shift files into Honda's Timmonsville, South Carolina, plant.

Every day, before the daily production meetings, before the lines begin to run, employees exercise together for two solid minutes, working their hands, their shoulders.

Every day, Honda of South Carolina's manufacturing facility reverberates with the beat of the music.

The exercise, Wendell Hughes, manager of environmental, health and safety for Honda of South Carolina, says, serves as a warmup for employees getting ready for their shifts.

Much like runners stretch before a race, moderate exercise readies workers for the intense pace of the production floor.

With Honda operating with 52-second process times, the risk for ergonomic injuries is high.

Yet, this Honda plant hasn't recorded an ergonomic injury in two years, a success Hughes partially attributes to the morning exercise.

"It's just a great way to start the morning off," says Hughes, who introduced the idea after seeing it in action at one of the company's Japanese facilities. "We've spent zero dollars on ergonomic injuries in two years."

The morning workout is just one part of Honda's workplace wellness strategy.

"Wellness, it just makes sense," says Hughes. "If our associates aren't healthy, it's going to be difficult to produce a quality product."
Read more on workplace wellness on EHS Today.

EHS Today is an NED companion site within Penton's Manufacturing & Supply Chain Group.