Faculty Profile

Bradley Joseph

Bradley S Joseph, MPH, MS, MS, PhD

  • Lecturer, Occupational Ergonomics

Dr. Bradley Joseph PhD joined Ford Motor Company in June 1988 as the Ford Corporate Ergonomist. Before retiring from Ford, Brad managed The Virtual Assembly Engineering Methods Group within Powertrain Manufacturing Engineering. His duties include design and development of Powertrain assembly lines during the early engineering design phases. In addition, his department coordinates engineering teams to design, develop and assess new assembly systems and workstations for safety, labor workload, ergonomics, material handing and product feasibility before systems are built.

Prior to taking on that role, Brad managed the Powertrain Ergonomics and Core Industrial Engineering Teams. This team taught ergonomics to engineers, assessed jobs on the plant floor and in the early engineering design, monitored and tracked labor for competitive reporting and developed standards for setting labor targets.

Brad started at Ford in the Corporate Occupational Safety and Health Office where he held positions as Corporate Occupational Safety and Health manager, Corporate Ergonomics and Safety Process Manager and Corporate Ergonomist. In those positions, he worked with the UAW-Ford National Joint Committee on Health and Safety and together, developed materials, standards and assisted in the implementation of the UAW-Ford Ergonomics Process in UAW represented locations. In addition, he was involved in developing systems and processes within Ford to improve Incident Investigation, Engineering Design Standards, and auditing of Health and Safety Processes.

  • PhD, Interdepartmental degree between Industrial and Operations Engineering and EHS, 1986
  • MS, University of Michigan, Industrial Hygiene, 1986
  • MS, University of Michigan, IOE, 1986
  • MPH, University of Michigan, Epidemiology, 1980
  • BS, University of Miami (FL), 1978

Professor Joseph's primary research interest was reviewing jobs in real-time and assessing risk. In addition, Professor Joseph was actively involved in using 3D tools to design and assess workplaces prior to final design and build.

Drinkaus, P., Sesek, R., Bloswick, D., Bernard, T., Walton, B., Joseph, B., Reeve, G., Counts, J.H. "Comparison of Ergonomic Risk Assessment Outputs from Rapid Upper Limb Assessment and the Strain Index for Tasks in Automotive Assembly Plants", Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation, 21(2), 165-172, 2003.

"Corporate Ergonomics Programme at Ford Motor Company." Applied Ergonomics. Joseph, Bradley S. 34 (2003) 23-28

"Manufacturing Ergonomics", Maynard's Industrial Engineering Handbook. Joseph, Bradley S., Kilduff, Helen R., Bloswick, Don S., 5th Edition, 2001.

"Analysis of Jobs for Control of Upper Extremity Cumulative Trauma Disorders." Armstrong, Thomas J.; Joseph, B.S.; C. Woolley. In Proceedings of The 1984 International Conference on Occupational Ergonomics, Toronto, Canada, May, 1984.

"Investigation of Cumulative Trauma Disorders in a Poultry Processing Plant." American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal 43(2): 103-116, 1982. Armstrong, Thomas, J.; Foulke, James; Joseph, Bradley S.; S. Goldstein.

Areas of Expertise: Occupational Health