In addition, prevention through design (PTD) has been considered in construction as an important process that enables integrating safety considerations into the design stage and can potentially prevent up to half of construction accidents (Toole and Gambatese 2008). Adoption of PTD can also provide a great opportunity to mitigate occupational health risks, such as WMSDs (Nussbaum et al. 2009; Gambatese et al. 2005; Weinstein et al. 2005; Hecker and Gambatese 2003). However, one of the challenging issues for the PTD approach to health issues is a lack of tools for identifying potential ergonomic risks before actual work during the design phase (Kim et al. 2008; Nussbaum et al. 2009). To address this issue, this study proposes an automated ergonomic analysis framework that identifies and evaluates the awkward worker postures and motions that can be expected to be involved in a proposed workplace design in a three-dimensional (3D) virtual model of the work environment. Integrating ergonomic analysis with visualization of the workplace(1) enables the assessment of clearance,reachability, and visual requirements and postural comfort (Feyen et al. 2000) and (2) facilitates communication of ergonomic concerns and design alternatives early in the design and planning phases or during redesign for process improvement. The proposed framework visualizes and validates ergonomic risks and improvements in the digital environment that will be later applied on the jobsite. As a case study, manual tasks taking place in a construction prefabrication company are investigated for the purpose of modifying the workplace and ensuring improved ergonomic safety.