Exoskeletons have been promised for a long time, usually illustrated by a powered suit that lets somebody lift enormous weights. What has actually arrived in workplaces is far less dramatic and considerably more useful. The devices being used in warehouses, on production lines and on building sites are mostly passive: frames worn on the body with springs or counterweights that support the arms when working overhead, or take load off the lower back when bending and lifting. No motors, no batteries, no charging, nothing to fail electronically. They cost a fraction of a powered device and they weigh little enough to be worn all day.
The problems they address are specific and recognisable to anyone who does physical work. Working with arms above shoulder height - fitting ceilings, wiring, painting, assembly on an overhead line - is exhausting within minutes and is a well-documented cause of shoulder injury. Repeated bending and lifting through a shift is the most common source of back problems in physical trades. Neither of these is a dramatic accident; both are cumulative, both end careers, and both are extremely expensive for a small business when they happen, in a way that is easy to discount before they do.
The passive approach works because it does not try to do the job. A spring that supports the weight of the arms does not make anybody stronger; it removes the constant static load that causes fatigue, so the worker can do the same job for longer with less damage. That is a modest claim and it is the reason these devices are actually in use while the powered versions remain mostly in trials. A simple mechanism that does one thing reliably and never needs charging fits the reality of a working site, where anything requiring maintenance or a power source tends to end up in a cupboard.
The honest caveats are worth stating. They suit a specific posture, so a device that supports overhead work does nothing for lifting and can be a nuisance when the work changes. They take getting used to and some people dislike wearing them. They are not cheap, though they are in the range of ordinary equipment rather than capital investment. And they do not turn an unsafe task into a safe one - a load too heavy to lift is still too heavy. Where they fit is a narrow and common case: a person doing the same physically punishing posture for hours, most days. For a small business with one or two people in that position, the arithmetic is less about productivity than about whether that person is still doing the work in ten years.