Ergonomic Change Processes in the Production of an Industrial Company

Abstract

A change process in a Swedish industrial company has been followed during five years. In order to decrease the negative effects of the repetitive manual work, the objective of the change was to achieve more variation in the work activities. A detailed investigation of the work activities and of the musculoskeletal load during work activities was performed. The results were presented for the operators and discussed together in the team. The operators presented many suggestions for improvements. It was decided that a team of three operators should work with a project aimed at designing a new workplace in which one operator could perform all assembly work. Observations, questionnaires and interviews evaluated the change process.

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