The dual responsibility: the worker at risk and the workplace as a risk--a summary.

Abstract

In industrialized countries there has been a steady trend towards the reduction of the amount of work which can be regarded as ‘heavy’ in the traditional meaning of the word. Many heavy work operations have been wholly or partly mechanized and replaced by jobs which place fresh demands on physical working capacity but require a greater use of other human attributes, such as eyesight, precision and stamina. Because much of today's work is repetitive, carried out in a sitting position and demanding good vision, ergonomics, as a science, has changed in recent years. Formerly, it aimed at eliminating heavy physical work. Now interest centres on optimizing individual work stations, both from the technical and organizational points of view. Poor adjustment between the technical system and the individual not only increases the work load for the person in question, it reduces effectivity at the same time: and effectiveness is productivity. At the Ericsson Group, which develops and manufactures products and systems for handling telephony, data, graphics and text, we have a double responsibility regarding ergonomics. The first is towards our ¦ employees and their working environment: the second is to the products we make. As far as ergonomics in the working environment is concerned, there must be a continual advance in, and acquirement of, knowledge by all those responsible for workstation design and the planning of the actual work—people such as production engineers, managers, supervisors and operators. All should become involved in both the development and acceptance of new methods as they unfold. When we look at the ergonomic responsibility we have for our own products, experience tells us that it is extremely difficult to modify a product after it has been completed We must be able to offer products which, from the very start, have been subjected to maximum ergonomic scrutiny, so that this whole interplay of man, tools, and machines will function. Good ergonomics is good economics; it ensures a healthier staff and thus increases productivity.