The New Working Life and Ergonomic Implications

Abstract

Recent reviews of the literature indicate that occupational ergonomic interventions for musculoskeletal health in general imply a low impact (Westgaard and Winkel, 1997; Westgaard and Winkel, this symposium). One reason may be that ergonomic interventions often change a minor fraction of the problem only; it may focus for example workstation and tool design or individual factors such as health education or relaxation training. More comprehensive changes are usually performed by another group of stakeholders, the ‘production planners’ (including management). Their work is governed by prevalent production models in the company and the local culture. In fact, their work may imply more fundamental ergonomic changes than the interventions introduced by the ergonomists, and may even overrule traditional ergonomic improvements (see below). Furthermore, production planners rarely perceive themselves as ergonomists nor have any ergonomic experience. The present paper focuses some issues of prevalent production models which may have implications for the mechanical exposure and thus for the occupational musculoskeletal health ofthe staff.