Corporate-internal vs. national standard - A comparison study of two ergonomics evaluation procedures used in automotive manufacturing

• Manufacturing corporations sometimes use corporate-internal procedures to evaluate and monitor the ergonomic status of the workplace. This article describes an industrial case study in the Swedish automotive sector, where an internally developed evaluation procedure was compared with a procedure based on a Swedish national standard provision. It was found that the national standard procedure tended to give more severe ratings and statistical support shows that the two evaluation procedures are not equivalent. The ability of the methods to identify body segments at risk was also compared. The quantitative comparison was followed up with interviews, where the influence of professional tasks and objectives became evident, as well as the fact that evaluation criteria are quantified differently by the two procedures. The main finding is that unforeseen differences in analysis procedure, criteria of acceptability and levels of detail can cause use-related difficulties for different professional groups when methods are used interchangeably. Relevance to industry: Industrial corporations wishing to monitor ergonomics consistently are advised by the authors to ensure that ratings from internal evaluations are interpreted the same way by all involved personnel, and that they at least have criteria levels equivalent to those of a national standard. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Annan maskinteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Other Mechanical Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

National

ergonomics standards

Automotive manufacturing

Physical ergonomics

ergonomics

Production

Comparison case study

Ergonomics evaluation methods

Comparison case study

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)