Holger Rademacher

Capability Related Stress Analysis to Support Design of Work Systems

Two complementary studies have been conducted to analyze the effects of the demographic change in the automotive industry.

Modular Concepts for Integrating Ergonomics into Production Processes

It is a major concern of ergonomics to align humanity with economic efficiency. Ergonomic approaches that are introduced after the requests from employees or even worse after the first diagnoses of work-related health problems follow a corrective manner, and therefore cannot fulfill this concern. Especially the integration of corrective measures into completed work design is in most cases difficult and high priced. Absence due to illness of staff members is connected to premium rates, breaking-in costs of new staff members, capital expenditure, insurance contributions of possible unused capital equipment, or increased costs for planning and controlling on the side of management. In addition, there are costs of potential production downtimes and quality defects (LANDAU 2002). But even the reintegration into occupational environment of a sick staff member is related to costs when the employee has to be introduced to a new or redesigned workplace. Although, there are many companies (especially small and medium-sized enterprises, SME) that lack of methods and concepts for the integration of effective structures for a preventive-oriented health and safety management. Hence, occupational and outside occupational stakeholders have to have methods and management instruments that support re-orientation at new task areas. To fulfill the demand for conceptual instead of corrective ergonomics it is necessary to align ergonomic methods and findings for analysis and design of work systems with the established processes in companies for product development and production planning.