EME
European Month of Ergonomics
October 2010
Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
What is EME 2010 ?
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European month of ergonomics (EME) is the yearly campaign for
promotion of ergonomics in Europe
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EME is initiated by the FEES, Federation of European Ergonomic
Societies, and implemented by the national ergonomics societies
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EME 2010 supports the yearly Healthy Workplace -campaign of
OSHA, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.
In 2010-2011 the topic of this campaign is:
Safe maintenance
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EME 2010 focuses on ergonomics of maintenance:
Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
Maintenance – a high risk activity
Our environment and equipment –
buildings, workplaces, machines,
vehicles etc. - are planned mainly for
their main purpose – not for
maintenance
Maintenance may take place anywhere
- not always in well designed and
organized workplaces
Maintenance takes often place in
dangerous environments and
processes – e.g. power plants,
chemical industry, electronic systems
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
Typical to maintenance activity
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Maintenance procedures are often poorly planned
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Maintenance experts take seldom part in the design of systems – real
requirements of maintenance are easily ignored
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Maintenance personnel are not always familiar with the local
circumstances and hazards
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Maintenance is often carried out in parallel with other activities, e.g.
the production process – hazardous situations are evident
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Maintenance is not a routine activity – unexpected situations occur
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
What is ergonomics?
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Ergonomics is knowledge and skills for fitting the environment,
equipment and activities to people (for IEA1 definition of ergonomics, see
www.fees-network.org)
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The aim is both to improve well-being of people and to enhance
productivity of systems
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Ergonomics is optimally considered in the design processes, for
proactive and cost-effective application
- With the help of ergonomics, good work environments
can be created!
1
IEA – International Ergonomics Association, www.iea.org
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
Fields of ergonomics
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For practical application of ergonomics, the following subfields are
identified:
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physical ergonomics – e.g. postures and movements, physical
workload, manual material handling, workplace design
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cognitive (or mental) ergonomics – e.g. information processing,
mental workload, human-computer interface, planning of given
information
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organizational ergonomics – e.g. consideration of work
organization, work processes and working hours, development of
work activity
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
Ergonomics for maintenance
- Ergonomics is a key to safe maintenance!
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Ergonomics makes maintenance lighter, more fluent and more
acceptable – and safer
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Proper ergonomics design takes account of the life-cycle of systems:
besides their daily operation, also assembly, maintenance, cleaning,
reparation, renovation and dismantling
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By following the ergonomics design principles, guidelines and
procedures, given in European ergonomics standards (EN),
maintenance conditions and activities can be optimized to the
worker/operator
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See the following examples of ergonomics considerations in
maintenance activity – presented in order of their nature, physical,
cognitive or organizational >>>
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
Physical aspects of maintenance 1
Physical problems in maintenance work:
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working in unfavorable locations (e.g. in high places, in narrow spaces)
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working in awkward postures
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insufficient space for the hand movements or seeing
-
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excessive force required for operations
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lack of free maintenance space
e.g. in changing of components, in opening valves
excessive physical workload in some tasks
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e.g. changing pumps without hoisting equipment
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poor lighting and thermal conditions, high noise and vibrations
levels
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hazards, e.g. mechanical, electric, chemical
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
Physical aspects of maintenance 2
Guidelines for physical working conditions exist, e.g.:
European ergonomics (and safety) standards1 for the design of e.g.:
- passageways and stairs (EN ISO 14122-series)
- acceptable postures and forces (EN-1005-series)
- access openings, for the whole body and body parts (EN 547-series)
- environmental factors (lighting, temperature etc.) (e.g. EN 12464, EN ISO 11399)
1 standards
are distributed by the national associations for standardization
- for the list of EN ergonomics standards, see also
http://www.cen.eu/cen/Sectors/TechnicalCommitteesWorkshops/CENTechnicalCommittees/P
ages/Standards.aspx?param=6104&title=CEN/TC%20122
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
Physical aspects of maintenance 3
In example, to ease physical load and to enhance safety:
- design and locate the checkpoints and maintenance objects to minimize
moving distances and to facilitate easy and safe maintenance
- use proper equipment to move, and to reach maintenance points
- use proper tools to perform the maintenance tasks
example 1:
a typical
poor
posture
example 2:
a support
for the
operator
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
Cognitive aspects of maintenance 1
Cognitive (or mental) problems of maintenance work:
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visually poor displays and symbols, text not legible in varying
environment
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use of maintenance equipment not intuitive
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maintenance procedures not logical, memorable or controllable
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instructions not easy-to-understand
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disturbance situations poorly instructed or guided
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other activities around, attention directed elsewhere
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
Cognitive aspects of maintenance 2
Guidelines for cognitive consideration of the equipment
and activities exist, e.g.:
European ergonomics standards1 for the design of e.g.:
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displays and textual information (e.g. character size) (EN 894-series)
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presentation of information (EN 894-series)
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human work activities in regard to human cognition (EN 894-series)
-
human work activities in order to control mental workload
(EN ISO 10075-series)
1 standards
are distributed by the national associations for standardization
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
Cognitive aspects of maintenance 3
In example, to improve cognitive
performance and to ease
mental workload
- plan proper visual information
- plan logical procedures
- plan reliable and safe operation
example:
information
of the
balance
point of an
object to be
lifted
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
Organizational aspects of maintenance 1
Organizational problems of maintenance:
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inappropriate division of tasks between the operator and the machine
– e.g. lack of equipment for lightening heavy tasks
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inappropriate division of tasks between operators – unbalanced
workload
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inappropriate working hours (shifts, extensive work periods) – reduced
physical and mental performance
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poor communication between operators
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poor guidance of the operators
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
Organizational aspects of maintenance 2
Apply ergonomics design principles1 for organizing work:
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plan the work tasks properly
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organize the jobs to avoid overload of single operators
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ensure good communication and collaboration between all operators
in the site – use various channels, e.g. intra, papers, speech in
meetings, introduction of maintenance personnel
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require safety knowledge from maintenance operators
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give guidance to maintenance operators about local risks
1 for
ergonomics design principles, see EN ISO 6385 and EN 614-series
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
Ergonomics approach and methods
Guidelines not enough - ergonomics design approach also
important:
Participation and collaboration in design
- e.g. consideration of the view, experience and knowledge of
maintenance experts and maintenance operators
Study of real work
- all possible details can be observed by studying existing maintenance
activities
Experimental design by models and tests
- critical situations can be tested by simulations of operations e.g. at the
workplace or with the help of models
Maintenance activity vary a lot – to have the picture of the activity, and
to make appropriate measures, use ergonomics design approach!
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
Ergonomics is beneficial
With the help of ergonomics knowledge and ergonomics approach,
the maintenance conditions and activities inherently become good for
the operator and good for the organization:
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better satisfaction, motivation and commitment of the operator
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lower rate of accidents and fewer sick leaves
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less disturbancies and losses due to human error
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better quality, less careless work
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fluent and cost-effective maintenance, right operations in the correct
way, in a minimum time, with minimum effort
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by proper ergonomics design, less need for corrections later, less
costs of late changes
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
- TOWARDS EME 2011 - examples & experiences
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Look around you and you will see a lot of good or bad examples of
maintenance conditions or activities
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PLEASE REPORT those to the Communication and Promotion
Committee of the FEES !
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This year 2010 EME is an introduction to the topic – the next year 2011
EME is focusing on practical applications of maintenance
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Therefore, experiences from the national ergonomics societies (from the
researchers, ergonomists, occupational health and safety specialists,
operators etc.) are welcome
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Please forward your contribution (a comment, suggestion, example,
report, review etc.), to the chair of the Committee, Tommaso Bellandi
tommasobellandi@gmail.com
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance
Thank you
Let us make this world safer and healthier
place to work and live!
Let us make it with the help of ERGONOMICS!
Thank you for your interest!
The FEES-campaign European Month of Ergonomics to
promote ergonomics in Europe
FEES – Federation of European Ergonomics Societies
www.fees-network.org
EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance