EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance 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 ? -European month of ergonomics (EME) is the yearly campaign for promotion of ergonomics in Europe -EME is initiated by the FEES, Federation of European Ergonomic Societies, and implemented by the national ergonomics societies -EME 2010 supports the yearly Healthy Workplace -campaign of OSHA, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. In the topic of this campaign is: Safe maintenance -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 -Maintenance procedures are often poorly planned -Maintenance experts take seldom part in the design of systems – real requirements of maintenance are easily ignored -Maintenance personnel are not always familiar with the local circumstances and hazards -Maintenance is often carried out in parallel with other activities, e.g. the production process – hazardous situations are evident -Maintenance is not a routine activity – unexpected situations occur

EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance What is ergonomics? -Ergonomics is knowledge and skills for fitting the environment, equipment and activities to people (for IEA 1 definition of ergonomics, see -The aim is both to improve well-being of people and to enhance productivity of systems -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,

EME European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics – a Key to Safe Maintenance Fields of ergonomics -For practical application of ergonomics, the following subfields are identified: - physical ergonomics – e.g. postures and movements, physical workload, manual material handling, workplace design - cognitive (or mental) ergonomics – e.g. information processing, mental workload, human-computer interface, planning of given information - 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! -Ergonomics makes maintenance lighter, more fluent and more acceptable – and safer -Proper ergonomics design takes account of the life-cycle of systems: besides their daily operation, also assembly, maintenance, cleaning, reparation, renovation and dismantling -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 -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: -working in unfavorable locations (e.g. in high places, in narrow spaces) -working in awkward postures -insufficient space for the hand movements or seeing - lack of free maintenance space -excessive force required for operations - e.g. in changing of components, in opening valves -excessive physical workload in some tasks - e.g. changing pumps without hoisting equipment -poor lighting and thermal conditions, high noise and vibrations levels -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) standards 1 for the design of e.g.: -passageways and stairs (EN ISO 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 Pages/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: -visually poor displays and symbols, text not legible in varying environment -use of maintenance equipment not intuitive -maintenance procedures not logical, memorable or controllable -instructions not easy-to-understand -disturbance situations poorly instructed or guided -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 standards 1 for the design of e.g.: -displays and textual information (e.g. character size) (EN 894-series) -presentation of information (EN 894-series) -human work activities in regard to human cognition (EN 894-series) -human work activities in order to control mental workload (EN ISO 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: -inappropriate division of tasks between the operator and the machine – e.g. lack of equipment for lightening heavy tasks -inappropriate division of tasks between operators – unbalanced workload -inappropriate working hours (shifts, extensive work periods) – reduced physical and mental performance -poor communication between operators -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 principles 1 for organizing work: -plan the work tasks properly -organize the jobs to avoid overload of single operators -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 -require safety knowledge from maintenance operators -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: -better satisfaction, motivation and commitment of the operator -lower rate of accidents and fewer sick leaves -less disturbancies and losses due to human error -better quality, less careless work -fluent and cost-effective maintenance, right operations in the correct way, in a minimum time, with minimum effort -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 examples & experiences -Look around you and you will see a lot of good or bad examples of maintenance conditions or activities -PLEASE REPORT those to the Communication and Promotion Committee of the FEES ! -This year 2010 EME is an introduction to the topic – the next year 2011 EME is focusing on practical applications of maintenance -Therefore, experiences from the national ergonomics societies (from the researchers, ergonomists, occupational health and safety specialists, operators etc.) are welcome -Please forward your contribution (a comment, suggestion, example, report, review etc.), to the chair of the Committee, Tommaso Bellandi

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