Design and Usage of an IT-System for workplace management with ergonomic analysis under health protection aspects

Abstract

This article describes an information system for analysis and description of workplaces under the aspects of health protection and ergonomic risks, which is currently being developed at Volkswagenwerk Kassel. The system provides an instrument for matching ergonomic risks of workplaces with work limitations of employees for an efficient assignment of employees to appropriate workplaces. It integrates data from several existing systems and collects additional data. The collection and maintenance of data is accomplished by an analysis team and by the team leaders in the factory. Besides the functional aspects, the following two issues have been solved: minimizing the effort for the collection and maintenance of data by using a hierarchical categorization of the objects of interest and their properties. Secondly, for accomplishing the acceptance and direct benefit for the following user groups (health care, human resource management, and most of all, local supervisors), group-specific graphical user interfaces are provided.