EqualityAMPlan
Initial Situation
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) cause more than one third of all work-related illness costs in Austria. According to relevant studies, MSDs are often due to physically heavy work, repetitive activities or forced postures. These stress factors frequently occur in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector. In Styria, almost all employees in the production sector are employed by SMEs, which is why the prevention of MSDs in this sector is of great importance.
General measures for the prevention of MSDs include technical, organizational and personal measures. Recently, this familiar range of measures has also been supplemented by new approaches from the field of Industry 4.0. Here, the term Work 4.0 refers to the people-related view of the subject. In the course of Work 4.0, special attention is paid to the individual support and relief of employees through innovative technologies and assistance systems. The technology of exoskeletons in particular could make a significant contribution here if workers are familiar with it and use it regularly and purposefully.
Goal
The research project aims to minimize health risks for employees in the Styrian production sector and to sustainably promote their physical health.
The defined project goals are (1) the determination of the suitability as well as the relief effect of different exoskeletons for the Styrian industry (with focus on SMEs); (2) the establishment of a training infrastructure (ExoLab) and the development of a concept for measuring the relief effect of exoskeletons; and (3) the development of training concepts for an ergonomic and age-appropriate work design and support by means of physical assistance systems and the pilot-like implementation of the training concept with Styrian AK members.
Procedure
In a first step, different assistive technologies will be investigated in operational case studies with different companies regarding their practical suitability. In order to evaluate the performance of assistance systems for supporting workers, real production environments and problems from (Styrian) industry are required. In the case studies, workers are accompanied for one working day. An evaluation of the effects is planned by means of qualitative surveys and quantitative measurement methods.
Subsequently, the problems and application requirements identified in the field studies will be transferred into exemplary use cases and implemented in the ExoLab as a training environment. The ExoLab, as an isolated test environment for the achievable relief per use case, shall show how the technologies can be applied under ideal laboratory conditions and which benefits can be achieved in this idealized environment.
Finally, a modular training concept consisting of theoretical and practical parts will be created and adapted to the existing infrastructure. The practical part of the concept will be set up in the ExoLab in order to be able to respond flexibly to the needs of the companies. The aim of the training is to familiarize practitioners with various methods for identifying and assessing physical stress in the workplace and then taking appropriate countermeasures based on this assessment. A focus will be placed on stress situations in which the use of exoskeletons is reasonable and feasible.
