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Faculty of mechanical engineering

Ergonomic design of tact work

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The new research project on the ergonomic design of cycled production work started on 1 March 2021. Together with a cooperation partner from the University Hospital of Tübingen, the IPS investigates possibilities to relieve production workers during manual assembly activities through the use of load alternation.

About half of all production workers in Germany are employed in takt work. Takt work refers to the binding of employees to a predefined takt or cycle time in the execution of their work, after which the work activity to be carried out is repeated.

In addition to the advantage of a possible increase in productivity, the use of takt work also has disadvantageous effects. For example, cycled work is considered a significant risk factor for several work-related illnesses of muscles, tendons or joints, which can lead to the inability of employees to work. The reason for this is the high frequency of repetition of similar movement sequences, which is particularly prevalent with shorter cycle times.

In order to prevent the described illnesses, a new organisational approach to the ergonomic design of cycled activities is investigated in the research project "Integration of activity-specific load alternation to reduce the physical demands during takt work". To this end, experimental studies are carried out in the laboratory of the IPS and evaluated together with the Institute for Occupational Medicine, Social Medicine and Health Services Research (IASV) of the University Hospital Tübingen as cooperation partner.

Within the scope of the study, it is examined to what extent the consideration of load alternations in the design of work systems can contribute to the reduction of physical stress on employees. The characteristic feature of such load alternations is a different or temporally separated loading and unloading of individual muscle groups between activity segments. The project is funded by the German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV).

You can find out more about the content and procedure of the research project here.