The degree to which workers are protected from physical harm. This includes both physical and physiological harm. Jobs with high levels of safety prevent short-term injury from accidents, prevent long-term effects, such as repetitive stress injuries, and allow workers sufficient time off to maintain good health. 

Improvement Action: Improve workplace ergonomics and environmental factors

Source:

P.G. Gyllenhammar, People at Work, Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1977 p 86

  • GWT Analysts Summary:  Continuous improvement of workplace conditions was the goal at Volvo's Torslanda plant. The improvement strategy was to mechanize dirty, heavy, noisy jobs wherever possible. If am undesirable job couldn't be automated, it would be changed and improved.
  • Excerpt from text: “Gradual change was the goal at Torslanda, and this has been achieved. Two parallel strategies were developed for the big factory. First was to mechanize wherever it was feasible to do away with dirty, heavy, noisy jobs. Second was to change the job where it couldn’t be automated. p86

 

Improvement Action: Ensure workspace accommodates workers of all levels of abilities

Source:

P.G. Gyllenhammar, People at Work, Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1977 p 98

  • GWT Analysts Summary:  At Volvo's Torslanda plant, the management used group work to help accommodate workers of all abilities. Workers would move from group to group until suitable work could be found that matched the worker's ability.
  • Excerpt from text: “An effort is being made in Sweden today to find jobs suitable for people with handicaps of various kinds. Group working gives us a good opportunity to do this. Disabled people travel from group to group evaluating the work and discussing with members which jobs might be done  by handicapped people. Finding such jobs is specifically the task of the internal employment agencies.” p98

 

Improvement Action: Mechanize, automate or otherwise avoid dirty, heavy, noisy work

Source:

P.G. Gyllenhammar, People at Work, Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1977 p 104

  • GWT Analysts Summary:  Workplace improvement at Volvo's Torslanda plant was a massive capital venture. The company invested millions in improving the working conditions for employees. Volvo's leadership believed that providing good working conditions was the first step in improvement. After work spaces and processes were improved, workers themselves could organize and execute their work in the most effective ways.
  • Excerpt from text: “In almost every case cooperation and participation began with attention to the physical environment; only as that began to improve did people find it natural to turn their attention to the content of the work itself.” “Over the past five years Volvo has invested around $20 million to improve the physical working environment for employees. This is simply part of the cost of achieving cleaner, more pleasant surroundings. It demonstrates in concrete, visible ways that the company values the people who work for Volvo. But this investment does not create better jobs. It only provides the conditions in which people can work together to organize their work environment in more human ways. So, attention to the physical environment is one initial step Volvo has observed in all its factories.”

 

 

Improvement Action: Rotate workers between tasks during the work day to prevent repetitive motion injuries

Source:

P.G. Gyllenhammar, People at Work, Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1977

  • Excerpt from text: “Job rotation was the opening wedge [to the improvement evolution]. It started around 1964 in the upholstery department, for very practical reasons. Employees complained of sore muscles from doing the same operation over and over. They discovered that if they paired off and traded jobs every day or so, they were able to use different sets of muscles. From that ergonomic, down-to-earth beginning have grown most of the other changes that focus on the quality of work life more generally. Soon the upholsterers (mainly women) were trading among three of four, and the relief from wrist, arm, shoulder and back pains was far greater than anything they had been able to get from the small army of supervisors, doctors, safety specialists, and industrial engineers who had developed methods or mechanical aids to relieve their complaints.”

Improvement Action: Establish a workplace ergonomics council to evaluate and monitor work

Source:

Jurgens, U. (1994). Group work and the reception of Uddevalla in German car industry. In A. Sandberg (Ed.), Enriching Production: Perspectives on Volvo’s Uddevalla Plant as an Alternative to Lean Production (pp. 199-213). Brookfield, VT: Ashgate.

  • GWT Analysts Summary:  German automakers such as Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen established formal policies within the ‘humanization of work’ initiatives being driven by government. At the automakers, efforts focused on reducing stress and strain experienced by workers.