IRSST - Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail

Practices and coordination between engineers, preventionists and ergonomists during design projects

Abstract

In ergonomics, “taking into consideration the operators’ actual activities (production and maintenance) and their impacts on efficiency and safety” during design is a central aspect: designing production facilities means designing “work situations” for these operators. However, this indirect approach upstream from prevention is still not very widespread in companies. To offset this deficiency, knowledge about the favourable and unfavourable factors for taking work situations into consideration during design is necessary.

From this standpoint, the authors examined the practices of design engineers in a consulting engineering firm and a client, interacting with resources in operations, including plant engineers. They wanted to understand how these engineers take into consideration the real future use of the designed installations and project their impacts on efficiency and safety. The report describes the consideration given to these concerns through those related to the project’s constraints (technical performance, costs and schedules), as well as the determinants of this practice. The main conclusion is that no institutional or organizational requirement obliges engineers to take work situations specifically and rigorously into consideration during design, or prepares them for it. The report is mainly intended for managers, engineers, ergonomists and preventionists.

Additional Information

Type: Project
Number: 0099-4450
Status: Completed
Year of completion: 2010
Team:
  • Fernande Lamonde (Université Laval)
  • Lyse Langlois (Université Laval)
  • Alain Vinet (Université Laval)
  • Jean-Guy Richard (IRSST)