The team included members from the truck plants in Blainville and Bourg-en-Bresse in France, Ghent in Belgium and Tuve in Sweden. Together they found a new way of integrating safety and ergonomics in a big project.
They studied what could be done to improve ergonomics and safety in production within the plants in Europe and has managed to prevent employees being affected by future work related cumulative trauma disorders. Not only by improving workstations but also to create common tools that can be used further on.
“The project contributed strongly to reduce the manufacturing cost. The approach, now implemented in the plants in Europe will be implemented also within the rest of the truck plants in the world, and ultimately within the whole Volvo Group”, said Maria Rosenkrantz, Senior Vice President, Human Resources Group Trucks Operations.
One example from the project was the installation of an engine lift in the assembly in Ghent. The operators don’t have to push the engine forward in the line anymore, nor do they have to crouch to reach it during assembly.
