Case Study
Workplace design for an employee in quality assurance

The company manufactures products for the automotive industry as a supplier.

The man has spastic paralysis of the arms and legs, which leads to limitations in motor skills, handling and in manual load transport (when lifting and carrying).

The man works for the employer in quality assurance as an inspector.

In the quality assurance department, the inspector works in an air-conditioned measuring room. As an inspector, his tasks include:

• calibrating measuring and testing equipment,
• registering and maintaining stocks of testing equipment (calipers, outside micrometers, gauges, prisms, angles, etc.)
• measuring and testing workpieces according to drawings and
• documenting the results

.
When calibrating calipers and micrometers, gauge blocks are used which can only be joined by stringing together individual gauge blocks. The controller is handicapped when joining the gauge blocks and needs more time to do so. In addition, he finds it difficult to handle and transport the individual measuring and testing equipment.
By using a computer-controlled paternoster or carousel, the handling of the individual measuring and testing equipment could be simplified considerably, since the computer-controlled paternoster enables the targeted removal of the measuring and testing equipment from an ergonomic working height. In addition, the lifting and carrying effort is reduced. The strain on the inspector when removing and separating the measuring and test equipment is reduced by the use of storage boxes which are adapted to the stored goods (measuring and test equipment). A height-adjustable and mobile lifting platform trolley was purchased for transporting the measuring and test equipment (e.g. to test tables). The use of new true-to-size gauge blocks or setting gauges has eliminated the need to assemble measuring and test equipment for calibration.

The work design suitable for disabled people was funded by the Integration and Inclusion Office.