Basi and MTM pull together when it comes to good work design.
More than 80 organizations and institutions in Germany work together in the Federal Association for Safety and Health at Work (Basi). MTM ASSOCIATION e. V. is a member and has always taken part in Basi events, including A+A, the world’s leading trade fair for occupational safety and medicine, the integrated specialist congress and the information series “Basi im Dialog”. During a conversation at the headquarters of the MTM ASSOCIATION e. V. in Hamburg emphasized Basi Managing Director Dr. Christian Felten and Dr. Thomas Finsterbusch, head of the MTM Academy, the common intersection when it comes to occupational safety.
The Basi sees it as its task to improve the situation at work in every respect with all its members – in physical as well as psychological things. “The latter in particular will become increasingly important for sustainable occupational safety in the future,” says Felten. The MTM ASSOCIATION e. V. focuses on the planning and design of human work. The focus is on the description and evaluation of manual activities and the design of a workplace that is as safe as possible from a health perspective. “With our new process building block system MTM-HWD®, we already have the description of the physical stress at the workplace in the MTM analysis,” explained Finsterbusch.
MTM-HWD® records significantly more influencing variables than previous process building block systems and thus enables the biomechanical and temporal evaluation in just one step. “As a result, the quality of the description of human work has increased immensely and MTM users can make an even better contribution to keeping their employees healthy,” says Finsterbusch. “From my own experience, I can say that in occupational safety and health, little is known about the potential of using MTM-HWD® in the digital planning of human work and the resulting opportunities for cooperation,” added the manager the MTM Academy.
Involve employees and social partners at an early stage
The discussion partners also agree that it is extremely important for the success of the measures to involve employees and social partners in the evaluation and planning process at an early stage, to make decisions transparent and thus comprehensible, and thus to contribute to a sustainable positive development in the company. “According to the law, the risk assessment should have been carried out before the work is started for the first time. I always advise companies to involve the accident insurance institutions in the run-up to the planning of workplaces,” said Felten. Then you don’t have any problems afterwards with making improvements when the supervisor visits.
Incidentally, it is better and entirely within the meaning of the Occupational Health and Safety Act to speak of “assessment of working conditions” instead of “risk assessment”. According to Felten, prevention means more than just considering the hazards, but comparing all aspects of safety and health at work.
“De-stress from work”
When it comes to prevention, the Basi managing director at MTM runs open doors. Because the unique selling point of the MTM process language is its preventive function. Already in the early phase of the product development process, quantitative statements can be made about the quality of the workflows and processes, about their efficiency and ergonomic quality. No other time management method can do that. For Felten, there is also the fact that good work design also leads to “relief from work”, which in turn has a positive effect on mental stress at work. “Time for prevention is very important – the MTM principle is there!”, says Felten.
Prevention new, i.e. Felten also believes that thinking from the perspective of prospective work planning before the start of production (SOP) and in relation to possible damage events is an interesting topic at the A+A 2023 specialist congress. A session by pioneers of digital work planning for companies is under discussion and institutions interested in the potential of digital planning of human work. And there are also some points of contact at international level with the organization “International Social Security Association (ISSA)” for the worldwide promotion of occupational safety and health protection and the international partner network One-MTM.