EAWS® (Ergonomic Assessment Worksheet) is the internationally recognized standard for assessing the ergonomic risk of workplace activities. Developed in 2006 in cooperation between the Italian and German MTM Associations and the Technical University of Darmstadt, the method assesses both single and line work stations and is widely used as a standard ergonomic tool in various industries. MTM ASSOCIATION e. V., which has now acquired all rights to EAWS®, is now developing the method further together with the Fondazione Ergo-MTM Italia and partners from science and industry. Prof. Dr. Peter Kuhlang, CEO MTM ASSOCIATION e. V., and Gabriele Caragnano, Operations Director Fondazione Ergo-MTM Italia and PwC Partner, signed the EAWS 2.0 development agreement, which will be kicked off at the end of January 2023.
Workplace design, method planning, time measurement, ergonomics assessment in one process
“We want to create a solution that enables ergonomic assessment by body segment and is suitable for digitizing ergonomic assessment and pre-calculating biomechanical loads in the form of virtual process simulations,” said Peter Kuhlang, describing the goal of the consortium project. Users of EAWS 2.0 would thus be able to perform workplace design, method planning, time measurement and ergonomics assessment synchronously in one process.
Work design standards indispensable
Fondazione Ergo-MTM Italia will play a leading role in the development of EAWS 2.0. Gabriele Caragnano emphasized the importance of national and international norms and standards for work design at the signing of the contract. “With EAWS 2.0, we are giving users a standard that is particularly suitable for evaluating repetitive manual tasks in production systems, making efficiency gains and improvements in terms of ergonomics on the product or even on the process measurable and thus presentable.”
The MTM ASSOCIATION e. V. is responsible for project management and documentation of the development work and will also coordinate the content and timing of the development work of the other project partners. After completion of the consortium project, which is scheduled to run for three years, EAWS 2.0 will be made available to all members of the MTM ASSOCIATION e. V. for use free of charge.