• Project number: F 2420
• Institution: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
• Status: Completed Project

Description:

The objective of the joint PREVILOG project was to develop and test procedures, models and methods for the analysis, design and evaluation of intralogistics systems that are health-promoting and competitive at the same time.

In this respect, the sub-project of BAuA within PREVILOG focused on the psychological aspects of healthy work with the objective of identifying opportunities and risk factors as well as deriving specific guidelines for design based on these factors, also in the light of the introduction of new technological assistance systems.

To this end, the typical risks for negative strain-related consequences for employed persons were identified for intralogistics workplaces which are of particular relevance to the good design of work. To obtain a comprehensive picture of the situation, qualitative survey data from the whole of Germany was combined with a more in-depth survey of employed persons from individual companies as well as personal, qualitative interviews. Research was also conducted on employed persons' ability to work in the warehousing sector and in postal and delivery services depending on the organisational characteristics and information technologies used. On the basis of this combined data, associations with health aspects were investigated, and recommendations were then derived for an optimised workplace design.

The analysis of the data revealed that a number of job-related factors, but also social factors, are related closely to the mental health of employed persons. In terms of activities, the factors that are particularly striking are those that are associated with a high degree of monotony of the activities. A supportive climate among colleagues and perceived appreciation by managers and the company are decisive social factors that have not been very pronounced so far, but are associated with increased satisfaction and better health among employed persons.

In this way, the PREVILOG project is making an important contribution to the identification of opportunities and risks as regards the design of intralogistics workplaces. As measures to be implemented when designing intra-logistics workplaces, equal account should be taken of both the activity-related factors and the social factors. On the one hand, this could serve to ensure competitiveness, but above all else, it should maintain and promote the health of the employed persons. Technical innovations in this area must therefore be examined on a case-by-case basis, especially in terms of the extent to which they influence these relevant factors so as to counteract possible risks to humane workplace design. These recommendations for action were presented in detail in the final report and made available to interested members of the general public in a variety of academic and practice-oriented publications and lectures.