Modelling of occupational health and safety aspects in the Digital Factory

The digital factory is becoming ever more prevalent in the planning of production systems. It provides tools that digitally support the planning process. Everything from a single workplace to a complete workshop or even a factory can be represented in the computer, analyzed for potential weaknesses and even revised digitally. In the field of occupational health and safety (OHS), this only affects ergonomic analyses and examinations of single workplaces at present. This micro-ergonomic approach is insufficient for extensive OHS measures because potential risks (e.g. noise) often result from the configuration of the whole work system and workers' change of workplaces during a shift. Therefore, a macro-ergonomic OHS evaluation approach which considers all elements of a work system and their interactions is also necessary. This paper describes a macro-ergonomic OHS approach to digital work systems planning developed at the ifab-Institute.