SECTION III Service Systems
3.6 Other Proven Benefits
Tuttava is a vehicle for a cultural change, as it results in the different types of benefits. Improved safety and ergonomics are only two of those. In a company, the maintenance service department employing 300 people reported a reduction of lost time occupational injuries from 600 days to 200 days per year.
In addition, the absenteeism rate fell by one percentage point which was caused by the positive psycho- social effects of Tuttava.
Another company employing 1500 people reported the release of 15,000 m2 of production area, since materials, equipment, etc. were stored more rationally. The company paid 1.5 million U.S. dollars per year less in rent.
The appearance of production facilities is the first signal to a potential customer or employee about a company’s functional quality. Tuttava helps improve the appearance. At the steel mill, a supervisor gave
FIGURE 3.4 Injury rate at a steel mill.
3-14 Occupational Ergonomics: Design and Management of Work Systems
an example. His department manufactures steel plates. Sometimes the operators walked on the plates and their shoes left clear marks on plate surfaces. The users will sandblast the plates before painting them. The marks did no real harm. However, when a customer came for a visit and saw marks left by operators’ shoes “on his plates” he was dissatisfied. As a result of Tuttava, the operators stopped walking on the plates, which was also good for safety, as the risk of tripping was lower on aisles than on plates.
An engineering workshop had a high absenteeism rate. It belonged to a large corporation which had transferred some older employees there from other locations. These employees had many musculoskeletal injuries and a lowered work motivation for several reasons. The jobs of the engineering workshop were physically heavy and put employees often into awkward postures. Low motivation, previous injuries, and bad jobs were a combination which made the decision to stay at home easy.
The workshop started a several years’ long project to improve ergonomics, the risk of musculoskeletal injuries, and working conditions. The relations between management and union were not very good.
Management wanted to form a better partnership with the union and to encourage a participatory approach in solving problems. The core of their strategy was to improve relations first by implementing Tuttava department by department. This was aimed to produce some visible changes and to reduce peoples’ frustrations from some previous projects. Tuttava achieved this goal. Previous common mistrust started to ease. Visible improvements encouraged more demanding ergonomic innovations. Finally, all the departments invented and implemented a large number of ergonomic improvements, psychosocial working conditions became much better, and absenteeism started declining (Laitinen et al.).
The ultimate factor often seems to be the need for a cultural change which makes ergonomics and safety positive and more desirable. Change strategies emphasizing legislation and regulations easily lead to negative sentiments about safety and ergonomics. “You have to” mentality is not appealing to many managers. Therefore, Tuttava has been a successful tool, as it is a way to initiate a change process toward a more positive safety culture. Housekeeping, especially materials and tools is a good theme for the process, since they are in direct relation to the core factors of any production system.
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