From Training in Ergonomic Diagnosis to Finding Solutions: Assessment of Ergo Groups that Used Participatory Ergonomics

The goal of this article is to present the training given to ergonomic groups to teach them how to transform work situations in a company producing primary aluminium. It presents the transition from the ergonomic diagnosis (9) conducted by the groups (7) to the solutions they considered during a brainstorming session, the weighing of the solutions and, finally to the ideas retained for industrial transformation projects. The results show that the most numerous ideas and those that were most often retained concerned equipment-tools category. Of the ideas expressed, 50.5% and 40.5% were retained for transformation projects in the “equipment-tools” and “layout” categories, respectively. In this study, the ability of the ergonomics-trained groups to find relevant solutions for the prevention of work related musculoskeletal disorders (MSD_s) seems undeniable to us.