Maja-Lotta has an important role

- If you want to develop, further your education and work with what you are interested in, the opportunities are very great within Scania, she emphasises.

- To work with ergonomics is to exercise leadership to help others. Together, we work for our common work environment and have a good collaboration. Ergonomics is based on doing the right thing here and now in order to feel good outside of work and in the future when we retire, Maja-Lotta continues.

She sees the difference this work makes and emphasizes the great commitment of the employees.

- It's the employees who are experts in their positions, they can see what needs to be improved. Together, we have made great progress and are seeing a great response at all levels, which is very gratifying.

At Scania, she started as a material handler at Logistics in 2016. Somewhat by coincidence, ergonomics became her continued track.

- I had had problems with my neck and started to think more about how I work, stand and turn my head. That sparked my interest in ergonomics, and thanks to a responsive manager, I was able to attend a training course for risk assessment of positions, says Maja-Lotta.

Increased focus on ergonomics
After the 2020 summer holidays, Logistics increased its focus on musculoskeletal ergonomics, and through SES-RAMP* training, the work gained momentum. Maja-Lotta had to map out the situation at the whole of Logistics, but risk-assessing all positions was a very time-consuming task.

- When assessing a job position, you look at 49 different points. For example, how different steps affect work movements, strain on the back and upper arms, how to lift and the force required to pull racks or trolleys. Each point is classified. A red dot is a high risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders, a yellow an increased risk while a green dot is acceptable, says Maja-Lotta

- In a cross-functional working group that works with ergonomics at Scania Oskarshamn, we regularly have a review of yellow and red dots and look at measures and activities.

Successful work
The work on ergonomic improvements has been very successful. The management therefore saw a need for a person to run this work in the department. Maja-Lotta was asked and also had training for operators together with the ergonomists at Scania Health Centre.

- Our work has led to an increased awareness among everyone to work more ergonomically, and has had a ripple effect throughout the Logistics organization. Employees submit suggestions for improvements and want to know how it will be ergonomic when changing a work step, for example changing the location of boxes or trolleys with material. Holding the courses was a valuable learning experience for me as well, Maja-Lotta emphasises.

How do you work?
- Among other things, we film working methods to see how an operator works and whether work steps need to be improved. Examples of improvements are that platforms have been rebuilt to create the right working height and train carriages have been corrected. Operators have been trained to use both hands when handling boxes and also when pushing and pulling racks.

- With the help of Scania Health Center, we have developed instructions as guidance on how to work ergonomically at different stages, concludes Maja-Lotta.