Die Arbeitswelt verändert sich. Digitalisierung und demografischer Wandel sind Trends, die die Arbeitswelt bestimmen und damit auch Anforderungen für die Prävention und das betriebliche Gesundheitsmanagement definieren.

Die Herausforderungen des demografischen Wandels und damit verbundene Ressourcenknappheit am Arbeitsmarkt erfordern eine Beschäftigung mit neuen Ansätzen. Das gilt auch für das Überwachen von kritischen Arbeiten in unterschiedlichen Bereichen der Industrie. Als Beispiel können hierbei das Arbeiten in Behältern und engen Räumen genannt werden, eine Tätigkeit im industriellen Umfeld mit einem hohem Gefahrenpotential, oder zum Beispiel auch das Überwachen von Schweißarbeiten.

Dabei bieten insbesondere die technologischen Entwicklungen der Industrie 4.0 neue Lösungsansätze, die es ermöglichen, dass digitale Lösungen bestehende Sicherheitskonzepte effizient unterstützen und damit zu einem verbesserten Gesundheitsschutz aller Arbeiter beitragen.

Als Partnerunternehmen der Vision Zero Kampagne hat Dräger sich der Vision einer Welt ohne Arbeitsunterfälle und arbeitsbedingter Erkrankungen verschrieben. Im Vortrag von Dräger wird auf aktuelle Herausforderungen in der Umsetzung von Sicherheitskonzepten bei der Überwachung von kritischen Arbeiten hingewiesen und auf Lösungsansätze für ein sicheres und verfügbares Sicherheitskonzept eingegangen, einschließlich neuester technischer Unterstützung in Form von innovativen Systemen zur Überwachung von kritischen Arbeiten.
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The world of work is changing. The digital transformation and demographic change are trends that are shaping the world of work and thereby also defining the requirements concerning prevention and corporate health management.
The challenges presented by demographic change and the associated shortage of human resources call for new approaches to employment. This also applies to the monitoring of critical activities in various areas of industry. An example is work performed in vessels and confined spaces in an industrial environment; such activities present a high risk potential. The monitoring of welding work is another example.
The technological developments of Industry 4.0, in particular, offer new approaches by which existing safety concepts can be supported efficiently by digital solutions, thereby enhancing the protection of all workers’ health.
As a partner company to the Vision Zero campaign, Dräger is committed to the vision of a world without occupational accidents and work-related diseases. The paper presented by Dräger will highlight current challenges in the implementation of safety concepts for monitoring critical activities, and will discuss strategies for a safe and accessible safety concept, including the latest technical support in the form of innovative systems for monitoring critical activities.

Machinery safety plays a key role in the field of occupational safety and health, since accidents and incidents related to poor machinery safety have a large social and economic impact. At a first glance, the aim of machinery safety is to ensure the safety and health of all persons which operate machines. Unfortunately, this is not enough, since there is an increasing number of robotic applications with large operating ranges or mobile ones and operating not only in industrial but also in public or semi-public environments.

In the late 70es (of the last Century) national machinery safety standards were developed, providing a first basis for a uniform approach for the design of safe machinery. With the entering in force of the European Machinery Directive, the need for harmonized European machinery safety standards supporting this directive resulted in the development of a structured series of hEN’s (harmonized European Standards) that became the backbone of modern machinery safety.

In the 90es, the Vienna Agreement between ISO and CEN and the Frankfurt agreement between IEC and CENELC aimed to conduct standardization work at a single level wherever possible, achieving simultaneous recognition for International Standards as European Standards through appropriate coordination procedures.

The decision of the ECJ on the Malamud case and an exaggerated legal approach to technical standardization by the European Commission, the European Standardisation has been shaken to its foundations, and the outcome of such poor decisions may lead to the industry turning away from the European standardization process.

The contribution is aimed to clarify how hEN’s support the European product and workplace safety legislation, and how the deep and logical intertwining of International and European Standards and their drafting procedures collides with a hastily drafted Regulation and unsuitable harmonization requirements. In addition, some proposals are made to improve the current situation and to guide machinery manufacturers in the process of selecting the applicable standards.