ASSESSMENT OF SHIFT SYSTEMS IN THE GERMAN INDUSTRY AND SERVICE SECTOR- A COMPUTER APPLICATION OF THE BESIAK PROCEDURE

Shiftwork research has led to the development of ergonomic guidelines that should be followed in the process of constructing and implementin g shift systems. There are indications, however, that many shift syste ms in use in various branches of industry and the service sector in Ge rmany do not meet these requirements. The objective of this study is t o determine the extent of compliance with ergonomic principles in the design of shift systems by applying a computerized implementation of t he Besiak procedure to a data base of 402 different systems. The Besia k procedure operationalizes the assessment of shift systems by means o f 14 weighted criteria, which are based on the findings of ergonomic r esearch. As this is the first application of the Besiak procedure to a larger data set, a second aim of the research was to describe the sta bility of the obtained results. Our results indicate that there is sti ll great potential for improving the practice of shiftwork from an erg onomic point of view, even when taking strict economic restrictions in to consideration. Examples of shift systems, where the design is in co mpliance with many recommendations, can be found in a variety of branc hes of industry and with only moderate correlation to economic demands . Some indications, which were obtained by a paired comparison of shif t systems, show the high stability of the results, even when the weigh ting of the criteria was modified.