Production economics analysis of investment initiated to improve working environment

This article describes the results of an evaluation of a new work place for ladle preparation at Swedish Steel in Lulea, Sweden. The company initiated a development project related to ladle service work, in order to come to g rips with the difficult working environment and problems associated with ab senteeism due to illness and occupational injuries. The evaluation was perf ormed for the first three years after implementation of the project and it shows that the new work place considerably improved working conditions and increased both the quality and efficiency of production. The purpose of thi s article is also to discuss some methodological problems. The follow-up of the various changes in working environment and personnel statistics was fa irly simple to carry out. But in terms of production effects, the company's in-house production follow-up system proved to be too unspecified and over simplified. It was also difficult to decide which changes should count as e ffects of the new work place and to value these in monetary terms. The prof itability calculation shows that an investment initiated to improve the wor king environment can yield good profitability. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Lt d. All rights reserved.