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Aims to examine the impact of health and safety legislation emanating from the European Community and to analyse what effect, if any, it will have on British occupational health and safety law. An examination of the social action programmes shows that the pace of change has increased rapidly since the Single European Act was incorporated into the Treaty of Rome and became operative from July 1987. Because of rapid changes that are occurring on a broad front there was a need to be selective. Emphasizes to some extent, therefore, the construction industry because it would appear that European legislation is likely to have a major impact on British law and practice in this industry.

The purpose of this paper is to assist facility design practitioners, industrial managers, and expert systems (ES) developers identify important issues to consider and actions to follow in the selection of material handling (MH) equipment, overcome limitations of existing equipment selection approaches, and design complete MH systems.

A framework that specifies the steps that have to be taken in the selection of MH equipment is suggested. It identifies categories of equipment based on all handling‐related functions performed in a facility, which allows consideration of various categories of equipment, and selects equipment classes and types from among candidates based on user requirements and objectives.

The suggested framework is capable of producing a wide range of equipment that performs various functions in a facility, and satisfies requirements and objectives without the need for using large data bases. Applying it requires cooperation of facility managers and designers.

Some of the steps of the suggested framework require further investigation and research.

Facility design practitioners, industrial managers, and developers of ES can make better selection among a large number of MH equipment and design complete systems by relying on functions performed in a facility, requirements, and objectives.

A framework for selection of MH equipment is lacking in the literature. This paper fills a gap by presenting design issues and organized steps that practitioners, managers, and expert system developers working on selection of MH equipment have to address and follow in order to design complete MH systems.

Many manufacturing organizations are switching over to JIT manufacturing systems following the success of Japanese industries. Presents a case study of a simulation modelling approach in the design and analysis of a proposed JIT system for an Australian chemical company, which currently operates on a traditional system. The approach was used to compare two cell designs, and to estimate utilization levels for operators and materials handlers under the new system, and to determine reorder levels for raw materials at the work stations in order to operate the JIT system successfully.

Flexible Assembly Systems (FASs) are normally associated with the automatic, or robotic, assembly of products, supported by automated material handling systems. However, manual assembly operations are still prevalent within many industries, where the complexity and variety of products prohibit the development of suitable automated assembly equipment. This article presents a generic model for incorporating flexibility into the design and control of assembly operations concerned with high variety/low volume manufacture, drawing on the principles for Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) and Just‐in‐Time (JIT) delivery. It is based on work being undertaken in an electronics company where the assembly operations have been overhauled and restructured in response to a need for greater flexibility, shorter cycle times and reduced inventory levels. The principles employed are in themselves not original. However, the way they have been combined and tailored has created a total manufacturing control system which represents a new concept for responding to demands placed on market driven firms operating in an uncertain environment.

The purpose of this paper is to identify various individual factors and combinations thereof that can contribute to truck drivers’ occupational accidents, particularly connected to work performed outside the cab in various work environments.

In total, 74 accidents were analysed through in-depth interviews with truck drivers. These interviews were conducted employing the critical incident technique, and analysed utilising a qualitative content analysis approach.

The contributing factors identified were categorised into 14 categories. In all, 13 of these were grouped into four sections reflecting the drivers’ work outside the cab: “Goods and equipment”, “Loading/unloading area”, “Loading/unloading tasks”, and “Organisation”. A single risk factor was associated with 40 accidents while the other 34 involved combinations of factors.

Although the tasks performed by truck drivers in different countries are probably similar, one limitation might be that all the accidents characterised occurred in one country: Sweden.

The findings reveal that complex combinations of risk factors often contribute to accidents. In addition to the transportation company itself, other stakeholders, such as clients, and designers and manufacturers of technology, may influence the occupational safety of truck drivers. Different stakeholders who could contribute to managerial decision making that is designed to prevent accidents are identified and discussed.

This investigation contributes to an in-depth understanding of the causes of accidents in the transportation industry. The findings are discussed from the perspective of the stakeholders and safety management in an attempt to identify key stakeholders who can improve accident prevention.

ONCE upon a time, in the true spirit of fairy stories, it was our job to get fewer people to produce more of whatever they were making. It certainly did not make us popular. There were times when the appearance of a work study engineer in any factory was enough to start off a strike. Even the best regulated workers were known to slow down deliberately if only to give them and their mates some leeway when the “rate for the job” (whether the pay rate or production rate) was under consideration.

Logistics management is concerned with stocks and flows of goods and information. The purpose of facilities or depots is to hold stocks of materials to match anticipated demand against planned supply, to balance flows within the network and to enable consolidation of customer orders to take place. The depot is an extremely important aspect of the logistics system; not only is the depot a large capital investment, but it relates to the other components in potential trade‐off opportunities.

A survey of papers and design‐for‐assembly systems shows where this discipline should be heading.

The purpose of this paper is to give a successful example of how universities can work with business to identify and address skills needs through a context-engaged approach to developing learning to meet the needs identified.

Using a case study approach the business-university collaboration to introduce work-based learning programmes is explained. The paper sets out how learning interventions were researched, designed and introduced to meet identified skills needs throughout the organisation. It highlights the practicalities of the management approach adopted and the benefits achieved through partnership working.

Key to the success of the collaboration was the recruitment of a “Training Centre Facilitator” (TCF) who was co-managed by the company and the university and who was located within the company. The TCF was able to fully understand the company’s and learners’ requirements and thus propose a context-engaged solution that met the needs of the individuals and the organisation. The work-based learning programmes introduced reflected the organisational requirements, individuals’ needs and took into account constraints and restraints on their design and implementation.

The paper presents a case study that investigates an innovative approach to partnership working between HE, FE and a private business organisation. The appointment of a TCF, employed within the company to undertake research and implement identified training interventions is an unusual and original approach to bringing together the three organisations to achieve the planned business improvements. The process used and the key principles for achieving a successful partnership are presented and could be applied in other business-education collaborations to develop in-company work-based learning.