Keynotes

Download all keynote presentations here.

Professor Jan Dul
Ergonomics for Performance

Jan Dul is professor of technology and human factors at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. His research includes the interaction between people and the physical and social environment.

The keynote is based on his recent work on work environments for creativity and innovation, in particular how the physical environment can boost employee creativity. Jan Dul will also unveil the first results from a large longitudinal study among 120 companies that become available spring 2019. This study is about what motivates managers of SME companies to make changes in their organization and what were the effects of these changes on performance and wellbeing. The results may point to how ergonomists should focus their work if we want to have acceptance and impact.

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Professor Andreas Holtermann
Do we need new approaches for workplace health and employability?

Andreas Holtermann is professor of musculoskeletal disorders and physical workload at the National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark. His main field of research is on occupational physical activity, health and employability, and workplace preventive interventions.

Effective initiatives are requested for handling the main challenges of working life, such as the high prevalence of disabling musculoskeletal disorders, increasing social health inequality, and the low employability of blue collar workers with higher retirement age. Suggestions for new approaches for prevention and promotion of workplace health will be presented. These will include 1) should we aim to balance physical activity demands and rest instead of reducing isolated ergonomic demands?, 2) participatory ergonomic workplace interventions for physical work exertion and painrelated factors, and 3) “the Goldilocks principle” work designed for promoting health and work capacity.

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Associate Professor Cecilia Berlin
Systems ergonomics in productive workplaces - a Nordic out-look on who, how and why

Cecilia Berlin is an Associate Professor in Division of Design & Human Factors at Chalmers Uni-versity of Technology in Göteborg, Sweden. Her research and teaching focuses on how to proactively address ergonomics risks in workplaces by determining where design action can be taken (and by who) at various system levels. She has gained some attention for participating in the international competition "Dance Your PhD".

The keynote takes the listeners on a safari into current-day industrial production, where several ergonomics problems persist while numerous technological advances like activity-based workplaces, digitalization, robotics, AI etc. are raising new questions for ergonomics specialists to tackle. Cecilia points out how ergonomics challenges of all sorts can be met by improving stakeholder communication, more intentional design processes, and increasing the ergonomics and systems knowledge of the people with the greatest impact on how a workplace is designed. Based on her stakeholder analysis framework "Change Agent Infrastructure" and recent research studies, Cecilia's message is that designing ergonomics into a system should be the concern of not just ergonomists, but everyone involved in a workplace change.

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Professor Patrick Neumann
Wondering About the Future of Work? Look to Innovations of the Past

Dr. Neumann is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Ryerson University in Toronto, where he directs the Human Factors Engineering Lab. He is a Design Scientist and Certified Professional Ergonomist (Eur. Erg.). His research work focuses on issues of organisational design and management (ODAM) as they affect system stakeholders and system performance.

Digitalization, Industry 4.0, Co-bots, Internet of things… many new trends promise to “revolutionise” or “disrupt” work in the future. What are the implications of these trends? This talk will examine some of the current issues around human factors and future workplaces, by examining existing research conducted on the impacts of innovation on people. Cases of technological and organisational changes can provide insights into how the mistakes, and gains, of past innovations can inform us in our attempts to create better workplaces in the future. Achieving this will mean thinking about tools and methods to support the application of human factors in workplace innovation projects.

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Camila Gram Andersson
Future work: A company perspective on a changing work environment

Portrait of Camilla

How does innovation and digitalization affect work? And how can companies address these changes in their work environment?
These are some of the questions Camila Gram Andersson reflects on in her keynote. Camila is leading the Corporate Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) department at the global pharmaceutical company, Lundbeck. She is responsible for the innovation of Lundbeck’s HSE strategy and the execution of related strategic projects worldwide. A focal point in her work is to follow upcoming changes in the international regulation, trends in the society and business development to be aware of any HSE opportunities or risks. Will these changes lead the physical and psychological work environment in a positive direction or to work related problems and diseases? Often it depend on how we implement, handle and cope with these changes. Camilla will give some examples on how innovation and digitalization have affected Lundbeck’s way of working. She will underline that in a fast changing world a proactive, strong and agile risk and change management process has become even more vital to ensure a healthy and safe future workplace.

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Updated by Björgvin Hjartarson on 22 November 2019