Safety of machinery: requirement specification based on functional need and work situations analysis

Abstract

This paper describe the ongoing work jointly between INRS and LCFC/ENSAM to take risk prevention into account in the specification drawn up when considering buying or designing work equipment (special machine, individual workstation, assembly line, etc…). The methodology is based on the functional need analysis and the concept of work situations as defined by INRS in their previous research work. The aim is to bring together the “user” and the “designer” in a dynamic of dialogue, in order to define the main work situations and not only the technical system. An overview of the problem is first described, followed by a brief review of methods currently in use. We then describe the different steps involved in the proposed methodology, before examining the results of a case-study application to a milling machine in which the benefits of such an approach and its acceptability by SME/SMIs are assessed.