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 implementing shift systems. There are indications, however, that many shift systems in use in various branches of industry and the service sector in Germany do not meet these requirements. The objective of this study is to determine the extent of compliance with ergonomic principles in the design of shift systems by applying a computerized implementation of the Besiak procedure to a data base of 402 different systems. The Besiak procedure operationalizes the assessment of shift systems by means of 14 weighted criteria, which are based on the findings of ergonomic research. 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 stability of the obtained results. Our results indicate that there is still great potential for improving the practice of shiftwork from an ergonomic point of view, even when taking strict economic restrictions into consideration. Examples of shift systems, where the design is in compliance with many recommendations, can be found in a variety of branches of industry and with only moderate correlation to economic demands. Some indications, which were obtained by a paired comparison of shift systems, show the high stability of the results, even when the weighting of the criteria was modified.