From theory to national application—A Finnish experiment

In 1968 the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development started a 3 year project to ‘introduce ergonomics into Finnish production’. A multidisciplinary group, comprising five persons sponsored by the Institute of Occupational Health, was formed.

The concept of ergonomics, at the time the project was founded, was relatively unknown in Finland, although as early as 1962 international course activity on the subject was begun at the Institute of Occupational Health. Little competent ergonomic knowledge existed in the realm of industry, which at that time claimed 500000 workers, and what did was poorly used.

The adopted strategy of the 3 year project was as follows: (a) an attempt was made to convince potential users of ergonomic knowledge of its utility by working out a number of examples on the application of ergonomics; and (b) the availability of ergonomic information was to be improved. By the time the project was completed in 1971, ergonomic activities had reached such a degree of acceptance that it was deemed necessary to maintain the multidisciplinary group and provide it with additional resources. These extended activities are outlined in this paper.