The Hindu Business Line : ‘Healthy workers improve productivity’

Coimbatore, July 4 Constant noise generated by a large engineering plant’s plasma welding unit in the South not only nagged the men at work but also began affecting workers in neighbouring sections of the plant.

As the noise pollution prompted the workers to agitate, an investigation by the management found the noise coming out of the welding plant was close to 120 decibels an hour, well beyond the permissible 90 decibels. The inspection team found the location of the welding plant too was wrong.

The shifting of the welding plant to a corner of the building and subsequent raising of an enclosure around the welding process by the management not only saved the situation but also brought down the noise to 80 decibels.

The scene shifts to a non-descript textile manufacturer in peripheral Coimbatore, which is confronted with erratic production from his spinning plant, despite installing new machinery. The spinning operators were often forced to summon attendants to set right the yarn breakage that occurred frequently.

The piqued factory owner with the help of his one-man industrial engineering wing finally traced the problem to insufficient lighting in the spinning shed that interfered with production processes ranging from as simple a task as clearing the spindle bobbins to timely detection of yarn breakage and setting it right.

Even as the company re-jigged the lighting system in the premises, the factory owner and his team went a step further and gave a recoat to the entire wall painting at the spinning shed using this time the illuminated paint that not only enhanced the quality of lighting but dramatically reversed the slackness in workers’ movement by increasing visibility inside the spinning arena.

The induction of newer technology amidst globalisation of trade and the changing production processes too have given rise to the need for increased work place safety standards and harmonising those standards to prevent continuation of the syndrome of inferior working conditions to derive lower production costs, said Dr N.K. Chandrasekharan, a senior consultant in occupational health and safety.

The current momentum set by the production and product outsourcing across global centres would, according to him, compel corporates to have a relook on the need to invest in ‘workers’.

More Stories on : Human Resources | Tamil Nadu

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page