Safe and Healthy Workplaces in the Age of Industry 4.0

At Continental, we know that for a job to be healthy, the employee and their workplace have to be a perfect fit for each other. This applies not only to the employee’s skills, talents, and personality, but also to the physical work that they perform – especially on the shop floor.

Around half of our employees around the globe work on the shop floor. In our production plants we attach great value to ergonomic workstation design, helping protect our employees from physical and mental strain. Workplaces at Continental are designed as long-term healthy environments where our employees can work and develop their potential. And not just on the shop floor. In the interests of our employees’ health, we aim to provide optimal working conditions in our offices, too. This applies not only to our more experienced employees with their changing needs, but also to our young people just starting their careers. Because our aim is to offer workplaces where people can remain productive in the long term – regardless of age, gender, and physical condition.

Ergonomics has many aspects. For example, there are robots that collaborate with shop floor staff and carry heavy loads or help prevent non-ergonomic sequences of movements. And rotating between tasks and workstations helps employees to minimize one-sided and repetitive motions. In order to ensure a balanced workload in the office, we use office desks for our employees, which enable them to work both standing and sitting. It all adds up to an ergonomics program that keeps our workplaces attractive, safe, and healthy.