![]() ![]() Improving the working environment remains a central focus for the company. It found that this could largely be achieved through improved job-design measures. ![]() In its project, Age-Based Workplace Layout in Serial Tyre Production, the company aimed to take age into account in the design of tyre-making workplaces. Good practice todayĪs early as the 1980s, Continental was concerned with keeping its older workers productive. It became clear that improving workplace layout can reduce physical strain and that workplace conditions play an essential role in gaining acceptance for new forms of work organisation. These problems led management to agree on more appropriate conditions for teamwork. However, the company-wide introduction of teamwork proved rather problematic because the conditions of the experimental initiative (use of familiar technologies, groups based on different age and performance levels, guaranteed wages) were not generally implemented. Despite the ageing workforce, new, computerised machines improved production capacity, leading to higher output even on more labour-intensive shifts. From the beginning of the project until the mid-1980s, the proportion of tyre-makers aged 55 years and over rose from 6.2% to 27.6%. The initiative aimed to reduce workplace stress through technical and layout improvements, and to implement organisational and individual measures to enable employees to continue working until they are older. The original initiativeĬontinental’s ‘Age-Based Workplace Layout in Serial Tyre Production’ project was part of the Humanisation of the Working Life (HdA) programme, initiated by the federal government, and was completed in the mid-1980s. The social dialogue in the company mainly relates to issues on working time and wages. Since late 2004, the research group – Demographic Challenges for Factories – has focused on the strategic alignment of the company’s personnel policy. More recently, ageing has again become a priority of the company’s personnel policy agenda. Most of the production workers are unskilled or semi-skilled.Īs early as the 1980s, the company’s personnel policy addressed the issue of its ageing workforce by encouraging older employees to stay on, while simultaneously reducing staff through early retirement. Around 16% of production workers are aged 50 years or over and more than 40% are aged 35–40 years. Some 1,500 of these employees work in production (less than 10% women average age, 40.1 years) and the rest in administration and in research and development. Around 3,700 of the German employees work in the Stöcken plant, where the case study was carried out. The Continental Group has a global workforce of around 80,000 employees, some 30,000 of whom work in Germany. The company manufactures, among other things, tyres for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and bikes, brake systems, and electronic air-suspension systems. It has four divisions – Passenger and Light Truck Tyres, Commercial Vehicle Tyres, Automotive Systems and ContiTech. Continental Corporation is a worldwide automotive supplier.
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