Participatory Design Project Management : Addressing Production Effectiveness for WMSD Prevention. The Case of the Carving Line of a Duck Slaughterhouse

Research has highlighted the multifactorial origin of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD), and the weight of psychosocial factors. Less research work has been devoted to the design of ergonomic interventions aiming at WMSD prevention. Yet, analysing and assessing such interventions may yield two types of results : * ergonomic interventions put to the test the models of the pathology that are produced by researchers, and the successes and failures of the former bring information on the operational value of the latter ; * formalising the effective components of prevention interventions may help to foster capitalisation and spreading of methods among the practitioners. Based on an intervention carried out in a duck slaughterhouse, the research aimed at testing following hypotheses regarding the design of a WMSD : * importance of setting up a real project management, combining health issues and economic stakes, and involving the top management, the middle management and the workers ; * worker participation is a way to design better technical solutions ; but it is also an opportunity for them to develop a new relation to their own work, that is a necessary component of prevention.