A little positive feedback at work can go a long way toward improving assemblers' long-term mental health and well-being. Engineers at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the European Factory2Fit research consortium are studying the effects of work performance.
Keeping workers safe is a daily challenge for every manufacturer, particularly those that operate one or more automated assembly lines. To achieve this goal, many companies make sure their machines are equipped with sensor-based safety components that meet ANSI, ISO, ISA and OSHA standards.
MUNICH—Production at BMW’s assembly plant here came to a standstill for almost an hour after two workers passed out during their shift due to alcohol and drug consumption.
WENTZVILLE, MO—A woman suspected in the stabbing of a worker at GM’s assembly plant here has turned herself in to police Thursday. A female employee at the plant was hospitalized Wednesday night was stabbed five times. The attacker was not employed at the factory.
MOLINE, IL—Deere & Co. will pay a former employee $275,000 under the terms of a settlement agreement that resolves a lawsuit filed in 2015 under the anti-retaliation provision of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The suit alleged the worker was fired from Deere’s assembly plant here in June 2012 after reporting unsafe working conditions and then filing a complaint with OSHA after the manufacturer failed to correct one of the unsafe conditions.
DETROIT—Fiat Chrysler says an employee at its Jefferson North Assembly Plant here has been diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease. Although health officials has not determined where the employee may have come in contact with bacteria that cause the disease, the automaker is testing water sources at the plant “out of an abundance of caution.” MORE
BRAMPTON, ON—Auto parts supplier Matcor Automotive Inc. has been fined $270,000 after a maintenance worker at its assembly plant here suffered a “devastating” injury involving a robot.
KANSAS CITY, MO—A suspect has been arrested for shooting and killing a worker outside Ford’s assembly plant here early on Aug. 11. Brandon G. Nunnally, 26, was shot in the parking lot outside the facility at around 4:07 am, after just having gotten off his shift.