New tools in Germany: development and appliance of the first two KIM ("lifting, holding and carrying" and "pulling and pushing") and practical use of these methods

Abstract

The Key Indicator Methods (KIM) assess the risk of manual handling of loads on a screening level. Their purpose is the recognition and removal of job design deficits. The risk assessment is carried out in two stages. The first stage is the ordinal scaled description of workload items. The second stage is the evaluation of the degree of probability of physical overload. The intended user population are both practitioners in enterprises such as safety engineers, industrial engineers, and inspectors. The first two KIM were developed and tested from 1996 to 2001 in connection with the implementation of the EU directives into German national legislation. They consist of two independent, but formally adaptable methods for lifting, holding, and carrying and for pulling, and pushing. The KIM were drafted in the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) in close collaboration with the German Labour Inspectors. Numerous companies, scientists, statutory accident insurances, institutions, employer associations, and trade unions were involved. Since their first publication in 2000 and 2001, these methods are widely accepted among possible users with a corresponding broad application in Germany. They are recommended by the EU Labour Inspector Conference for application. In 2007 a third KIM for manual handling operating tasks KIM MHO were developed, tested, and validated in the last four years.

The Quick Exposure Check (QEC) — Inter-rater reliability in total score and individual items

“…Many of the available tools are limited in their scope of application and do not sufficiently include the risk factors [65] Therefore, the use of several different assessment tools may be needed to assess the major risk factors in a job [66]. Due to differences in methods and diversity in user needs, the selection of an appropriate tool can be challenging.…”

“…A decision is needed to be made for when to apply or avoid self-reports to measure task durations, depending on study purpose and occupational setting [69]. In Sweden some of the methods that are used include the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) [70], Key Indicator Method (KIM) [65], the Risk management Assessment tool for Manual handling Proactively (RAMP) [66] and the Quick Exposure Check (QEC) [71].…”

French good practice guidelines for management of the risk of low back pain among workers exposed to manual material handling: Hierarchical strategy of risk assessment of work situations

“…A wide range of methods of risk assessment of MMH has been identified by recent systematic reviews, including self-reporting, observational methods and direct measurements [14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. However, the selection of an appropriate method or combination of methods that might be routinely used remains a challenge since the available literature does not allow to select one method in particular.…”

Risk assessment of manual handling operations at work with the key indicator method (KIM-MHO) — determination of criterion validity regarding the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms and clinical conditions within a cross-sectional study

“…This draft of the so-called Key Indicator Method for Manual Handling Operations (KIM-MHO) was developed analogous to the existing KIMs for Lifting, Holding and Carrying (KIM-LHC) and for Pulling and Pushing (KIM-PP) of loads [29]. The draft of KIM-MHO was evaluated and modifications for its improvement were made [30].…”