Mensura ergonomist Alain Grootaers launched a pilot project with a car manufacturer to encourage ergonomic behaviour change via an ‘intelligent T-shirt’.


Alain Grootaers knows that achieving behavioural change in the field of ergonomics is no easy task. “Many factors play a role: environment, time pressure, willingness… As a result, the impact of a risk analysis or a training course is not always long-lasting.”

As an ergonomist, he was asked by a major car manufacturer how they could encourage behavioural change. “We had contacts with a Swedish professor at the Karolinska Institute. They were developing a close-fitting T-shirt with sensors at the level of the shoulders, the lower neck, and on the chest, which provides biofeedback based on vibration. When bending forward at a certain angle, the T-shirt sends out a vibrating warning.”

A small-scale project was launched with the vehicle manufacturer to see if this tool could lead to long-term behavioural change. “In the short term – day 1 and day 5 – we saw significant differences from the baseline measurements. There was an impact, but we were not able to demonstrate in our study that there was also a long-term effect. After 20 days, although there was still a difference, it was not significant.”

A waste of time? “Not necessarily,” believes Alain. “This project has helped our client to increase the attention paid to ergonomics and its importance. We are currently looking into the possibility of eventually working with a set of ‘smart’ T-shirts, which are passed on to a different group of employees each week. That could make it possible to anchor the behavioural change.”

“At the same time, it’s important that users don’t become dependent on that biofeedback,” warns Alain. “That’s why it’s important that they are only worn at certain times. The ‘new behaviour’ must also be applied without the need for the feedback. Coaching in the workplace remains essential in this process.”

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