Well, just when you thought you had a three-year breather to overcome the many problems posed by the new Machinery Directive, the goal posts have once more been moved. The European Commission has back-tracked on its decision of last month, to grant more time to machine builders in their transition from EN 954-1 to the rather more sophisticated EN ISO 13849-1 and EN/IEC 62061 standards (see my earlier comment on this subject here).
The Machinery Directive Working Group is due to meet again early in December, when hopefully the matter will be finalised and the industry has a much clearer outlook on safety compliance issues. But until then, it’s back to the December 29 2009 deadline.
I am certainly not a ‘Europhobe’, but at times like these one can almost sympathise with the rants of the anti-EU brigade. To say that the machine building industry has been tipped into a state of confusion, is putting it mildly. One would be hard put to express in print its vocal reactions to this latest about-turn!
Meanwhile, the big safety systems providers are urging their customers to abandon EN 954-1 in favour of the new standards for all but the simplest of safety applications. For those still struggling with the requirements of the new Machinery Directive, this is a tough choice, but it is probably the best advice to take at the moment.
‘Technology democracy’
This is a new one on me, but reading further into the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU’s) study into the use of IT technologies and devices in the workplace, even I (with nostalgic memories of GPO telephones and mechanical typewriters) have to admit the term does have its resonances.
According to the EIU study – Power to the people? Managing technology democracy in the workplace - a ‘quiet revolution’ is underway in businesses, as employees are demanding ‘technology democracy’ – the power to use the technology applications and devices of their choice in order to perform their work. In so doing, they challenge the technology status quo in their organisations, whereby the IT function dictates which technologies may be used by staff, strictly centralises procurement of these technologies and sets the rules for their use.
But apparently, there’s a long way to go before we realise such freedoms in Europe. Some 47% of European executives surveyed say that their firms’ managers resist extending greater technology freedom to employees. A similar number claim that management is supportive, but the fact that few companies provide training to staff in the workplace use of, for example, personal communications devices and social networking applications suggests that we are far from ready for any wholesale move into workplace technology democracy.
Management caught up in the inertia of outmoded practices should beware the expectations of ‘Generation Y’ – the teenagers and young adults for whom technology comes as second nature. The EIU believes pressure will mount on corporate and IT management as a younger cohort of employees, reliant on social networking, messaging and other personal networking technologies to conduct their work, permeates organisations.
According to the EIU’s director of global technology research, Denis McCauley, companies are likely to lose some control over IT use as a result. “But this is no bad thing,” he says, “provided the risks are managed.”
The fears of managers who resist technology democracy are not entirely misplaced, according to the study. Many employees waste valuable work time using Web 2.0 applications for personal purposes and companies have been damaged by sensitive information appearing on blogs. Respondents agree that the biggest risks from technology democracy are lower productivity, the loss of confidential information and increased vulnerability to viruses. Rules and regulations will still be needed to prevent a “descent into chaos”.
You can get a copy of the report free of charge here.
Les Hunt
Editor