SKARP (Sharp) – education in knife sharpness and working technique
Educating meat cutters. Productivity and health in knife related work.
The knife is a precision tool for the professional knife users and it has a great impact on both productivity and health. A new project follows the STAR project, we are launching the SKARP project. Our goal is to develop a training program that facilitates knife users staff to learn how to sharpen and keep the knife sharp, and to ensure that the training is of high quality and to evaluate its effects.
The researchers come from the Royal Institute of Technology (Kjerstin Vogel and Jörgen Eklund) and Technology School of Engineering, School of Engineering (Johan Karltun).
We are developing a course where meat cutter and other knife users can recognize themselves in their daily work. We also want to demonstrate the technology and what can be done with modern equipment to get and keep the blade as sharp as possible.
We have a sharpening meter where we can test how sharp a knife is thus put in words just how sharp it is. We also want to show what sharp knives and healthy knife users means for both meat cutters and companies.
In a first step, we will develop a training material together with knife users that takes its starting point in the results we got from the STAR project and all information that we have gained access through it.
In a second step, we want to educate instructors with the material as the basis for anchoring materials in companies.
In a third step, train-the-trainer of knife users in the participating companies.
In a fourth step, we want to evaluate the effects that we achieve together with the participating companies. How does this affect the productivity of the company and the health of knife users.
In a final step, we will try to make the training program publically available for knife users.
The project runs from 1 July 2012 to 31 December 2013 and has a steering committee with Åke Rutegård, KCF as chairman and a number of leading representatives for industry leaders and employees.
News
After some delay, the project is finished. This is the final report in Swedish. (pdf 601 kB) An educational material including some videos, all in Swedish will follow.
Are you and your company interested in joining, please contact:
Contact Kjerstin Vogel
Telephone+46 8 790 4811
Contact Johan Karltun
Telephone: +46 36 10 16 30