Michael is a member of the Ergonomics Society and of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health.  Michael has published a number of academic papers and magazine articles, and is a book reviewer.  Michael is the co-author of the textbook – ‘Workplace ergonomics : a practical guide’; which was commissioned and published by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).  Michael is an associate to the Universities of Loughborough, Surrey and Glamorgan and lectured and supervised projects at both undergraduate and post graduate level.

 

Michael first became interested in health and safety issues whilst working for the Government as an administrator making awards to people under the Industrial Injuries Scheme.  After five years, Michael resigned from this post to become more proactive in Health and Safety by undertaking an honours degree in Occupational Health and Safety at the University of Aston in Birmingham. 

 

Following his graduation Michael spent two years in research at the Accident Research Unit of Birmingham University where he attended all of the serious and fatal road traffic accidents in the West Midlands region.  The study investigated how the design of cars influenced the likelihood of occupant survival in vehicle collisions.

 

Michael's next move led him to accept a post at the University of Loughborough where he spent the following six years managing a research and consultancy group specialising in the application of Ergonomics to Safety and Health issues.  Most of his work focused on workplace and equipment design with particular reference to improving standards of Safety and Health without compromising business efficiency.

 

Michael resigned his post at Loughborough University in 1990, although he still maintains close ties, to establish MTA an independent consultancy specialising in Ergonomics, Safety and Health.

 

Michael’s areas of specialism are:

 

Workplace/product design, development and evaluation:

 

This includes ergonomics assessments of all aspects of the working environment, including the tools, equipment and systems used.  Work in this area has included:  the production, manipulation and application of anthropometric data; the generation of drawings, plans and models; prototype production and evaluation; the application and use of many evaluation techniques and tools including task analysis; structured user trials of equipment and systems; problem solving and troubleshooting; interface design; human performance and behaviour; attitude studies and project management.

 

Projects have included creating new workstations for:  control rooms, banks, dealing rooms, offices, cars, trucks, trains, fire appliances, cranes, sewing machine work, hotels, supermarkets and shops and for workers in the food, electronics and general manufacturing industries.  It has also included the design and evaluation of software interfaces, touch-screens and language free signs and instructions.

 

Michael has just completed the specification for the Station Operations Room and Ticket Offices for the King’s Cross St. Pancras redevelopment project for LUL.  This has involved ensuring there is full compliance with all relevant Standards and the design meets with HMRI approval.  This process started with a detailed task analysis and culminated with the successful completion of a user trial with a full-scale mock-up.

 

Equipment selection:

 

This encompasses the impartial selection of tools and equipment for offices and industry.  Ensuring that the equipment chosen is suited to the needs of the organisation, the users and the tasks performed, the equipment selected has been extensive and includes a diverse range of items such as the knives used by butchers and the pneumatic rammers used by foundry workers through to the equipment used by 10 Downing Street switchboard operators and the fall arrest harnesses used by Police snipers.

 

Health and Safety management:

 

This has involved the identification of key Health and Safety issues; Health and Safety management systems and priority setting; hazard management and risk assessment; policy and documentation development; legislation compliance strategies; the development of Standards, specifications and audit trails.

 

A large part of this work has focussed on examining the attitudes held by managers and ensuring that they adopt appropriate behaviours to support the needs of the enterprise they manage.

 

Training, seminars and conferences:

 

This has covered awareness training; safety and hazard management; risk assessment; competency training; ergonomics assessor training; legal duties and standards; train the trainer programmes; management and operator training.  Training courses have been delivered at all levels from the board down to operators in a broad cross-section of organisations.

 

Training programmes as extensive as delivering a health and safety management course to over 3,000 managers and supervisors in the rail industry down to one-to-one tuition have been undertaken. 

 

A recent programme to train 600 managers in health and safety management techniques has resulted in a significant rise in the levels of quality of risk assessments undertaken and a fall in the number of lost time accidents.

 

Michael has spoken at many conferences and seminars in the UK, Europe and the USA.

 

Advice:

 

To Facilities Managers, Safety Advisers, Designers, Architects, Engineers, Purchasing Managers, and similar groups on the Ergonomics, Safety & Health aspects of their work and how they influence what happens in the workplace.

 

Expert witness reports:

 

Michael is frequently instructed to act for the Claimant, the Defendant or jointly, in many work related personal injury cases.  Michael also has experience of criminal cases and has been involved in appeals against improvement notices.

 

Michael has considerable Court experience.