Clarification of requirements and responsibilities in the early stages of modernisation projects

Companies across sectors are increasingly willing to consider modernising existing machines as an alternative to buying new ones. By modernising a machine, a cost-effective solution can be achieved that will increase the lifetime of the machine by up to decades. The introduction of the Machinery Directive (MD) has helped to increase the safety of new machinery, but its interpretability poses challenges for the modification of existing machinery. The aim of this study is to clarify the requirements and responsibilities of the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in the early stages of modernisation projects. In this context, the early stages cover the project from the beginning to the writing of the contract. The theoretical part of the thesis describes the machine related legislation and its origins in Finland and Europe. The section also describes the uniform European legislation linked to machinery through the MD. After this standardisation and harmonised European standardisation will be examined. Finally, the theory deals with the machinery risk assessment and the general obligations between different economy operators in relation to machinery. The work clarifies the research question by opening sub-questions. Separate process and evaluation criteria will be created for evaluating the significance of a modification in machinery. With regard to the interpretation of legislation and the machinery modifications, benchmarking is carried out with companies offering similar modification services. A path to clarify the requirements and responsibilities of a OEM is created based on theory and benchmarking. The purpose of the process path is to indicate which activities need to be considered so that the OEM or modifier knows that they have fulfilled their role legally and have taken into account health and safety decrees in the early stages of the project