This paper is the product of a research and development project for an alternative system for the seaworthy lashing of containers on ocean-going vessels jointly drawn up by terminal operators, stevedore companies, shipping companies, shipbuilders and chandlers, a classification society and scientific institutions, working together in a co-operation community. The development project was conducted over the period from 1988 - 1996 and was temporarily sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology and the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. Within the framework of this project, in addition to acting as general overall manager the author was responsible for economic and social questions with especial emphasis being placed on aspects relating to labour science. This paper presents the development project as an example of the use of innovative procedures in the field of labour science in a real economic-technical area of activity. Both the procedure for developing and evaluating a technological and l labour-organisational solution intended for implementation by the economic actors involved and the method of presentation in this paper are characterised by the particular conditions imposed by the fact that all the specialists in the fields of labour science, microeconomics and engineering were given equal status with the aim of achieving a joint project objective. Hitherto, container handling has been ignored by the social sciences; to this extent the work was pioneering in its nature. As far as we know, there are no ergonomic studies available on this field. The area of container lashing is therefore presented in a relatively comprehensive way from various specialist viewpoints, supported by multimedia elements. In order to obtain design criteria for a new lashing system, first of all a detailed ergonomic record of the actual situation in container lashing was made, particular importance being attached to the participation of the lashers themselves in determining the specific problem areas of their work and in drawing up the target criteria. A lashing system was developed which fulfils the following criteria, among others: improvement of the work processes flexibility of container lashing increase in system safety simplification of container handling reduction of handling costs increase in productivity The VACU-Lashing-System comprises technological and organisational solutions which are suitable for container handling on container ships of all standard sizes and can in principle be used on all container terminals world-wide. The individual system solutions were subjected to a comprehensive technical, microeconomic and ergonomic evaluation. The „Hamburg Solution“ developed was tested on a container vessel on a Mediterranean voyage as well as on several European container terminals, with the involvement of the lashers. The lashing solutions have been modified in line with the results of the evaluation, particular attention being devoted to the experience gained by the lashers, and then developed to the point of readiness for marketing. The evaluation showed that the new lashing system is technically feasible, leads to improvements in the working conditions of the seamen and lashers, ensures the security of the cargo, makes it possible to increase the capacity of container ships and improves handling speed. The extended calculation of economic efficiency showed that taking all economic, technical and ergonomic criteria into account, the introduction of VACU-Lashing-Solutions is realistic, makes a real difference and is to be recommended.