SECTION III Service Systems
4.4 Utilizing Ergonomic Precepts to Design Processes
A Major Element for Achieving Quality
Ergonomic precepts address human physical and cognitive skills. When applied to process development, quality is significantly improved. These essentials are presented for service and manufacturing industries.
A model is presented for the initial design of processes or for review of existing processes.
The goal of quality is to meet requirements 100% — zero defects (Cosby, 1979). To prevent quality problems, human skills need to be matched to processes. In addition, according to the principles of concurrent engineering, all previously downstream activities should be part of the design process. For FIGURE 4.2 Processes provide the focus for establishing the individual process goals that are derived from the overall organizational goal. (From Getty, R. L., Cost justification of ergonomics improvements. In O. Brown and H.
W. Hendrick (Eds.) Human Factors in Organizational Design and Management - V, (1996), pages 417 to 420, with kind permission from Elsevier Science - NL, Sara Burgerhartstraat 25, 10055 KV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.)
FIGURE 4.3 The structure of an organization seems to depict that the goals of lower levels are to satisfy those assigned to upper levels. The view of processes and streams of processes changes the focus to the demands of the next process. (From Getty, R. L., Cost justification of ergonomics improvements. In O. Brown and H. W. Hendrick (Eds.) Human Factors in Organizational Design and Management - V, (1996), pages 417 to 420, with kind permission from Elsevier Science - NL, Sara Burgerhartstraat 25, 10055 KV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.)
4-6 Occupational Ergonomics: Design and Management of Work Systems
this activity to be effective, the total picture of the human involvement throughout production or service processes must be clearly described. However, the human factors element of process design is often considered a mere given or an automatic feature of people involved in the process. It is true that many of the ergonomic concepts are intuitive; they describe what people know they can and cannot do. Yet, there are specific laws, rules, or precepts that must be followed to attain productivity, quality, and safety goals. These precepts refer to the basic human capabilities and capacities exhibited in the workplace.
These goals can only be achieved by soliciting input from process operators. Otherwise, the process methods become a management-only decision, and individual productivity is stifled.
This discussion will present the application requirements of ergonomic precepts to process design. A review of human capabilities will illustrate all aspects of the skills that must be considered. Both pro- duction and service processes will be discussed to show the relationships to the human element. Finally, a model will be presented to be followed for the initial design of processes or review of existing processes.
The best aspect of this approach is that any individual can be an ergonomic practitioner, with a thorough orientation to ergonomic precepts coupled with experience, to provide the necessary input to realize the benefits of applying these principles. At the same time, these precepts must be followed or all the technical process development and analysis will be deficient and flawed when they are executed.
The Goals of Early Involvement to Achieve Quality
Research and development (R&D) must be aware of the manufacturing commitment of uninterrupted output and the anxiety caused by retraining of skills, new status, and communication patterns (Steele, 1989). Consequently, manufacturing people must be involved in technology development. In order to achieve producibility and productivity, designers must be aware of all the elements of the manufacturing processes and effectively utilize all resources and talents (Stephanou and Spiegl, 1992). In addition, future factories will require that all the human elements (both social and physical) as well as economic and technological aspects be addressed. The way the Japanese moved from mass production to their current manufacturing approach is discussed in The Machine that Changed the World (Womack, Jones, and Roos, 1990). The authors indicated that the Japanese could not afford to invest in mass-producing machinery to the same extent that the United States did. Consequently, people became more important. They added that when the companies agreed to provide life-time employment, the employee was expected to perform whatever tasks were necessary and contribute expertise to improvement. “So it made sense to continuously enhance the worker’s skills and to gain the benefit of their knowledge and experience as well as their brawn” (Womack, Jones, and Roos, p. 55). This last statement is probably the key to the Japanese success story. Although life-time employment cannot always be provided in the present Japanese economy, this role of the individual worker continues to be sustained, and the Japanese are able to maintain their competitive position. If other world economies genuinely accepted input from the worker with equal importance as any management activity or technical innovation, the goals of quality, productivity and safety would be realized. Ergonomic precepts provide the tools for such involvement.
Basic Human Capabilities and Capacities
It is obvious that the human element must be considered when designs are developed. Without awareness of human capabilities, the impact of the human role is not sufficiently evaluated. Designers underestimate variability and its importance in industry (Garrigou, 1991). Ergonomists should, in addition to contrib- uting their knowledge, “create design situations which enable the use of operators’ and designers’ knowl- edge and their confrontation in order to establish forecasts of future work situations concerning health and efficiency criteria in order to transform them” (Garrigou, 1991, p. 1666). The focus of this “con- frontation” should be work activity and not technology. Some work activity topics include: succession of operations, processing of information by the operator, physical strain (efforts, posture), and exposures to environmental factors. These discussions would lead to the evaluation of processes in terms of health and efficiency. This, in turn, would lead to modification and improvement.
Many, when determining the area that ergonomics or human engineering covers, may focus only on a single element such as physical aspects. Ergonomic principles cover all aspects of human skills. Alexander (1986) explains that industrial ergonomics problems should be characterized according to the type of body system that is affected. These body systems include: (1) Physical Size: Anthropometric, (2) Endur- ance: Cardiovascular, (3) Strength: Biomechanical, (4) Manipulative: Kinesiology, (5) Environmental:
External, and (6) Cognitive: Thought. These systems should be considered as engineering principles to be followed, not soft, optional choices that are weighed against other factors. Once ergonomic precepts are made part of the design process, a new awareness of human capabilities and limitations emerges and the desired outcome of the processes is achieved.
Application of Ergonomic Precepts to Processes Service Processes
There are a number of essential aspects to be considered in the design of service operations (Armistead, 1985). Elements of service processes include: (1) The interaction of the customer, either as the only receiver of the service or as integrally involved with the service delivery, (2) the behind-the-scene (back room) activities to produce the service, (3) the visible interface with the customer (front office) activities to deliver the service, (4) the different focus of the customer who may desire only parts of the same service, and (5) the simultaneous production and consumption of services to be delivered.
The need for input of the human service worker becomes apparent throughout these elements. Service delivery is very labor intensive. People skills are of greater importance than technological capability.
Understanding the intangibility of the service processes can be assisted by evaluating the role of human delivery and by role-playing the customer’s participation. Although the skill levels of the service provider vary enormously from a doctor to a cashier, the human capability is the major factor in the delivery of services. Some service processes that develop in the back room actually resemble much of the processes found in production industries. However, task analysis of service processes has an additional dimension of customer interface. The quality of this encounter is unpredictable. To improve the process, the expertise of service delivery personnel and customers should be included in the design of service processes. This utilization of ergonomic precepts enhances the service delivery personnel/customer interface and pro- duces processes that result in satisfied customers.
Production/Manufacturing Processes
Edosomwan (1989), in his discussion of rules to follow for emerging technology suggests, “The designer must combine and use interdisciplinary knowledge to understand all issues involved in the interface between man and technology” (p. 43). He sees four phases: (1) information gathering, (2) planning, assessment, and measurement, (3) selection, and (4) testing and evaluation. He feels that designers, manufacturers and potential users of technology should be involved throughout the design processes.
As production processes are designed and developed, the impact of workers and their supervisors should be evaluated by actually running a simulation and having the affected workers assess the effects.
The cost associated with “make-it-work” changes has traditionally been a major part of manufacturing process development. These changes have often been considered part of the business cost of developing
4-8 Occupational Ergonomics: Design and Management of Work Systems
new technology. However, hidden in these costs are the quality and productivity costs that are not always apparent during the design phases. Further removed from the design arena are costs that are impacted by repeated exposure to manufacturing processes that fail to take into account human capability and capacity. These processes, over a period of time, cause cumulative trauma injuries. Costs associated with injuries are high and so are the costs due to poor quality and productivity. Human errors caused by process designs that exceed human cognitive skills lead workers into a vicious cycle of repeated injury, inefficiency, and quality problems. To break the cycle, involve the worker in evaluating the processes, and many of these effects will be avoided. The production worker may have a simple input such as, “the task is uncomfortable,” or, “is hard to understand.” These inputs boldly signal the need for change.