Waldemar Karwowski, Ph.D., P.E., C.P.E., is a professor of industrial engineering and director of the Center for Industrial Ergonomics at the University of Louisville, Kentucky. Professor Marras is also co-director of the Ohio State University Institute for Ergonomics.
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN ERGONOMICS
ERGONOMICS AND THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT SECTION I The Office Environment
Service Systems
Introduction: TQM and Human Factors Programs in Industry
Even service operations, such as data entry and computer programming, have been moved "offshore" with the help of modern communication links. With few exceptions, programs arising from the quality movement and the human factors movement were concurrent but unrelated in industry.
Fundamentals: The Basic Tenets of TQM and Human Factors
1-2 Occupational ergonomics: Design and management of work systems . 1995; Design experiments: Taguchi, 1986), so that the process can change from closed-loop control using performance feedback, to open-loop control using valid prediction models (Drury and Prabhu, 1994). Optimize the work through equipment, environment and procedure design before optimizing the operator through selection, placement, motivation and training.
Applications of TQM and Ergonomics to Each Other
Standard quality techniques should be used to measure process parameters, and models of human performance and well-being to measure and understand the role of the operator in the system. Understand the forces beyond the process within the factory, such as end customer requirements and active management of the supply chain.
Summary
Integrating quality management and hazard management: a behavioral cybernetic perspective, Proceedings of the Human Factors Association's 35th Annual Meeting. Organizational context for aircraft maintenance and inspection, in Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 34th Annual Meeting, Volume.
Introduction: The Concept of Participatory Ergonomics and its Expanded Interpretation
The concept of participatory ergonomics originates from discussions between Noro and Kazutaka Kogi in Singapore in 1983. Noro proposed the term participatory approach or participatory ergonomics for a workshop in Hawaii (Noro and Imada, 1984).
Participatory Ergonomics as a Company-Wide Activity
Recently, specialists have begun to expand the range of application of participatory ergonomics from factory workers to product designers and users. The two types of participatory ergonomics summarized above are described next - first in the context of companies and enterprises and then in the wider context.
Steps for Participatory Ergonomics
The ergonomic tools described there are a series of creative and well-thought-out ideas that actually came from factory workers in their own workplaces and not from specialists or managers. Their ideas range from a campaign called "0.1-s Operation" to avoid wasting even 0.1 second during work to a fault tree drawn by the workers themselves.
Education
It is important to provide information about better working positions and warnings about working positions that are harmful when using the lifting devices in the factory.
Team Building
Measures for Occupational Safety and Health Problems and Human Errors
Participatory Ergonomics for Product Development and its Users
Dialogue-Style VDT Guidelines
The guideline leaflet takes a dialogue-like approach with texts such as “Which attitude is closest to your current attitude?” and a procedure similar to that of a board game; the dialogue proceeds in the same way that a game piece moves towards its target. It is a pictorial VDT guideline and when the user achieves the target, he is guided to the desired posture.
Product Test Charter
Every factor from sitting through the keyboard to the arrangement of the screen is checked in a progressive order.
Taking Advantage of the Internet
Common Knowledge
Gill (1990) stated that in a knowledge-based system there is a limit to the art of acquisition in trying to understand active knowledge and skills. Based on the experience of conducting case studies with insurance agents and consultants, Gill points out the importance of knowledge of the tacit dimension such as a metaphor, a speaker's feelings and cultural references that appear in conversation.
Participatory Ergonomics in Virtual Environment
The extent of such general knowledge is an aspect that ergonomics must elucidate in the 1990s, an era of internationalization, in which countries with different cultures communicate with each other at an unprecedented level of intensity.
Conclusion: Participatory Ergonomics as Future Ergonomics
Implementing a team approach to core criticality and safety: Using participatory methods in macroergonomics. Use of participatory ergonomics teams to address musculoskeletal hazards in the red meat packaging industry.
Strategies for Improving Workplaces
The problem, however, is that both management and experts have different perceptions of problems and needs than the employees. Management and experts do not have enough capacity to become aware of all opportunities for improvement.
What Housekeeping Really Can Offer for Workplace Improvement
The quantity, placement and condition of materials in a workplace are some of the most essential aspects of the household and at the same time a visible reflection of the quality of the production process. At the same time, they are closely related to the ergonomic requirements of the employees.
Tuttava — A Strategy to Initiate Workplace Improvements
But if that person's "ownership" of the process becomes too strong, it can drive users away. Good work practices should be (a) specific, (b) positive and make work easier, (c) generally acceptable, (d) simple and short statements, (e) start with action verbs, and (f) easy to observe and measure. .
Why It Is Important to Observe Conditions Instead of Behaviors
The right time to end the feedback period is when the average of the index appears to be no longer changing. The team should conduct follow-up measurements over several months, once a month or every other month.
Tuttava Helped a Steel Mill Turn Around the Safety Culture
The new management did not have the same political power and charisma as the retired president. Because the steel factory was large, the implementation had to be done department by department over several years.
Other Proven Benefits
Change strategies that emphasize legislation and regulations easily lead to negative sentiments about safety and ergonomics. Effectiveness of Behavior Based Safety – The Curtin Workplace Accident Process, in The Proceedings of 1996 Occupational Injury Symposium, February Sydney, Australia, 73.
Introduction
When improving processes for TQM or continuous improvement, the focus is on how to improve the process to achieve a quality product or service. In contrast, the focus in ergonomics is on how to improve the process to make it more compatible with the person performing the process or task by adapting the work to the individual.
Human Element Links Clearly to Continuous Improvement
When the human influence on service development is neglected, individual needs are not met and investment in service development suffers. The human element and organizational culture are the common thread of continuous improvement initiatives (Getty, 1996).
Organizational Process Orientation
For change to happen, there must be a clear relevance to the objectives of the processes. In the process of change, the first attention is often paid to criticism of the organizational structure.
Utilizing Ergonomic Precepts to Design Processes
A human skills review will show all aspects of skills that need to be considered. Without awareness of human capabilities, the impact of human role is not sufficiently evaluated.
Method of Developing Ergonomic-Oriented Processes
Additionally, those unfamiliar with the process will miss all the specifics of the assignments that are unique to the textbook approach. The application of ergonomic rules becomes a clear method of identification with the many objectives of continuous improvement, which are often overlooked by those closest to the processes intended for improvement.
Measuring Results
Simulation designed and run by process operators solves the majority of the shortcomings found in unrepresentative simulations. Getting fully involved in the application of ergonomics by process operators, managers and customers creates an awareness of the human element that is essential to the success of all processes that produce an organization's product or deliver its services.
Conclusion
A continuously evolving simplification of physical requirements that improves productivity and quality is consistent with continuous improvement. Garrigou, A., The role of ergonomics in the case of worker participation in the design of complex industrial installations, in Proceedings of the Congress of the International Ergonomics Association, IEA, Paris, 1991.
Introduction
The Project Plan
Care was taken not to repeat a mistake made by others in overselling the services before capacity had grown, creating a backlog that could undermine credibility. Phase two was to identify areas at SNL most in need of ergonomics and train management on the benefits of ergonomics and the services available.
A Quality Approach
This means that staff had to be trained to deliver services and standard processes had to be developed and documented.
The Corporate Ergonomics Group
Special project teams were formed with the line organizations to work together on risk identification and mitigation. Consistent with a quality approach, when LOB meeting productivity began to decline, sub-teams were formed on a voluntary basis with specific responsibilities.
Services Developed
In addition to the standard office seating offered by the facility staff, the program offered ten alternative models through a seat fitting process. In addition to the bread-and-butter services described above, CEG was occasionally called upon to provide advice in special situations.
Accomplishments and Performance Metrics
Using the data inclusion criteria, we calculated the number of cases and associated costs for the four years of the program (Figure 5.6). When analyzed for the location of work and the type of work being performed, the pattern shown in Figure 5.9 is obtained.
Quality Metrics and Awards
These results were instrumental in planning the program and creating an effective chair fitting process. The author would like to acknowledge and express thanks to the CEG members who selflessly gave of themselves to make the program a success.
Introduction
Alternative estimation methods are briefly discussed in the third section of the chapter (such as absenteeism rates and machine availability).
Fundamentals: Identifying Costs and Benefits of Ergonomics Activities
These are costs associated with the maintenance and day-to-day operation of the program. Typical costs associated with an employee's departure include layoff costs, reduced productivity, and open job costs.
Method Application: Sample Calculations for Evaluating and Tracking Costs and Benefits
BVB Company is evaluating the purchase of a lift table for a specific location in its plant. If the company has established a MARR of 10%, the lift table should be purchased, based on economic projections.
Additional Metrics: Results-Oriented Statistics
Concluding Remarks
Background
Production equipment was installed in the factory without sufficient attention during design and construction to health and safety issues. The plant health and safety team refuses to allow the equipment to operate until several deficiencies are addressed.
Management Duties in a Corporation
As an example of how such goals can use resources to achieve common goals, consider the following example. If this situation occurs frequently in a corporation, it is to the mutual benefit of the health and safety function and the manufacturing function to ensure that health and safety issues are addressed before production equipment reaches the manufacturing facility.
Intangible Benefits
You must argue that your proposal outweighs the others, or find a way to combine your proposal with others to make joint use of resources to achieve common goals. Case cost information of this nature, paired with information on the number of cases occurring in the company, provides a good first approximation of the cost of ergonomic cases to the company.
Cost Justification Methods
The investment is the cost of the ergonomic solution or $5,000 for the material handling changes. This cost will be incurred immediately, so the present value of the cost is also $10,000.
How Do You Determine the Full Cost of an Injury?
The additional labor and material cost of rework is the result of ergonomic impairment. There is also a cost associated with the time of the person doing the training.
What Other Costs Should You Consider?
This explains the injury pattern that is not evident by simply maintaining the number of compensable injuries. Reducing traffic by just three people per year would pay back the cost of workstation modifications.
Conclusions
In addition, due to the high skill required, considerable coach time is required to assist in skill development. Later in the training year, the major cost becomes lost sales due to the lower performance of the new hires.
Introduction
Several new and improved methods of economic analysis are presented below that assist in the estimation and analysis of appropriate costs and benefits. Another example of the connection between economics and ergonomics is the notion of simultaneous tasks (ie, pursuing two tasks during the same time frame such as driving and talking).
Economic Analysis Begins with the Identification of Costs, Benefits, and Required Investments
There is a required investment of about $150.00 for a heavy duty industrial grade power screwdriver that occurs at the beginning of the project and the cost of electricity over the life of the project must also be factored in. And finally, the expected life of the screwdriver is several years at the anticipated level of use.
Interest Calculations and Discounted Cash Flows
The method of calculating this equivalence can be illustrated by the following example, where continuous interest at rate j yields exactly 12% in one year with one compounding period, as shown below: Furthermore, when interest is compounded periodically, none of the cash flows in the period interest cannot be accrued until the very end of the time period.
Present Worth of Cash Flow Series and Functions
During that first year, the accumulated cash flow is ($0 + $C)/2 or $C/2 because the flow goes from. The formulas for continuous cash flows in Table 8.2 correspond closely to those for discrete series of cash flows in Table 8.1.
Time Savings of Human Operators
The manufacturing operations cost of $24,000 per year uniformly over the actual length of the production phase and the present value calculations are for a step function. Excluding the initial setup, the total amount of PW at the start of the second lap is.
Parallel Processing Economics
In fact, the cost of processors 1 and 2 is described below as a function of the assigned workload. In fact, at about 6.32 workload units, the cost of running the two individual processors is about the same.
Using Economic Principles to Guide Ergonomic Studies of Automated Highway Design
One of the ways to transfer control from the driver to the central computer was automatically as soon as the first wheel crossed the AHS lane. The maneuvers necessitated the gaps between successive strings of vehicles traveling along the AHS lane to get the incoming vehicle safely into that lane.
Personnel Selection Economics
If the cost of testing was estimated as a function of the validity coefficient of 25 e3r, the question remains which is the higher amount. That figure also shows a range of r-values where the total cost is within 5% of the minimum cost.
Final Remarks
An error analysis of the time constraint learning curve model, International Journal of Production Research. The practical application of the science of ergonomics in the vast majority of situations has the potential to maximize the worker's contribution to the work process without compromising safety and health.
Why Do Organizations Feel They Need Ergonomics?
They subscribed to the Ford school of thought of yesteryear without appreciating the development of ergonomics science and the significant cost that repetitive work can have on injury risk and outcome. The ability to quantify and qualify the cost benefit of ergonomic improvement initiatives is a critical skill that will differentiate those ergonomists who are considered a source of value to the bottom line from those who are considered disruptive to society.
What Are the Costs Associated with Ergonomic Mismatches?
When developmental factors are applied to the data, the expected cost of the final losses is estimated to be $4,169,214. The first three days of work-related absences are not paid under workers' compensation, but may be covered by other resources, such as sick leave or short-term disability (STD).
Methods for Justifying Ergonomic Interventions
One of the most commonly used methods for evaluating and valuing potential improvement projects is the internal rate of return. The result is that the cost-benefit ratio is equal to the net present value of inflows divided by the net present value of outflows.
The Influence of Corporate Culture on Cost Benefit Analysis
Depending on the audience to whom the cost-benefit analysis is being presented, each of the above models will be of more or less value to them. The complexity of the new technology that can be used (redesign of an automated material handling system).
Justifying Ergonomics Initiatives — Case Studies
In these cases it is essential that the employer not only provide the employee with exemplary medical care, but also identify and control those factors in the workplace that were potential causes of the injury. The employer's insurance provider was informed of this decision and contacted the employer's management to discuss the case.
Introduction
At the same time, a successful ergonomics program need not include all of these factors.
Discussion of Success Factors
It is important to address obstacles to the success of the ergonomics program early and often. An example of the assessment provided by Evaluating Your ERGONOMICS Program is shown in Figure 10.6.
Conclusion
It is imperative to develop and maintain strong political support among the organization's safety and health committee, senior management, and key staff groups such as the technical and health services. If these things are done as the program grows, the political support will be there when it is needed.
Introduction
In addition to the phases included in the process (Figure 11.1), a routine is also desired to utilize the experience for the next project. The multidisciplinary approach must be taken into account when forming the process team, taking into account the background of the participants.23 In fact, the second most important requirement, after the involvement of the employees and the commitment of the management, for the successful implementation of ergonomics is the multidisciplinary approach. 2.
Organization of the Process
On the other hand, not using employee knowledge can mean that important underlying factors are not taken into account. Starting training from your own situation, e.g. evaluation of the worker's own workstation seems to be a suitable method.9 In addition to training in the field of ergonomics, training in teamwork and communication is also important.11.
Identifying the Problem
Unfortunately, ergonomists often occupy low organizational positions, which makes their negotiating position weak.14 In addition to the change agent, dedicated people are of great value, and an early identification of them - if they are present - is recommended.
Analyzing the Problem
Developing a Solution
However, in a process of continuous change, it will soon become apparent that an administrative approach is also necessary. Many of the methods used in the problem identification phase are also suitable in the solution phase, for example group discussions and brainstorming.
Implementing the Solution
Information about the stages of the analysis, from concepts to detailed plans, is important for the acceptance of all directly or indirectly involved. The training must be adapted to the particular situation and take place on the right occasion and should preferably take place in the workplace rather than in classrooms. 16.
Evaluating the Result
Using the Results and Experiences for the Next Process
Introduction
Neglect of ergonomic considerations in the workplace contributes greatly to the incidence of musculoskeletal disorders, eg, back pain and cumulative trauma disorders of the upper extremity. The result of this research is often in the form of models and guidelines to help engineers design cars.
Organizational Issues in Developing a Comprehensive Ergonomics Process
A model that explains many of the inequalities in industrial settings is called the Organizational Politics Model (see Figure 12.1). People who design work often do not know specific information pertaining to day-to-day operation (eg, process sheets and industrial engineering studies may vary from designer to actual operation).
Recommended Methods for Implementing a Plant Ergonomics Program
