A1 Business and Technical College Human Factors and Ergonomics Paper Questions- 1. Define the terms- Ergonomics Anthropometry 2. Describe how an ideal w

A1 Business and Technical College Human Factors and Ergonomics Paper Questions-

1. Define the terms-

Ergonomics
Anthropometry

2. Describe how an ideal workspace should be designed.

3. Explain ergonomic recommendations for visual display terminals/VDT workstations.

4. Explain the guidelines for an effective injury prevention program at workplace.

You can use textbook, class presentations, internet or any other book. However, if you do so, , please cite your references at the end of the answer. Use MLA or APA style for references.
Make sure you answer all of the questions in detail Chapter 1: Human Factors and Ergonomics
From the Earliest Times to the Present
1
Definition, Purpose and Scope of Ergonomics
2
?Study of the interaction between people and
technology and the factors influencing the
interaction
?To make systems work better by improving peoplecentred interactions
?All aspects of working life with some additional
focus on consumer products such as cars and
electronics
Human Requirements ARE System Requirements
3
?Requirements for:
? equipment that is usable and safe
? tasks that are compatible with people’s expectations,
limitations and training
? an environment that is comfortable and appropriate for the
task
? a system of work organisation that recognises peoples’ social
and economic needs
Ergonomics Knowledge Base and Toolkits
4
?Ergonomics is supported by a large scientific knowledge base
(Ergonomics, Human Factors, Applied Ergonomics, International
Journal of Industrial Ergonomics)
?New tools being developed all the time – including validation
and reliability studies
?Basic prerequisites for ergonomics studies and assessments –
checklists, task analysis and standards
?To use a theatrical analogy, checklists are for evaluating the
design of the set. Task analysis is used to describe the
choreography of the performance. Standards enable the
performance to be assessed (‘audited’)
Close-Up of a Human-Machine Model in Ergonomics
5
Ergonomic Checklists
6
?The basic checklist maps onto the close-up model of the
human-machine system
?Checklists have been around for years and are useful as
an ‘aide-memoire’ at the early stages of an assessment.
?Many specialised checklists are available in the
literature.
Task Analysis
7
?You have to understand the task before you can assess
it or re-design it
?“…an ordered sequence of tasks and subtasks, which
identifies the performer or user; the action, activities
or operations; the environment; the starting state, the
goal state; the requirements to complete the task such
as hardware, software or information.” Synder (1991)
?Sometimes presented in ‘Task-Flow’ format
Standards
8
?The ISO has done a lot of work on Ergonomics over the last 25
years
?The number of standards explicitly concerned with ergonomics
is increasing
?There are both ‘micro-standards’ e.g. ISO 1128 parts 1-3 (2000)
Ergonomics – Manual Handling
?And ‘macro-standards’ e.g. ISO 18529 (2000) Ergonomics of
Human System Interaction – Human Centred Lifecycle Process
Descriptions
?DefStan 0025 is the MoD’s in-house standard
?Standards are useful when talking to engineers and designers
Why Do We Need to Design Jobs?
9
?Pre-industrial era:
? Very
few ‘jobs’ existed at all
? About 2/3 of the UK population involved in agriculture doing
whatever was required
? Professions and trades were common. These were not jobs as
we understand the term nowadays
?Modern Era
? Industrial jobs appeared during the industrial revolution,
together with new professions and trades
? New jobs are appearing with the ICT revolution
? Need to understand what makes a job enjoyable, what makes
people choose to do it effectively and safely and to stay in it
Lessons to be Learned
10
?In order to bring about large changes, job design needs to be
considered early on in planning
?Tendency to confuse jobs with functions and to design jobs by
default
?The fact that jobs are going to be designed or redesigned must
made explicit very early on
?Consider safety, reliability and psychosocial factors to arrive at a
set of tasks for the operator that will be coherent, consistent and
provide the basis for a satisfying job
Problems in Highly Automated Systems
11
Operators are left in a supervisory role with little ‘job’ at all introducing the
‘Ironies of Automation’
1. The automated system is supposed to perform the task better than the operator. It is
ironic that the operator is supposed to determine whether the machine is performing
optimally and to take over when the machine fails.
2. If the operator only assumes control when the machine breaks down or in
emergencies he will be less skilled than if he always controlled the system. In
automated systems then, operators are required to assume control at the most
difficult times and with suboptimal control skills
3. Second generation operators (who have never controlled the system) will have no
skills (subroutines) only knowledge
4. Operators of poorly designed automated systems will have better control and recovery
skills than those of well-designed systems
Some possible solutions to these dilemmas are to build manual control practice into the
organisation of the work or to use simulators to train operators in the necessary manual
control skills.
An Alternative Approach
12
? Dearden et al. (2000): “The goal of allocation of function is to design a system
for which the performance is high; the tasks of the operator are achievable
and appropriate to the operator’s role; and the development of the system is
technically and economically feasible.” When allocating functions, then,
designers need to consider safety, reliability and psychosocial factors to
arrive at a set of tasks for the operator that will be coherent, consistent and
provide the basis for a satisfying job. Candidate functions for total
automation can be selected on the basis of the feasibility and cost of
developing automated means of implementing them. The relation of the
function to the operator’s role also needs to be considered. Functions should
be automated if they are separable from the operator’s role and do not
interact with it. Functions that are central to the operator’s role, or provide
information that critically affects the performance of the role, should not be
automated.
Flexible Allocation of Function
13
?Unlike more traditional approaches, flexible allocation takes
workload into account
?Functions are allocated to operators, machines or both
?Operators play an active role in system operation
?Increased automation can be called into operation if operators
are in danger of being overloaded
?Also need to consider socioeconomic environment and the
availability of labour
Lessons to Be Learned
14
?A function is not a task and it is certainly not the basis for
a meaningful job
?Just because operators are good at a task, it doesn’t
mean that they should do it or that doing it would make
for a good job
Review of Psychosocial Factors in Job Design
15
?Taylorism and job design: work simplification, task
design and incentives
?Participation
?Motivation
?Job Satisfaction
?Psychosocial stress
?Computer (IT) stress
?Stress management in job design
Traditional Approach of Taylorism
16
‘In the past, the man has been first; in the future, the system must be first’.
Frederick Winslow Taylor. The Principles of Scientific Management, 1908, page 7
? Find the one best way of performing a task
? Design everything to support that method
? Set group or personal targets for performance levels
? Implement an incentive/bonus payment scheme
to maximise productivity
17
Historical Context
18
?The age of ‘pure engineering’ was over
?Taylor recognised that the next wave of productivity advances
would occur, not as a result of buying ever more powerful
machines, but by developing systems to manage the way the
machines were used.
?Taylor recognised that it was management’s job to manage and
that this meant having formal systems in place to monitor
working practices and their relationship to productivity
?Every job, not matter how small, was worthy of study and
improvement
Taylorism as a Method of Production Management
19
Under Taylorism, job design is nothing more than the
implementation of a production management system
designed to maximise output at minimal cost.
In practice, jobs are broken down into their simplest form
and workers spend their time carrying out well-learned,
repetitive tasks.
The bonus scheme rewards high productivity
Advantages of Taylorism for Management
20
1. Greater flexibility in allocating operators to easily learnt tasks.
2. Fewer skilled workers were needed. Skill shortages were
avoided and training costs and wages could be more easily
contained.
3. The introduction of paced work enabled production schedules
to be more rigorously quantified. Better predictions of output
could be made.
4. If everyone worked at the same pace, the result was always a
finished product.
Advantages and disadvantages of Taylorism
for the Workforce
21
Advantages:
? Well-paid jobs
? More jobs for unskilled people
? Workers can afford to buy the products they make
Disadvantages:
? Workers lost what little autonomy and control they may have had
? Craft skills devalued or made redundant
? Work was boring and repetitive
? Such work carries increased risk of stress disorders in older people and
WMSDs
? Only considers employees’ basic economic needs
Taylorism in the Office: The Larkin Building,
1908
22
Modern Taylorism
Time and Motion Study and ‘Methods Engineering’
23
?Time and motion study (methods engineering) can be
criticised on many grounds – for example, that it only
looks at the superficial features of task performance, that
it makes unwarranted assumptions about people and
that it is little more than common sense
?The social aspects or work are ignored as is the
satisfaction to be gained by doing a ‘whole piece of work’
Taylorism in the 1970s Office
24
Participation as a form of Industrial Democracy
25
?In some countries participation between management and
workers is formal and institutionalised with worker’s
representatives having a seat on the board
?Less formal participation may be ad-hoc and linked to specific
projects
?Participation is not new
Benefits of Participation: A Case Study
26
Coch and French Jr. (1948) carried out an investigation of participation in a US pyjama
factory staffed by young, unskilled women. Staff turnover was high and workers were
paid on the basis of individual performance. Management collaborated with two
sociologists in an attempt to deal with the problems. Unusually for such studies, it was
possible to introduce a degree of experimental control with a control group, where
change was introduced by management without the involvement of employees, a
‘representative group’, where change was introduced after discussions with employee
representatives and a ‘total participation’ group where all employees were involved.
Production fell by 10-20% in the control group immediately after the change whereas it
was maintained in the representative group, rising 10-15% after a few weeks. In the
participation group, production rose immediately and the gains were maintained for
several months. It was argued that the participatory approach had produced better
group cohesion which countered any frustrations bought about during the change and
that people will accept change more readily if they feel they have some control over its
effects. If this explanation is correct, then participation has to become an established
management process if its benefits are to be sustained.
Attempts to ‘Humanise Work’
27
?Germany 1970s. Humanisation of Work Programmes
?Sweden 1980s. Job Reform
?UK 1980s. Quality of Working Life programmes
?These programmes were tied in with concepts of ‘Industrial
Democracy’ and with social change as new generations of school
leavers appeared with better education and higher expectations
Industrial Democracy in the 1970s:
The Open Plan Office
28
Success of Work Humanisation Programmes
29
? Boreham (1992), who carried-out an international comparative study of the
organisation of work and the amount of discretion available to employees in a variety
of organisations in the US., Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, Japan, Sweden. The
following employee groups were sampled; managers, professionals, clerks, skilled
workers, semi-skilled and unskilled workers. More than half of the employees
sampled reported negligible freedom to put their ideas into practice or to introduce
new tasks. Autonomy was found to be a property of higher status individuals. Lower
status individuals were almost totally excluded from participation in decisions about
production in their organisations. Citing such findings as evidence for the ‘Myth of
Post-Fordist Management’, Boreham concluded that there was scant evidence to
suggest that truly participative organisational practices had been implemented in the
countries studied. In one sense, then, Taylorism lives on, alive and well in the call
centers of modern computerised offices.
What Should We be Doing?
30
?Consult Users
?Encourage participation in systems design, Marguiles (1981) for
example, discussing allocation of function:
Why should it not be possible to initiate preparations for a new computer
system by informing everybody involved in its use about the qualities,
possibilities and limitations of the system and then ask them to consider in
small working groups what part of their work they would like to assign to the
computer and what other tasks they would like to assume instead?….It is for
the human being, individually and collectively that the optimal operating
mode must be found, and not for the computer.
Lessons to be Learned
31
Good job design depends on consultation with users. Find
out:
?
Who does what?
? What skills are used?
? Under what constraints?
? How will the new system affect this?
? Will new skills be needed? Will de-skilling occur?
? How much training time will be needed?
? What’s the line management structure? How will it change? Will anyone
lose out?
Implications of the Theory
32
?To stop workers becoming dissatisfied provide: a good
working environment, good pay and conditions and job
security
?To make workers satisfied provide: opportunities for
growth, intrinsically meaningful and interesting tasks
Taylorism in the 21st Century
33
?Call centre work
?Clinical governance in the Health Care Sector?
(‘Clinical Governance’ has many Tayloristic components including: the
specification of the ‘best’ way of performing a task (including treatment of
patients); setting of targets for service delivery; optimisation of the
workspace to support the method; regular clinical audits by management to
ensure that standards and targets are being met. Depending on one’s point
of view this can be seen both as way of de-skilling clinicians or as a way of
optimising service delivery to patients).
Technological and Social Change – New Jobs, Different
Work: New Wine in Old Bottles?
34
?Technological change makes some jobs extinct (such as copy
typists) while introducing new jobs (such as call centre operator)
?How these jobs are designed has an impact on who can do them
and how satisfying they will be to do
?We have to consider what people want from work, what they
get from it and what options they think they have….
?However, the basic principles for designing a good job don’t
change
Overall Design of the Physical Environment
35
? Satisfaction with the physical environment is a component of job satisfaction
?
Color has no demonstrated effect on job satisfaction or performance
and is often confounded by lighting and contrast
? Open plan designs can improve the job satisfaction of lower level employees
by providing comfort and contact with others
? Informal communication does increase with proximity and so there may be a
trade-off between the desire to maximise the number of employees in a work
area and the need to minimise disruption
? Satisfaction with the physical environment seems to depend on congruence
between formal rank and the physical features of workplaces
? A point of diminishing returns exists where further improvements in the
physical environment will no longer be cost-beneficial.
? Privacy is associated with satisfaction with the physical environment – it
involves restriction of unwanted observation and protection from
disturbance, distraction or interruption
Overall Design of the Physical Environment
36
New Working Patterns
37
?An ergonomic approach should consider:
? Organisation size and space requirements including the need for proximity
and alternative working arrangements, such as working from home, “hotdesking” and job sharing
? Delineation of work units through enclosure, location and physical
boundaries
? Job specialisation and differentiation of groups and individuals
? Standardisation of furniture and equipment
? Flexibility of function to accommodate new patterns of working
New Patterns of Working
38
? Homeworking:
?
Many workers in telephone and internet-based occupations are able to work from
home. Home workplaces may need formal assessment because in some countries,
national health and safety legislation still applies and it is the employer’s
responsibility to ensure that working conditions at home meet national standards.
Homeworkers may face more or less distraction depending on their personal
circumstances, but all may be at risk of social isolation. Social isolation can be
reduced by requiring homeworkers to attend regular office meetings and by
ensuring that homeworkers can access the office intranet.
? Hot-desking and ‘Hotelling’
?
Furniture should be easy to adjust as each employee may have to adjust it every
time he or she uses it. Docking stations for laptops and DSE training for all
Ergonomics and Job Design for Organisational
effectiveness
39
?Although productivity and profitability are central,
organisational effectiveness also demands:
? Satisfaction
and commitment amongst members
? Communication and coordination between work units
? A mutually supportive relationship with the external environment
?So, good job design is a prerequisite for organisational
effectiveness
Ergonomic Approach to Job Design
40
?Embed job design in systems design – explicitly!
?Basic requirements for participation
?Basic requirements for a ‘good’ job
?Basic psychosocial requirements
?Basic steps in stress management
?‘Do’s and Don’ts’ in job design
?Job design drivers
Basic Requirements for a ‘Good Job’
41
1. Optimum work loading
2. Minimum role ambiguities (each worker has a clearly defined set
of responsibilities which he can relate to the objectives of the
organisation)
3. Minimum role conflict (there is a clear relationship between an
individual’s role, how he is rewarded and he and his co-workers
expectations)
4. Support from colleagues or management
5. Social content – interaction with others is ‘built-in’ to the design
of the job and the execution of basic work functions
Basic Requirements for Participation
42
?Employees have to acknowledge the need for participation
?Employees have to trust that their participation will not have
negative effects and that they will have some control over the
final decisions
?Employees have to perceive that changes are being introduced
in a legitimate way
?Employees believe that change is being implemented correctly
?Employees have to be given a real role to play in the
introduction and testing of new ways of working
Basic Psychosocial Requirements
43
Gardell (1981) summarised to requirements for the psychosocial
work environment as follows:
? Work must be arranged to allow workers to influence their own working
situation.
? Work must be arranged to provide the worker an overview and
understanding of the whole process.
? Work must be arranged to give the worker the chance to use and develop his
human resources.
? Work must be arranged to allow for human contact and cooperation
? Work must be arranged to allow the worker to satisfy other demands on his
time – e.g…
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