QFD: a methodological tool for integration of ergonomics at the design stage

As a marked increase in the number of musculoskeletal disorders was noted in many industrialized countries and more specifically in companies that require the use of hand tools, the French National Research and Safety Institute launched in 1999 a research program on the topic of integrating ergonomics into hand tool design. After a brief review of the problems of integrating ergonomics at the design stage, the paper shows how the "Quality Function Deployment" method has been applied to the design of a boning knife and it highlights the difficulties encountered. Then, it demonstrates how this method can be a methodological tool geared to greater ergonomics consideration in product design.     

3D printed deformable product handle material for improved ergonomics

In product handle ergonomic design optimisation researchers focused mainly on the size and shape of the handles; however, interface handle materials have been neglected despite showing potential to improve ergonomics. Deformable elastic cellular meta-materials with pre-engineered mechanical response based on the biomechanical evaluation of human hand soft tissue during grasping were designed and manufactured using commercial 3D printing technology. A sawing task has been utilized for the evaluation of subjective comfort rating. Based on distinct mechanical behaviour of cellular solids, 3D printed handle interface material stays stiff at the low grasping forces and deforms only when certain amount of contact pressure is reached. Cellular density can be easily adjusted to meet the desired biomechanical response. Hereby stability of the handle in hands is maximised while providing more uniform contact pressure distribution on the soft tissue at higher grasping forces. By this means comfort rating is also increased compared to stiff handle interface materials such as plastic. Results also suggest the handle material has greater influence on the comfort rating than the handle size and shape.Relevance to industryApplication of this research includes the utilization of this methodology and design techniques in development of handles for powered and non-powered tools and handheld products for improved comfort and also ergonomics.     

Improving digital human modelling for proactive ergonomics in design

This paper presents the need to improve existing digital human models (DHMs) so they are better able to serve as effective ergonomics analysis and design tools. Existing DHMs are meant to be used by a designer early in a product development process when attempting to improve the physical design of vehicle interiors and manufacturing workplaces. The emphasis in this paper is placed on developing future DHMs that include valid posture and motion prediction models for various populations. It is argued that existing posture and motion prediction models now used in DHMs must be changed to become based on real motion data to assure validity for complex dynamic task simulations. It is further speculated that if valid human posture and motion prediction models are developed and used, these can be combined with psychophysical and biomechanical models to provide a much greater understanding of dynamic human performance and population specific limitations and that these new DHM models will ultimately provide a powerful ergonomics design tool.     

Improving digital human modelling for proactive ergonomics in design

This paper presents the need to improve existing digital human models (DHMs) so they are better able to serve as effective ergonomics analysis and design tools. Existing DHMs are meant to be used by a designer early in a product development process when attempting to improve the physical design of vehicle interiors and manufacturing workplaces. The emphasis in this paper is placed on developing future DHMs that include valid posture and motion prediction models for various populations. It is argued that existing posture and motion prediction models now used in DHMs must be changed to become based on real motion data to assure validity for complex dynamic task simulations. It is further speculated that if valid human posture and motion prediction models are developed and used, these can be combined with psychophysical and biomechanical models to provide a much greater understanding of dynamic human performance and population specific limitations and that these new DHM models will ultimately provide a powerful ergonomics design tool.     

Dissemination and use of a participatory ergonomics guide for workplaces

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) result in lost-time injury claims and lost productivity worldwide, placing a substantial burden on workers and workplaces. Participatory ergonomics (PE) is a popular approach to reducing MSDs; however, there are challenges to implementing PE programmes. Using evidence to overcome challenges may be helpful but the impacts of doing so are unknown. We sought to disseminate an evidence-based PE tool and to describe its use. An easy-to-use, evidence-based PE Guide was disseminated to workplace parties, who were surveyed about using the tool. The greatest barrier to using the tool was a lack of time. Reported tool use included for training purposes, sharing and integrating the tool into existing programmes. New actions related to tool use included training, defining team responsibilities and suggesting programme implementation steps. Evidence-based tools could help ergonomists overcome some challenges involved in implementing injury reduction programmes such as PE.

Practitioner Summary

Practitioners experience challenges implementing programmes to reduce the burden of MSDs in workplaces. Implementing participatory interventions requires multiple workplace parties to be ‘on-board’. Disseminating and using evidence-based guides may help to overcome these challenges. Using evidence-based tools may help ergonomics practitioners implement PE programmes.     

Nanomaterials in the field of design ergonomics: present status

Application of nanotechnology and nanomaterials is not new in the field of design, but a recent trend of extensive use of nanomaterials in product and/or workplace design is drawing attention of design researchers all over the world. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to describe the diverse use of nanomaterials in product and workplace design with special emphasis on ergonomics (occupational health and safety; thermo-regulation and work efficiency, cognitive interface design; maintenance of workplace, etc.) to popularise the new discipline ‘nanoergonomics’ among designers, design users and design researchers. Nanoergonomics for sustainable product and workplace design by minimising occupational health risks has been felt by the authors to be an emerging research area in coming years.

Practitioner Summary: Use of nanomaterials in the field of design ergonomics is less explored till date. In the present review, an attempt has been made to extend general awareness among ergonomists/designers about applications of nanomaterials/nanotechnology in the field of design ergonomics and about health implications of nanomaterials during their use.     

On the evolution of task-based analysis of manual materials handling, and its applicability in contemporary ergonomics

The industrial revolution significantly changed the way work was organized and analyzed by the introduction and widespread implementation of the division of labor philosophy. This philosophy has continued to dominate work design, and has evolved beyond the factory to include many facets of service industries, and even professional occupations. The analysis of manual work, particularly materials handling tasks, remains an active domain of ergonomics research and practice. Many of the task-analytic tools used for workplace analysis are rooted in the philosophy of dividing work into elements, analyzing the individual elements, and synthesizing the results into conclusions about the entire job, including the risk of contracting musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The authors discuss the notion that the nature of modern work, which is characterized by multiple tasks in a complex time pattern, and the complex nature of MSDs, which are influenced by biomechanical as well as psychological, political, and economic factors, may limit the effectiveness of classical task analytic techniques in preventing MSDs.     

Virtual environments and ergonomics: needs and opportunities

Although based on a still immature technology, virtual environments appear to have potential for applications in industry, commerce, medicine and education. The role of ergonomics will be in development of improved virtual environment interfaces and in enabling better utilization of the technology through specifying user needs and requirements and developing evaluation methodologies. By extension, ergonomists will also be involved in building virtual environments for use in areas of ergonomics activity such as workplace layout, interface design, procedures testing, education and training. This paper overviews virtual environment attributes and capabilities and proposes a framework for their specification, development and evaluation, before summarizing current ergonomics research issues. Current work on participant side effects is summarized. A strong case is made for the potential value of ergonomics for virtual environments and vice versa.     

DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTELLIGENT PRODUCT DESIGN SYSTEM: INTEGRATION STRATEGIES

Conventional computer-aided design (CAD) packages have drastically reduced the workload of the human designer and shortened the product design cycle. However, the degree of effort and volume of information required to use these tools limit their use to the later stages of design. Intelligent computer-aided design (ICAD) systems have sought to provide a more complete design tool to assist the designer in all phases of design. ICAD systems incorporate conventional CAD elements as well as knowledge engineering constructs. The level of integration between different components of an ICAD system determines its usefulness. Most commercial intelligent CAD packages are tied to a specific set of CAD tools, restricting their application domains. This dependence on specific software tools can be reduced by using general purpose modules to interface with available CAD packages. This paper discusses a method of introducing knowledge engineering technology to help develop an advanced intelligent product design system by integrating ICAD's Concept Modeller with SDRC's l-DEAS package for engineering product design. This integration is necessary because neither the Concept Modeller nor the I-DEAS package provides any unified design environment where users can access both symbolic and numerical design tools as needed to carry out design synthesis and analysis activities. Interfacing engineering design and knowledge processing together is not an easy task. The task is further complicated since it needs to be done only by those who have enough knowledge of both technologies, and also because it may result in reorganization of the traditional design process altogether. The proposed intelligent product design system uses artificial intelligence techniques to take care of human experts knowledge and it advocates the use of several commercial software packages that come from a variety of sources (and are proven to be robust) to perform design synthesis in a cost-efficient and timely manner. The technique described here is relatively easy to implement and is well suited to industrial needs.     

Design of event-based PI-P controllers using interactive tools

In the field of event-based control, the tuning and synthesis of controllers represent a challenging task where the lack of specific computer-aided design tools makes very difficult the consolidation of emerging approaches. Under this scenario, it recently proposed the PI-P control strategy, a promising alternative which provides the designer with a practical design and an intuitive tuning methodology. This work addresses the design task of PI-P event-based controllers through the use of interactive tools. To this aim, first, a new interactive tool is provided. The tool is the result of implementing the theoretical developments of previous researches with the aim of consolidating the strategy. Second, the tool is used to analyze in detail the design paradigm through their main trade-offs between performance and robustness. The usefulness of analyses developed is experimentally demonstrated through several meaningful designs for typical industrial examples.     

BCE: a tool for software integration

The integration of software into special-purpose systems (e.g. for gene sequence analysis) can be a difficult task. We describe a general-purpose software integration tool, the BCE program, that facilitates assembly of VAX-based software into application systems and provides an easy-to-use, intuitive user interface. We describe the use of BCE to integrate a heterogeneous collection of sequence analysis tools. Many BCE design features are generally applicable and can be implemented in other language or hardware environments.     

Development and evaluation of an ergonomic software package for predicting multiple-task human performance and mental workload in human–machine interface design and evaluation

Predicting human performance and mental workload in multiple task situations at an early stage of system design can save a significant amount of time and cost. However, existing modeling tools either can only predict human performance or require users of tools to learn a new programming language. Queueing Network-Model Human Processor (QN-MHP) is a new cognitive architecture for modeling both human performance and mental workload in multiple tasks. This paper describes the development of a Visual Basic Application in Excel (VBA) software package and an illustrative case study to evaluate its effectiveness. The software package has an easy-to-use user interface for QN-MHP that assists users of the modeling tool to simulate a dual task including definition of the tasks and interfaces by clicking buttons to select options and filling texts in a table, with no need to learn a simulation language. It allows the model user to intuitively observe the information processing state of the model during simulation, and conveniently compare the simulated human performance and mental workload for different designs. The illustrative case study showed that naïve users without prior simulation language programming experience can model human performance and mental workload in a complex multitask situation within 3 min; and this software package can save 71% of modeling time and reduce 30% of modeling errors. Further developments of the VBA software package of QN-MHP are also discussed on how to make it a comprehensive proactive ergonomic design and analysis tool.     

Design and ergonomics

Using both Japanese and American annual design reports the latest industrial product designs are reviewed. The paper concludes that ergonomics plays an important role in unifying high-technology mass products with design for human use and in creating an aesthetic value in products.     

Performing ergonomics analyses through virtual interactive design: Validity and reliability assessment

Virtual interactive design methodology was initially proposed as an integrated environment for digital human model–based ergonomics analysis of human–machine interactions, which uses a motion capture system and virtual environment to realize task simulation. The validity and reliability of this analysis methodology has not been systematically studied. In this article, potential errors are first investigated based on the technology used in the system structure and work process; then, three experimental integration levels are proposed to use different resources for creating manikin postures. Validity and reliability to use this integrated environment for static ergonomics analysis are then assessed by comparing the ergonomics analysis outputs achieved based on the three integration levels. The results indicate that the reliability of this methodology is good; however, the validity of the integrated system is affected by the limitation of the virtual environment used in the testing. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

New methodological framework to improve productivity and ergonomics in assembly system design

This work analyses how ergonomics and assembly system design techniques are intimately related. It also develops a new theoretical framework to assess a concurrent engineering approach to assembly systems design problems, in conjunction with an ergonomics optimization of the workplace. Its purpose is to provide professionals with a new and detailed approach to assembly system design procedures that includes ergonomics issues.The methodological framework offered takes into account technological variables (related to work times and methods), environmental variables (i.e. absenteeism, staff turnover, work force motivation) and ergonomics evaluations (i.e. human diversity) to create a comprehensive analysis.At conclusion of the study, the work reports data and insights from two real industrial cases, where an advanced simulation software is used, to validate the procedure and support methodology applicability.

Relevance to industries

This work provides an extremely valuable methodological framework to companies who recognize the link between assembly and ergonomics. The methodology underlines the necessity to analyze and classify the assembly system layout configuration in relation to both technological and environmental parameters- as reported in the framework.     

An approach to ergonomics evaluation of hand tools

Based on current knowledge of cumulative trauma disorders in the hand and forearm, related to the use of hand tools, an analysis was undertaken of variables to be considered in ergonomics evaluation of hand tools. Measurement methods were developed and an evaluation station was implemented. Measurement methods are physical, physiological or psychophysical. They focus on the tool, and on the effect of typical use of the tool on the operator. The evaluation station serves as a resource in the development, selection, and testing of tools for a given purpose.     

Design and evaluation of an optical disk handling tool for a cleanroom environment

In this paper, we present an application of engineering and ergonomics principles in the design of an optical disk handling tool for use in a cleanroom environment. A qualitative model which considers the task, operator, machines and environment (TOME model) was utilized to guide the design process. A ‘before-after’ evaluation found a significant improvement in the proposed tool over the existing tool with respect to mechanical, biomechanical and subjective measures. Product yield has improved considerably, as measured after the implementation of the proposed tool in December 1989 until the end of the observation period in June 1991.     

Development of an ergonomics guideline for the furniture manufacturing industry

Industry-specific ergonomics guidelines are an important component in the four-pronged approach to workplace ergonomics currently pursued by the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The American Furniture Manufacturers Association has taken the initiative of developing such a guideline for its members. The result of this effort is the "AFMA Voluntary Ergonomics Guideline for the Furniture Manufacturing Industry", a document that includes basic information about ergonomics program components as well as a compilation of work-proven, ergonomics best practices as submitted by members of the furniture manufacturing community. This guideline was developed through an industry-research-government partnership and made strategic use of the unique attributes that each sector brought to this effort. Outlined in this paper are some of the characteristics of this partnership including, the roles played by each, the different motivations for pursuing the guideline, the challenges faced during the development of the document, the successes experienced in this process, as well as a proposed outline for measuring the effectiveness of this effort. The hope is that this summary, and some of the lessons learned contained herein, would be helpful to others considering the prospect of developing such a guideline for their industry.     

A computer-aided tool for ergonomic workplace design and preventive health care

Preventive health care is one of the basic challenges facing ergonomics. The aim to prevent occupationally generated musculoskeletal disorders and diseases may be achieved by appropriate workplace and product design. ERGOMan is a computer-aided 3D man model suitable for ergonomic and movement simulation at industrial workstations. Within a common project of the above mentioned institutions ERGOMan's inventory of ergonomics design tools shall be enhanced in a way that ERGOMan will be able to give detailed information on load or stress situations, which might effect the executability and tolerability of work situations with high probability. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

AutoCAD三维实体图形生成二维图形的实现

计算机辅助设计(CAD)是计算机应用技术中一项重要的技术。在CAD领域中,技术人员利用专门的计算机辅助设计软件来制作表现物体几何特征。AutoCAD是新一代计算机辅助设计软件,其功能强大,使用方便的特点在多种工程设计中得到广泛的应用。AutoCAD有强大的三维功能,可以在三维空间中先建立模型并从不同角度观察和处理模型,从三维模型可以生成各个方向的视图。本文主要介绍在AutoCAD中使用相关命令完成三维实体图形生成二维图形的方法。