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.     

Determining the cost-benefits of ergonomics projects and factors that lead to their success

Managers usually can justify financially supporting a proposed ergonomics project only when it is supported by a sound cost-benefit analysis. The factors to consider and sources of information for calculating the costs and benefits of proposed ergonomic projects are described. Based upon his experience and review of numerous ergonomics projects, the common characteristics of successful ergonomics interventions gleaned by the author are described and then illustrated by actual documented cases.     

Design and implementation of a participatory ergonomics program for machine sewing tasks

A participatory ergonomics program was designed and implemented to control and reduce workers' compensation costs within an automobile products manufacturing company. Pareto analysis identified a substantial number of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) associated with manual, machine sewing of canvas automobile accessory products. This case study will discuss the elements of the participatory ergonomics program, describe its implementation, highlight intervention measures, and present program results. Specifically, during the period of 1993 to 1996, the participatory ergonomics program played a significant part in reducing the number of MSD claims by approximately 85%, and contributed to an overall reduction in workers' compensation incurred loss costs by approximately 42%.     

Cost‐effectiveness of ergonomic interventions in production

Early cost–benefit analysis of ergonomic interventions in manufacturing is in the interest of the production management and the ergonomics specialist. Because of the variety of factors and the complexity to quantify these factors, this task is not an easy one. In this article we present a case study that illustrates that the economic benefits of ergonomics may easily overwhelm the costs because of the gain in productivity and quality, not to the economic gain associated with improved health. Finally, we propose a decision tool that addresses the relevant factors in the cost–benefit analysis of ergonomics. It gives Internet support to company managers and human factor specialists to make an economic analysis prior to the start of an ergonomic intervention project. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Distribution strategies for the contextualized mobile Internet

Large-scale mobile commerce applications need to be replicated and distributed to offer an appropriate Quality of Service to a large audience. In this context, a very important question is when and where replicas should be placed. In this article we present a new distribution strategy for applications in Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). It is intended to be used especially for the distribution of Context-Aware Services (CASs). The main idea is to monetarily value the benefits that an additional replica gains at a certain location and to compare this value with the costs a replica causes. In this way, the replica’s contribution to the overall profit is determined. A replica’s profit is dependent on the number of requests it receives per time interval. Replicas are only placed at locations where the request rate is high enough to let the profit become positive. In order to react only to persistent and significant changes of the request rate, techniques from statistical process control are used.The new strategy is evaluated by simulation. The results show that it consumes significantly less storage and bandwidth than currently applied alternatives, while offering a comparable performance improvement for the clients.     

Crossing levels in systems ergonomics: A framework to support ‘mesoergonomic’ inquiry

In this paper we elaborate and articulate the need for what has been termed ‘mesoergonomics’. In particular, we argue that the concept has the potential to bridge the gap between, and integrate, established work within the domains of micro- and macroergonomics. Mesoergonomics is defined as an open systems approach to human factors and ergonomics (HFE) theory and research whereby the relationship between variables in at least two different system levels or echelons is studied, and where the dependent variables are human factors and ergonomic constructs. We present a framework which can be used to structure a set of questions for future work and prompt further empirical and conceptual inquiry. The framework consists of four steps: (1) establishing the purpose of the mesoergonomic investigation; (2) selecting human factors and ergonomics variables; (3) selecting a specific type of mesoergonomic investigation; and (4) establishing relationships between system levels. In addition, we describe two case studies which illustrate the workings of the framework and the value of adopting a mesoergonomic perspective within HFE. The paper concludes with a set of issues which could form part of a future agenda for research within systems ergonomics.     

Efficient multiclass ROC approximation by decomposition via confusion matrix perturbation analysis

ROC analysis has become a standard tool in the design and evaluation of 2-class classification problems. It allows for an analysis that incorporates all possible priors, costs, and operating points, which is important in many real problems, where conditions are often nonideal. Extending this to the multiclass case is attractive, conferring the benefits of ROC analysis to a multitude of new problems. Even though ROC analysis does extend theoretically to the multiclass case, the exponential computational complexity as a function of the number of classes is restrictive. In this paper we show that the multiclass ROC can often be simplified considerably because some ROC dimensions are independent of each other. We present an algorithm that analyses interactions between various ROC dimensions, identifying independent classes, and groups of interacting classes, allowing the ROC to be decomposed. The resultant decomposed ROC hypersurface can be interrogated in a similar fashion to the ideal case, allowing for approaches such as cost-sensitive and Neyman-Pearson optimisation, as well as the volume under the ROC. An extensive bouquet of examples and experiments demonstrates the potential of this methodology.     

The Ergonomics Society Society's Lecture 1995 Making ergonomics a world-wide concept

Since its formal inception more than half a century ago, ergonomics has time and again demonstrated that it has a niche among the field of scientific disciplines aspiring to make the world a better place. How far has it really gone? Can we now lay claim that it is indeed well-known and accepted? Are the benefits it purports to deliver realized in all parts of the world? About two-thirds of human beings live in the Third World. This is where poverty and inequality are relatively more common. This is where much work is still degrading and far from being humane. This is also where ergonomics has yet to make its presence felt in practice.

This paper attempts to show that ergonomics can and will become a globally applied science. However, it has to make its contribution to the Third World prevalent and long-lasting. The paper focuses on the current state of ergonomics in the Third World, the so-called Industrially Developing Countries (IDCs).     

Estimating and quantifying the impact of using models for integration and testing

Industrial trends show that the lead time and costs of integrating and testing high-tech multi-disciplinary systems are becoming critical factors for commercial success. In our research, we developed a method for early, model-based integration and testing to reduce this criticality.Although its benefits have been demonstrated in industrial practice, the method requires certain investments to achieve these benefits, e.g. time needed for creating models. Making the necessary trade-off between investments and potential benefits to decide when modeling is profitable is a difficult task that is often based on personal intuition and experience. In this paper, we describe a method based on integration and test sequencing techniques that can be used to make quantitative impact estimations of using models for integration and testing.An industrial case study application of this method shows that it is feasible to quantify the costs and benefits of using models in terms of risk, time, and costs, such that the profitability can be determined.     

Difficulties in Quantifying Financial Losses that Could Be Reduced by Ergonomic Solutions

There is currently a significant amount of discussion regarding new ways to insert ergonomics into the business community through adding financial benefits; however, analysis must be performed to justify this type of investment. Occupational problems that could be reduced by ergonomics solutions can be expressed as financial losses. Although the impact and importance of these losses are high, the difficulties in their quantification prevent adequate cost‐benefit analysis. This article aims to document evidence of the difficulties encountered when quantifying the financial losses that are caused by problems that could be reduced by ergonomic solutions. In this study, we performed a literature review concerning the financial costs related to occupational problems from the perspective of ergonomics. The results indicate that losses that occur mainly concern the productivity of the working process or the workers. The chief barriers documented in the scientific literature are the information cost, the multifactorial nature of the problem, the absence of information, and the methods of measurement. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A model for solving work related musculoskeletal problems in a profitable way

Interventions against occupational musculoskeletal disorders are usually performed by ergonomists. An overview of the literature shows that ergonomists often are unsuccessful; musculoskeletal disorders may be prevalent at workplaces where large ergonomic resources have been put in, thus illustrating the significance of other factors in addition to those against which the intervention is applied. It is claimed that some modern rationalization strategies may offer a potential for 'good' ergonomics. Thus, prevailing management approaches often now focus on team building, flat organizations, training of multiple skills and so on. The main scope of the present issue of Applied Ergonomics is to throw light on this possibility of 'achieving ergonomics impact through management intervention'. This present paper presents a historical overview of occupational physical work load as a function of ergonomics, as well as rationalizations and concludes with a more elaborate discussion of the present intervention concept for solving work related musculoskeletal problems in a profitable way. Rationalization and guidelines for physical work load are the basic parameters in the present intervention concept. Due to this the present special issue also presents historical overviews of the development of these parameters (Westgaard and Winkel; Bjorkman). 'Achieving ergonomics impact through management intervention' is illustrated through two case studies (Kadefors et al and Bao et al). They demonstrate an obvious ergonomic potential offered by the presented intervention concept. However, the two case studies also describe several practical obstacles which need to be further investigated in future intervention research.     

Cost-effectiveness of concurrent supercomputers

This article introduces a mathematical function that describes the latent concurrency inherent in an arbitrary program with given initial conditions. The concurrency function is used to derive asymptotic estimates for speedup, including Amdahl's Law. It provides a new method for analyzing cost-effectiveness of the processor-memory-communications constituents of a computing system for applications where system cost and execution time are mutually elastic variables. The costs of programming and input/output are not taken into account in the present study. The methods are applied to study the relative advantages of serial versus concurrent processing; the relationship of the memory/processor ratio to cost-effectiveness; the conditions that determine the relative advantages of SIMD and MIMD control structures; the effects of various interprocessor communication strategies; and cost-effectiveness implications of the choice of data path width.     

Why not one big database? Principles for data ownership

This research concerns incentive principles which drive information sharing and affect database value. Many real world centralization and standardization efforts have failed, typically because departments lacked incentives or needed greater local autonomy. While intangible factors such as “ownership” have been described as the key to providing incentives, these soft issues have largely eluded formal characterization. Using an incomplete contracts approach from economics, we model the costs and benefits of restructuring organizational control, including critical intangible factors, by explicitly considering the role of data “ownership”. There are two principal contributions from the approach taken here. First, it defines mathematically precise terms for analysing the incentive costs and benefits of changing control. Second, this theoretical framework leads to the development of a concrete model and seven normative principles for improved database management. These principles may be instrumental to designers in a variety of applications such as the decision to decentralize or to outsource information technology and they can be useful in determining the value of standards and translators. Applications of the proposed theory are also illustrated through case histories.     

End-user computing and information systems methodologies

End-user computing is a growing area within the information technology (IT) industry. The number and size of end-user-developed applications is steadily increasing, yet little attention is paid to the way in which such applications are developed, and their impact upon organizations. In this paper we examine the relationship between information systems methodologies and the end-user-computing environment. In particular, the potential benefits and disadvantages of the use of information systems methodologies for end-user-computing, and strategies by which such usage can be accomplished are discussed. This paper is partly the result of a research programme involving case studies in 34 UK organizations aimed at improving business systems.     

A taxonomy of information systems applications: the benefits' evaluation ladder

One of the prime reasons for the deployment of information technology in organizations is the expectation of a positive return on the investment. But the returns from different types of application vary both in terms of the ability to provide straightforward measurement of the costs and benefits, and in the degree of certainty with which estimates of costs and benefits will be realised. This paper provides a framework for classifying applications in the form of an eight-rung ladder, each rung of which represents a class of application. The way in which applications need to be handled and the methods by which their impact can be evaluated changes from rung to rung. Moving up the ladder increases the complexity of evaluation and the degree of risk and uncertainty, but at the same time also increases the potential returns on the investments. The ladder is different from conventional ‘strategic IT’ frameworks: it is a framework for action as well as understanding; it specifically relates to evaluation; and it does not imply any predetermined or time-based sequence of progress.     

Modeling customer-centric value of system architecture investments

System architecture investments aim at improving the quality of the system in alignment with (current and future) business goals. While the costs of architecture changes are routinely calculated, identifying benefits of architecture changes and translating them to a monetary value has been a challenge in practice. Currently, architecture value estimation is largely based on cost-savings or on risk mitigation, without much reliance on potential customer benefits. This article reports on our experience in modeling the customer value and evaluating its potential use in choosing between different system architectures in two case studies conducted in an organization developing healthcare systems. To model the customer value, we exploit best practices in management and marketing. Management tools, in particular strategy maps and balanced scorecards, are used to identify customer-centric benefits caused by architecture design decisions. Furthermore, two marketing concepts, customer value-in-use and customer segments, are adopted to quantify the value of architecture changes for a single customer and multiple customers, respectively. The paper shows that using the customer value in addition to the existing value indicators in the organization has several advantages but also calls for future improvements to be adopted in practice.     

Virtual environments applications and applied ergonomics

The usability of virtual environments has attracted considerable efforts from ergonomists. Work has included studies of the side or after effects of participation in a virtual environment (VE) as well as the appropriateness of the Virtual Reality hardware and software interfaces and the understanding of factors which determine participant performance. Equally important for applied ergonomics is to understand how best to specify, build, implement and evaluate virtual environment solutions to everyday industrial, commercial, educational and medical problems. The potential value of ergonomics applied to virtual environments, and vice versa, are discussed. Two particular instances of VE development relevant to applied ergonomics are described - structured development and evaluation of industrial training and participatory redesign of workplaces. This paper is one of a number of contributions to a special issue on ergonomics in the study and use of virtual environments.