Ergonomics and international standards: history, organizational structure and method of development

Egonomics international standards were formally considered in 1973 by a symposium of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) held at Loughborough University in the UK. Recommendations led to the establishment of ISO TC 159 'Ergonomics', with Germany (DIN) holding the secretariat. Six subcommittees (SC) were established and have worked towards standards. These have been rationalized to the present four subcommittees: SC1, Ergonomics guiding principles; SC3, Anthropometry and biomechanics; SC4, Ergonomics and human system interaction; and SC5, Ergonomics of the physical environment. The subcommittees have over 15 working groups (WG) covering over 50 work items that will lead to ergonomics ISO standards. Over 20 ISO standards have already been produced and a number have been reconfirmed at automatic five-yearly reviews. The organizational structure is presented as well as methods of standards production from proposed work item to international standard. European standards (EN) are produced under CEN TC 122 'Ergonomics', which has 11 working groups. How European Standards are produced and organizational links with ISO TC 159 are described.     

Ergonomics and product liability

This article discusses the implications for ergonomists of proposed changes in the civil law on product liability. It also considers the ergonomic approach to the prevention of product liability actions. This is the promotion of consumer safety through safe product design. Safety performance testing and standards are examined in the light of the future requirements of manufacturers. The article is based largely upon a paper entitled "The prevention of product liability actions" read at the CBI Conference, Product Safety and Liability for Defects, held at the Inn on the Park, London, September, 1977.     

复杂机械产品设计系统与设计能力关系模型

针对支持正向设计的设计系统与企业设计能力关系问题,结合设计资源类型及集成技术成熟度方法创新性,提出设计能力衡量指标及其算法.设计能力衡量指标由设计流程完整率、设计工具完整率、设计准则完整率和设计数据使用率4项指标组成,设计流程完整率通过设计流程占当前整理的设计流程总数的比例获得,设计工具完整率通过设计工具占当年整理的流程任务节点所需工具总数的比例获得,设计准则完整率通过设计遵循的设计准则所占当年整理的设计活动所需准则总数的比例获得,设计数据使用率用非结构化数据使用率来表示.采用灰色关联和模糊综合评价改进模型求出设计能力衡量指标的准则权重,考虑到延时因素对设计系统与设计能力交互关系的影响,以logistic方程为基础构建考虑延时的设计系统与设计能力作用模型,为企业的设计系统应用决策和设计能力提升提供依据和方法.     

Ergonomics in journal design

The article describes how the design and layout of Applied Ergonomics was established. The available range of choices was related to the ergonomic requirements and to the practical requirements. A table shows in detail how they were matched.     

Complex organizational knowledge structures for new product development teams

When a new product development team faces challenges, such as the cross-functional knowledge conversion task, both simple and existing organizational structures are comprised of various management methods and knowledge characteristics, analogous to a fully armed military force. However, these features are not arranged in order of priority. Each step within the knowledge conversion process of new product development may not require such a full depot of management methods and keynotes. Therefore, this study adopted Blackler’s perspective to examine the suitable organizational knowledge structure for cross-functional knowledge conversion within new product development teams.This study found that the continual steps of socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization in the new product development team’s knowledge conversion process were positively related to various organizational knowledge structures based on a survey of 107 Taiwanese high-technology small and medium-sized enterprises’ new product development teams – not merely a simple structure for all steps. Thus, these results confirm that complex structures are required to perform knowledge conversion. Socialization requires knowledge characteristics from both the communication-intensive organization and the symbolic-analyst-dependent organization. Externalization requires elements of knowledge from the communication-intensive organization, the symbolic-analyst-dependent organization, and knowledge-routinized organization. Combination requires features from the knowledge-routinized organization, and internalization requires characteristics from the expert-dependent organization.In addition, this study attempted to integrate the knowledge features from communication-intensive organization and symbolic-analyst-dependent organization structures for the socialization and externalization stages. This effort concentrated on solving novel and irregular problems through a simplification of the complex organizational structures which make the new product development’s knowledge conversion run smoother.     

Platform-based product design and development: A knowledge-intensive support approach

This paper presents a knowledge-intensive support paradigm for platform-based product family design and development. The fundamental issues underlying the product family design and development, including product platform and product family modeling, product family generation and evolution, and product family evaluation for customization, are discussed. A module-based integrated design scheme is proposed with knowledge support for product family architecture modeling, product platform establishment, product family generation, and product variant assessment. A systematic methodology and the relevant technologies are investigated and developed for knowledge supported product family design process. The developed information and knowledge-modeling framework and prototype system can be used for platform product design knowledge capture, representation and management and offer on-line support for designers in the design process. The issues and requirements related to developing a knowledge-intensive support system for modular platform-based product family design are also addressed.     

The consideration of organizational issues during the systems development process: an empirical analysis

The lack of consideration of organizational issues in systems development can lead to project failure. A review of the literature and a pre-test survey suggested classifying organizational issues into five categories and examining how these are considered by IT managers. A postal survey with responses from 64 senior IT specialists over a cross section of industry and commerce showed that there is a general awareness of the importance of organizational issues but there was little consensus on how they should be addressed in the development process. These IT managers were consistent in spending most effort on the issues perceived as most important from the list of 14 issue provided, but there was considerable variation in which specific issues they rated most important. In general those organizational issues with a 'technical' aspect were given more prominence than those which are less tangible, but which may be more critical to a system's success.     

Product family design and platform-based product development: a state-of-the-art review

Product family design and platform-based product development has received much attention over the last decade. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art research in this field. A decision framework is introduced to reveal a holistic view of product family design and platform-based product development, encompassing both front-end and back-end issues. The review is organized according to various topics in relation to product families, including fundamental issues and definitions, product portfolio and product family positioning, platform-based product family design, manufacturing and production, as well as supply chain management. Major challenges and future research directions are also discussed.     

The usage model: describing product usage during design and development

A usage model is a collection of data that describes system usage within a stated context. The usage model data describe the interactions between the user and the system at a level that identifies the system's benefits to the user.     

Ergonomics in India: a case study on workspace design for an Alphacomp phototypesetting machine

Abstract

Ergonomics in India is a newly emerging discipline-having made inroads to the people of India very recently. Most of the Indians are absolutely unaware of using ergonomics to achieve an efficient man-machine-environment system for better productivity with less human cost. The present case study on workspace design for a phototypesetting machine in India indicates that people from the printing sector are ready to spend money importing modern machinery to achieve twofold objectives; (i) improvement of printing quality and (ii) faster publication. However, lack of ergonomic awareness hinders the design of a proper work environment, without which they cannot reach their goals.

The present study is aimed at designing a proper workspace for an Alphacomp model K-II phototypesetting machine, which is going to be imported by several organizations in Bombay in the near future. The equipment consists of a printer, a floppy-disc drive, a keyboard and a power-supply unit. Only a single set-up out of three existing set-ups in Bombay was studied. As well as the existing workspace arrangement, three other concepts of arranging the equipment were generated and evaluated through mock-up studies. Evaluations were based on time-movement analysis, postural problems and anthropometric requirements by using video technique, questionnaires and personal observations. Strains imposed on thighs, lumbar and shoulder regions in existing conditions were eliminated by redesigning the workspace. The time required to complete the same task in different reorganized workspace arrangements was about 14-20 min less than that of the existing condition. Considering the existing machine design as constrained and based on concept 1, a prototype for a working table has been fabricated from the viewpoint of industrial design which will be patented in near the future.     

Measuring e-learning systems success in an organizational context: Scale development and validation

Electronic learning (e-learning) has been widely adopted as a promising solution by many companies to offer learning-on-demand opportunities to individual employees in order to reduce training time and cost. While information systems (IS) success models have received much attention among researchers, little research has been conducted to assess the success and/or effectiveness of e-learning systems in an organizational context. Whether traditional IS success models can be extended to investigate e-learning systems success has been scarcely addressed. Based on previous IS success literature, this study developed and validated a multi-dimensional model for assessing e-learning systems success (ELSS) from the perspective of the employee (e-learner). The procedures used in conceptualizing an ELSS construct, generating items, collecting data, and validating a multiple-item scale for measuring ELSS are described. This paper presents evidence of the scale’s factor structure, reliability, content validity, criterion-related validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity on the basis of analyzing data from a sample of 206 respondents. Theoretical and managerial implications of our results are discussed. This empirically validated instrument will be useful to researchers in developing and testing e-learning systems theories, as well as to organizations in implementing successful e-learning systems.     

A review of digital twin in product design and development

In the era of digitalization, there are many emerging technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Digital Twin (DT), Cloud Computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI), which are quickly developped and used in product design and development. Among those technologies, DT is one promising technology which has been widely used in different industries, especially manufacturing, to monitor the performance, optimize the progresses, simulate the results and predict the potential errors. DT also plays various roles within the whole product lifecycle from design, manufacturing, delivery, use and end-of-life. With the growing demands of individualized products and implementation of Industry 4.0, DT can provide an effective solution for future product design, development and innovation. This paper aims to figure out the current states of DT research focusing on product design and development through summarizing typical industrial cases. Challenges and potential applications of DT in product design and development are also discussed to inspire future studies.