Ergonomics Planning by HR

Good ergonomics:
• Shortens learning times
• Makes the job quicker with less fatigue
• Improves care of machines
• Reduces absenteeism
• Reduces labor turnover and other signs of worker malcontent
• Meets the requirements of health and safety legislation

Within management services various principles exist; for example,
• work-place design
• motion economy
• rest allowances
• job satisfaction and
• environmental control
It is important for the manager and supervisor to be conscious of the effect that the application of ergonomics has in the average workplace. Ergonomic principles are important in the constant search for productivity improvement


Application of ergonomics to anatomical problems:



Anatomy is about the structure of the body. Many jobs are better done by workers of a particular shape and size. The motor car is an obvious example; the seating and controls are designed to suit the majority of the driving population. The same approach should be used in the design of most controls. Whilst many design engineers use their general knowledge and experience for positioning controls etc., there are statistical data used by ergonomics that give the dimensions of most parts of the body relating to percentages of the population. Using these data, the carmakers know fairly accurately the number of people who will not fit comfortably in their cars and can assess the cost of meeting their needs against the amount of lost sales

Application of ergonomics to physiological problems:

Physiology is about the way the body functions. Physiological problems occur when the body is required to do too much work, to work awkwardly or to work under bad environmental conditions. Fatigue results from most work. The worker should be not more than healthily tired at the end of his working day. Thus the rest allowances built into the task should be adequate without being excessive and uneconomic. Ergonomics assess physical work by measuring oxygen breathed, heart rate change etc, but are usually handicapped by only being able to measure individuals under semi-natural conditions


Application of ergonomics to psychological problems:

Psychology is about the theory of the human mind. The difficulty with the application of psychology in management services departments is in its vagueness. Psychology is concerned with the analysis and classification of various states of the human mind. Because human beings vary so much between each other and in such complex ways, all attempts at classifying people into groups merely results in the statement of broad principles that may or may not be relevant to the individual worker on the shop floor or in the office.

Postcode:

The (UK) Post Office employs an ergonomics department and has done for many years. As is known, the postcode (e.g. TR27 5JZ) gives a unique reference for each post delivery round in the whole country; the actual combination of letters and numbers is easier to remember than an equivalent string of only digits or letters.

Shift work:

A survey in Japan of 17000 shift workers in 1500 firms results in recommended 40 hour weeks, overtime limit of 150 hours per year, two-hour sleeping periods during night shifts, not more than eight night shifts per month, etc.
Similar studies in Europe and elsewhere have highlighted that morning-active people differ considerably from evening-active people in how much sleep they got during shift work. These two types are easy to identify psychologically and ought to be borne in mind when recruiting for shift work.

Production line inspection:

Most products require visual inspection to ensure adequate quality, e.g. the glass industry. The signal detection theory provides the statistical background whereby the four possible conditions can be worked out. These choices can also be shown in graph form. (Graph contained in PDF.)
The shaded area of overlap represents the area of uncertainty. By knowing the data for the four possible conditions a single figure can be worked out for the inspector's criterion by using signal detection theory; also the probability of good or reject items are obtained.
These two figures enable management to assess much more accurately the costs and benefits of product quality, bearing in mind cost of inspection and scrapping or salvage of defective items. There is little doubt that user-friendly computer software to perform the statistical calculations of signal detection theory is or will soon be available for management services; thus taking the sting out of what appears superficially to be complicated statistics.
The improvement of inspection has been aided by using a complicated apparatus, which fits onto the inspector's head; this contains a small television camera which records the movement of a light reflected from the eye, superimposing it on what the inspector is looking at. In this way a video film is obtained which shows exactly what the inspector is looking at.
From this, the search pattern, or strategy, used by the inspector in searching for product defects is obtained. For example, a study of 20 inspectors of production of small roller bearings found that the better inspectors looked directly at 85 per cent of the visible bearing surface whilst the worse inspectors looked directly at only 30 per cent, placing a greater reliance on the less-accurate peripheral vision.
It is reported that better training of inspectors and running the belt towards the inspectors instead of away reduced defects by 25 per cent and inspection time by 50 per cent.