ISE 3500: Ergonomics & Safety
Introduction & History
Ergonomics (Human Factors)
• Ergonomics, many times called Human factors (HF)
– ergo=work
– nomos=laws
• Idea of HF and ergonomics has been used since
beginning of mankind
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What is Ergonomics (HF)?
• Focuses on human interactions with products,
equipment, facilities, procedures, jobs, and
environments
• Discovers and applies information about human
behavior, abilities, limitations, and other characteristics
– To design tools, machines, systems, tasks, jobs, and
environments
– For productive, safe, comfortable, and effective human use
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What is Ergonomics (HF)?
• Basically…Putting human first
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Fitting everything to the person
How designs affect the person
Match design to person’s capabilities, limitations, needs
Change to work with the person
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Objectives of Ergonomics (HF)
• Enhance effectiveness and efficiency of work (or nonwork) activities
– Reduce errors
– Increase productivity
– Increase convenience of use
• Improve safety, comfort, acceptance, job satisfaction,
and quality of life
• Reduce fatigue, stress, and injury
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Ergonomics (HF) Systems Approach
• System is an entity that exists to carry out some
purpose
• Characteristics
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Has a purpose
Involves subsystems, hierarchical
Enveloped by an environment
Broken into components
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Person versus System Approach
Person Approach
• Focus on individuals
• Blame individuals
• Methods
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Poster campaigns
Writing another procedure
Disciplinary measures
Threat of litigation
Retraining
Blaming and shaming
• Target: Individuals
System Approach
• Focus on conditions
• Build defenses to avert or
mitigate errors/poor productivity
• Methods
– Creating better systems
• Targets: System
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Team
Tasks
Workplace
Organization
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Human Factors Model
Task
Organization
Human
Tools/
Technology
Environment
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Human Factors Model
• Outcomes
– Productivity
– Safety
– Quality
• Need to consider the entire system
– Fit between the human (including individual characteristics),
technology/tools, task, environment, and organization
– Neglecting any of the interactions can result in failure
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Scope of Ergonomics
• Different levels of study and intervention
– Micro-level
• Physical design of tools
• Human-computer interface
• Physical environment
– Macro-level
• Organizational design
• Job design
• Change management
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Ergonomics & Safety
• Micro-level
– Interface design
– Workstation design
• Macro-level
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Effects on workflow
Effects on communication networks
Safety change
Implementation of safety programs
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History of Safety
• Code of Hammurabi: 2000 BC
– Included injury ‘compensation’
• Egyptian occupational medicine: 1500 BC
– Doctors assigned to deal with health concerns of worker
communities
• Danish born king of England: Early 1000s
– Differential compensation rates for thumb and fingers
• Very close to rates today (thumb 30 solidi ~36% of total hand)
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History of Safety
• Papers on illnesses of miners and how to improve
ventilation in 1567
• As early as 1717, links seen between occupational
hazards and the type of work performed
• Bernardino Ramazzini published Discourse on the
Diseases of Workers in 1760
– Health hazards experienced by workers in 52 occupations
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History of Safety
• Safety concerns – Industrial Revolution (1760-1800s)
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Mass production and factory work
Poor pay, hazardous conditions, child labor
Young as 4, over 12 hours a day
Children used to go into small clearances
Exposed to toxic materials
Developed diseases and died before age 25
• Increase in number of deaths – 1800s
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History of Safety
• Health and Morals of Apprentices Act: 1802 (England)
– Factory Act: Sir Robert Peel introduced after outcry over
child labor conditions
– Started regulations for factories
– Beginning of health and safety regulation
• Factory Act 1833
– Extended Factory Act 1802 to all child workers
– Introduced factory inspectors
– Influenced legislation on guarding and accident reporting
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History of Safety
• Duty of Care 1837
• Safety regulations strengthened (1842-1878)
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1867: Factory inspection in Massachusetts
1868: Barrier safeguards
1869: Mine safety laws in Pennsylvania
1869: Bureau of Labor Statistics
1877: Mandatory safeguards on hazardous machinery in
Massachusetts
– 1877: Employer liability law
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History of Safety
• First safety program of record at Joliet steel plant
(1892)
• Workers compensation in US (1908)
– Outcry from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle
• Taylor publishes Scientific Management (1911)
– Draws connection between lost work time and productivity
• Wisconsin passes first worker’s comp law (1911)
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History of Safety
• First Cooperative Safety Congress takes place in
Milwaukee WI (1912)
– Leads to National Safety Council
• WWI (1914-1918) & WWII (1939-1945)
– Recognition of relationship between safety and quality
– Need for safety because of reduced labor pool
• National safety laws (1960s)
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History of Safety
• Occupational Safety and Health Act (1970)
– Safety of machinery and factories finally reached the US
– Led to the creation of the
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
• National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
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History of Safety
• Health and Safety at Work Act (1974)
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Health and safety legislation in the UK
Led to creation of UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
73% reduction in fatalities between 1974 and 2007
70% reduction in non-fatal injuries
• Various legislation established across the world since
• OSHA Ergonomic Standard (2001)
– Passed and then repealed
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History of Safety
• Modern HF/Ergonomics developed in the US during
WWII (1939-1945)
– Human errors: machinery becoming more complex
– Specifically, airplane cockpits
• Further implemented during Space Race (1955-1975)
– ‘Hypothetical Ergonomics’: predict effects of weightlessness
and g-forces
• Several government agencies now conduct research
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Timeline of HF/Ergonomics
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1940s: Military
1950s: Space
1960s: Industrial
1970s: Consumer products
1980s: Human-computer interaction and software
1990s: Cognitive and organizational
2000s: Global communication, internet, and virtual
collaboration
• 2010s: On-board aids and autonomous vehicles
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Importance to Engineering Design
• Primary purpose of human factors and ergonomics is
design
• Consider the human, who is the user
• Must be aware of the whole user population
• Helps ensure safety, comfort, ease of use, and a
“natural” feel
• Helps ensure the product/system is designed for its
intended purpose
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