ERGONOMICS & SAFETY AND HEALTH

Mahmut Ekşioğlu, Ph.D.

Boğaziçi University, Dept. of Industrial Engineering İstanbul, Turkey

VII. International Conference on Safety and Health

5-7 May 2014

Haliç Congress Center, İstanbul

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What is Ergonomics?

• Ergonomics (Human Factors Engineering)

(Ergo: work; nomos: laws) = Science of Work

= Study of human-technology and work systems

• The definition of Ergonomics (or Human Factors) according to International Ergonomics Association (IEA) is:

"Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of the interactions among human and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.“ (International Ergonomics Association (IEA) Executive Council, August 2000; www.iea.cc)

• It is a multidisciplinary approach that combines both social sciences and engineering sciences

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• The ergonomics discipline promotes a holistic, human-centred approach to human-work and human technology systems design

• Considers physical, cognitive, social, organizational, environmental and other relevant factors

(Grandjean 1986, Wilson and Corlett 1990, Sanders and McCormick 1993, Chapanis 1996, 1999, Salvendy 1997, Karwowski 2001, Vicente 2004, Stanton et al. 2004).

• Contributes to the design and evaluation of tasks, jobs, products, environments and systems in order to make them compatible with the needs, abilities and limitations of people (IEA, 2003).

What is Ergonomics?

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Ergonomics & Human Factors

• An ergonomics researcher gathers and analyzes data on human beings,

– How they work, their size, capabilities & limitations,

• Ergonomist works with designers.

– To incorporate data into designs to make sure people can safely and effectively operate and maintain the product or system.

• Ergonomics experts are trained in:

– Psychology, safety, engineering, medicine, education, physiology, and management.

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Technology

and Tools

• Functions

• Capabilities

• Capacities

• Usability

• Friendliness

• Integration

Organization

• Purposes

• Policies

• Procedures • Reward structure

Environment

• Physical

• Social

Tasks

• Content

• Control

• Demands

• Interrelationships

Human

• Work capacity

• Abilities

• Limitations

• Attributes

• Needs

• Skills

• Motivation

• Intelligence

Ergonomics Model of the Work System

Humidity

Temperature

Illumination

& Glare

Noise

Color Air

Quality

Hazardous

substances

Vibration

Radiation

Fall and impact

Pressure

Electricity

Fire and explosion

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HUMAN-WORK ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION Provide safe and healty work environmet!

Match environmental conditions to human abilities and limitations by designing environment accordingly! REDUCE ACCIDENTS & ILLNESS Mechanical injuries

Human as User of Technology

• With the technological advancement more and more complex technological products coming to our lives..

• We know how to design technology. • But we are behind to design it safe, healthy,

efficient, user friendly and comfortable.

• Traditional approach: «If it is functional, it is okay.» • Is it ??

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Human Abilities and Limitations for Human-Work and Human-Technological Systems Design

«Understanding the Human»

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Physical Work Capacity

Muscular Strength

Physiological Fatigue Limit

Joint Flexibility

Dynamic

Muscular Endurance

Max. O2 Consumption

Cardiovascular Capacity

Static

COMPONENTS OF HUMAN PHYSICAL WORK CAPACITY

Fittness and Motivation

Cognitive Skills

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Cognitive Work Capacity

Sensory

Capabilities: ─ Sight

─ Hearing

─ Taste

─ Smell

─ Touch

─ Balance and

acceleration

─ Temperature

─ Kinesthetic

sense

─ Pain

─ Other internal

senses

Problem Solving Skills

Attention, Perception, Situational Awareness

Memory:

─ Sensory

─ Working

─ Long term

Thinking, Reasoning and Decision Making

Response selection and Execution

COMPONENTS OF HUMAN COGNITIVE WORK CAPACITY

IQ, EQ and Knowledge/ Experience

Learning and Language

Fittness and Motivation

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Design for Ergonomics (DFE)

DFE means: • Design for safety and health (e.g., reduce

fatigue, injuries, and illnesses) • Design for performance (improve

productivity and efficiency) • Design for quality and reliability (e.g.,

reduce error) • Design for usability (improve comfort and

ease of use to satisfy users) • Design for quality of life

• Ergonomics applications -based on solid research findings – Improve the workplace,

– Make products and processes more competitive in the world market.

• The result is An improved bottom line for business

decreased worker compensation and health care costs, and/or

increased marketability of products.

How is Ergonomics used?

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How is Ergonomics used?

• In military - ergonomic principles are usually included in system specifications.

• In the civilian sector - companies adopt ergonomic principles

– to reduce the incidence of costly accidents in their facilities, or

– to make their products more marketable as user-friendly.

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Why is ergonomics a need? Indeed, we can expand on this topic and be more

specific:

• Why is ergonomics a need for managing workforce? • Why is ergonomics a need for product and system design? • Why is ergonomics a need for structuring organiations? • Why is ergonomics a need for productivity, quality and

reliability? • Why is ergonomics a need for quality of life? • Why is ergonomics a need for safety? • So on

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• Ergonomics is wider than safety.

• Safety is a major concern of ergonomics.

• Another major concern of ergonomics: System performance

Productivity Quality Reliability Comfort Usability User satisfaction Pleasing designs of work and products

Ergonomics & Safety

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A few Success Stories for Prevention of MSDs

• John Deere and Company, incorporated Ergonomics Into the

Manufacturing Process and

– Reduced back injuries about 83% within five years, worker

compensation costs were cut by 32%.

• AT&T Global Information Solutions in San Diego, California

– Identified its three most frequent types of injuries: lifting,

fastening, and keyboarding. By making workstation

improvements and providing proper lift training for all employees

– The company’s worker compensation costs dropped by 75%

in the first year.

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• Mistakenly, most safety professionals limits

ergonomics to prevention of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs).

• Prevention of human error is another important contribution of ergonomics for safety.

Ergonomics & Safety

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• 44,000 to 98,000 people in the US die each year as a result of medical error. This includes:

– Wrong medications

– Too much of a given drug

– Surgical error

– Infection control

– Misdiagnosis

• In summary, human error

Ergonomics & Safety Human error in Patient Safety

• Examples of traps in health care?

– Look-alike and sound-alike medications

– Equipment design complexity e.g. infusion pumps

Avoidable confusion is everywhere Source: WHO

• About 70% of aviation accidents are due to pilot errors.

Ergonomics & Safety Human error in Aviation Safety

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• Three Mile Island, 1979

• Chernobyl, 1986

• Bhopal accident

Ergonomics & Safety Human error in Nuclear Safety and

Chemical Plants

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Incident • 4 AM, March 28, 1979: a loss of coolant accident Three Mile Island Accident

– First min: 500 or more lights go on and off; 2nd min: more than 800 lights are illuminated.

– Operators incorrectly diagnose the problem: for more than 2hr, they do not recognize that they have too little cooling water;

– they thought they had too much. Instead, the reactor was boiling dry.

• Many problems of questionable design in control rooms.

• Example 1: two digital controllers are side by side and look exactly

• alike. The left one concentrates borated water and the right one dilutes it. The operator has to remember that the decimal point is one digit before the end digit on the left controller and one digit after the last digit on the right controller.

• Example 2: two auxiliary feedwater meters. One labeled A is on the left; one labeled B is on the right. There are two related switches, labeled A and B. However, switch A is on the right and B is on the left.

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Unsafe

acts

Adapted from Reason (1990)

Failed or

absent defences

Reason’s “Swiss-cheese” model of human error

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Reason’s “Swiss-cheese” model of human error

Failed or

absent defences

Preconditions

for

unsafe acts

Unsafe

acts

Adapted from Reason (1990)

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Reason’s “Swiss-cheese” model of human error

Failed or

absent defences

Unsafe

supervision

Preconditions

for

unsafe Acts

Unsafe

acts

Adapted from Reason (1990)

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Reason’s “Swiss-cheese” model

of human error

Failed or absent defences

Organizational

factors

Inputs

Unsafe

supervision

Preconditions

for

unsafe Acts

Unsafe

acts

Adapted from Reason (1990)

Accident and injury

Ergonomics/Human Factors

• Acknowledges:

- The universal nature of human fallibility

- The inevitability of error

• Assumes that errors will occur

• Designs things in the workplace to try to minimize the likelihood of error or its consequences

Ergonomics & Safety • The science of ergonomics can help reduce both product and

workplace hazards…

– Hazard elimination by design - Intelligent design can reduce human errors by providing controls that are simple to understand and operate

– Provision & location of safety devices - Design/location of safety devices such as emergency cutoff switches can reduce human error on the job, correspondingly reducing the chances of an accident.

– Provision of warning devices - Color, location & wording of warning devices; pitch & volume of warning signals; design of caution markings on gauges and video displays are important factors in reducing human error.

– Establishment of procedures/provision of training - When hazards cannot be realistically designed out of a system, administrative procedures for hazard reduction must be established, and training relating to those procedures must be provided.

Apply ergonomics thinking to your work environment

• Avoid reliance on memory

• Make things visible

• Review and simplify processes

• Standardize common processes and procedures

• Routinely use checklists

• Decrease reliance on vigilance

Value of Ergonomics Today

• Many people suffer because their conditions at work and home are incompatible with their needs, abilities and limitations. This situation affects their safety and welfare, as well as, that of organizations and societies.

• High technology can make our lives more efficient and

exciting. However, fascination with technology and overly ambitious business expectation can cause us to overlook human factors risks. Neglecting these risks can have serious effects on manufacturers, suppliers and service enterprises.

• Therefore, ergonomics and human factors will be more important in postmodern era than when it was first introduced in the nineteenth century.

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Ergonomics & Safety Final words

• Safety must start from the design phase and designers must understand and apply human characteristics and the interactions in creating safe, healthy, efficienet and easy to work/use systems and products.

• The designs must reflect safe and normal operation, potential misuses, and easy repair and maintenance. Ergonomics principles and data contribute to all of these.

• If a system is designed with respect to ergonomics principles, it would inherently be safe and reliable and beyond that comfortable and even pleasing.

• It can simply be stated that ergonomics is the foundation of work safety and health and thus work safety and health without ergonomics is a hard-to-achieve phenomenon.

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