Sensors and RFID Technologies Aiding Ergonomics in Managing Occupational Safety and Health

Running head: SENSORS AIDING ERGONOMICS 1

Sensors and RFID Technologies Aiding Ergonomics

in Managing Occupational Safety and Health

Diego Guevara

SENSORS AIDING ERGONOMICS 2

Abstract

This project explores several aspects on the use of sensors and RFIDs to control ergonomic

standards as an IS that collects data and analyzes the information in the workplace so that poor

work methods and practices can be corrected and prevented. The study starts explaining the

current situation and issues in business today that this MIS may help to solve. Then, it relates its

relevance in the industrial engineering fields of study and applications. Furthermore, the study

demonstrates why implementing this MIS turns out to be useful to the organization. This MIS

application to industrial engineering is of high importance because it encompasses different areas

of IE and the organization. Having safer, ergonomic, and effective work methods increases

productivity, reduces costs, and helps to manage quality. The research includes a brief

explanation on how the system will work coordinating multiple functional and areas/teams

within an organization. Additionally, the report illustrates many potential problems that may

arise when trying to put the system to work. Also, this research paper covers and explains the

reasons why such a system is not widely implemented. Finally, the paper introduces possible

add-ins to the system that might help it to perform better, and it discusses the advantages and

disadvantages of integrating them with its barriers for not plugging them to the system.

Keywords: ergonomics, management information systems, control, productivity, sensors,

occupational safety and health, RFID.


Sensors and RFID Technologies Aiding Ergonomics

in Managing Occupational Safety and Health

Currently, organizations are optimizing their processes so that they can increase their

income, reduce costs, or improve quality due to increasing competitiveness among different

firms in business and high customer demands. An effective strategy for a growth in revenues is

to manage resources in such a way that saving money where and when needed is feasible. One of

these resources, and a very important one, is the human resource. People work in all the areas of

a company either directly or indirectly. Managing the human resource is complex because

employees acquire knowledge, develop tasks, are main actors in certain processes, represent a

cost, and many other reasons. Also, it is crucial to take into account the relationship among the

worker and his/her workplace and the environment. Failing to consider this variable may lead to

accidents in the workplace. Additionally, quality management plays a meaningful role when it

comes to the human resource. Two of the main purposes of quality management is to obtain

outputs within the specification limits either from customers or set by a company and to have

little dispersion and high accuracy. In order to accomplish these objectives, workers shall be able

to do their activities using standardized and safe methods of work so that human error is

minimized. Helander states that poor design causes human error, mostly, and that employees are

not the ones to blame (2006, p. 8). Firms are responsible for providing their employees with

means to do their jobs appropriately. Such mechanisms shall be part of a management

information system in order to administer the human resources in a company. In this research

paper, several aspects on the use of sensors and RFID technologies are explained and explored in

such a way that these mechanisms can be used to control ergonomics standards in an MIS that


gathers data and analyzes information so that work methods and practices can be corrected and

prevented.

Designing the System

As explained in the last section, in the business world companies have to compete among

other companies; thus they improve the quality of their products and/or services in different

ways. This is why organizations desire to correct, and prevent poor work methods and to control

employees’ activities continuously. Since, under current conditions, a company cannot provide

means to meet said ergonomics goal, a new IS is required to gather data, analyze information,

and control target processes. Once this need for improvement has been identified, the next

logical step is to identify the stakeholders of the new system.

Who are the stakeholders?

Stakeholders can be simply defined as the group of all interested parties in the

development, implementation, and running of a system, together with the users and people

involved. In NASA Systems Engineering Handbook, stakeholders are defined as the set of

customers, who are the ones receiving the goods or services and the benefits of using them, and

interested parties, which are the ones determining restrictions for fulfilling customers’ needs

(2008, p.34). Also, NASA asserts that stakeholders shall be identified at the beginning of the

system design process (2088, p. 34). Following, a general list of stakeholders is presented:

Blue collar employees

White Collar employees

Occupational Safety and Health Area

Human Resources Area

Ergonomics Control Team


Ergonomics Management Team

Knowledge Management Team

Quality Management Team

Merged Companies

Subcontractors

Please note that this is a short list of the main stakeholders of this system. In reality, the

list might be longer or shorter than the one presented above; it will depend on the context and the

organization. Also, the number of elements in the list may vary depending on the time the

brainstorming process for stakeholders identification lasts.

Stakeholders’ expectations and initial requirements

As the name explains, stakeholders’ expectations are what the stakeholders expect, want,

or desire from the system in the end when it fully operates. Designing a system without knowing

what the interested parties expect from it would probably end in catastrophe. Again, NASA’s

handbook argues that stakeholders’ expectations establishes the wanted product characteristics

and indicators for success, such as, due date, maximum cost, and others (2008, p. 34). NASA’s

handbook provide examples and guidelines on how to get to this final stakeholders’ expectations

step by step. In the end, the output for this process is the set of highest-level expectations and

initial requirements for the system. Also, NASA affirms that ConOps -which are concept

operations or operational concepts- describing characteristics of the system in operation to fit

expectations will be obtained (2008, p. 35).

As explained in the previous sub-topic, expectations and requirements obtained may vary

from firm to frim just as the number and type of stakeholders do. Nevertheless, there are some of

these that shall not be overlooked. A brief listing of such important items goes as follows:


No direct interfere with workers activities exist.

Blocking of paths is not allowed.

Flexibility of tasks is offered.

Accurate information is provided.

Easy-to-access and easy-to-read information is displayed.

Continual training is offered.

Many other points can be added, but the purpose of this paper is not to build the system.

Besides, stakeholders’ expectations are variable. Different organizations differ from one another

in the definition process and characteristics of stakeholders.

Technical requirements definition

After having the initial requirements and ConOps documented (everything needs to be

documented and that is advised in both cited handbooks used for this part), it is time to define

requirements for the rest of the system life cycle. In this case, the main focus will be the

operation phase. Technical requirements definition process, according to NASA, evolve from

expectations and can be utilized to create the Product (or System) Breakdown Structure (PBS);

the process creates requirements for stakeholders, the system, and all segments of the PBS from

the highest to the lowest level, and describes inputs, outputs, and relationships among them

(2008, p.40). The process is shown in detail in the cited handbook. Following, a list is shown

with some important technical requirements:

The system shall:

Completely operate from the moment working day starts until the end of

working shifts.


Coordinate the operation of the different sensors in the system so that their

functioning does not interfere with another processes functioning.

Continuously gather data from workers and provide up-to-date information to

the Ergonomics Control Team.

Once again, note that requirements vary depending on each particular case, but the listing

before was conceived considering some base technical requirements. Moreover, the listed

requirements must undergo a refinement process to adapt them to the context and needs of the

organization.

Changes in the organization

In order to have the system work optimally, it is necessary to make some changes in the

current state of the organization. The changes below are some organizational changes in structure

and hierarchy. Also, it may be required for the firm to change, eliminating or adding, some other

organizational policies to its constitution to allow the system to be implemented.

Ergonomics Control Team (ECT)

For this fairly-new system it would be necessary to create a new team within the

organization to control and supervise activities using the system. The main function of this team

would be to continuously check its interphase with the system in order to identify which

activities are labeled as the most critical by the system so that action can be taken. This team

shall be in constant coordination with the Ergonomics Management Team, whose function will

be explained later.

Ergonomics Management Team (EMT)

In order to complement that and enhance training levels, another team shall be created so

that they can instruct employees on how to develop tasks. Together with the ECT, the EMT must


plan ways strategies to assess critical activities and program training sessions. Also, EMT is in

charge of designing and implementing improvements in workstation and work methods to

mitigate risks and prevent accidents and Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs). Furthermore, this

team is in charge of being the link between Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) and EMT.

Continuous and accurate communication shall exist among OSH, ECT, and EMT.

IT outsourcing

Another alternative is to outsource IT services; maybe it will be cheaper this way. This

thread depends on each individual company, but the alternative should never be overlooked. The

financial area of a firm who wants to implement the system in study should evaluate this

possibility. Outsourcing IT services imply one of the following two scenarios which are as

follows: outsourcing ECT, or outsourcing the whole system.

On the one hand, the fist alternative may mean losing control on who looks at the data

and decides which activities to be assessed. Despite not having an ECT within the organization,

this does not mean that coordination between the subcontractor in charge of analyzing the

information given by the system and the EMT is lost. On the other hand, the second choice may

mean of losing control of the whole system, but this does not imply not having the system work

as expected. On the contrary, if an organization opts to outsource the whole system, the

subcontractor must be a specialized firm in ergonomics assessment.

How will it work?

Data gathering and information processing

At the beginning of the system’s functioning, data from the most critical activities, which

was chosen by the organization’s experts, is gathered by the sensors strategically located in the

initial target workstations. Notice that choosing the correct location to place a sensor is crucial


because else, the system might end getting wrong lectures from the activities. Some sensors fail

to record precise data when the target is in constant motion. For example, with the use of Kinect

technologies to assess work, there are some problems to collect data when the worker is out of

range (2014, p. 984). To avoid this issue, choosing the right spot and coding the system in the

right way is needed in order to track workers’ body parts motions with desired accuracy.

Moreover, having wrong lectures in the systems may lead to inaccurate information on which

activities require attention and corrective action.

Information analysis

As soon as the first sample is measured, data starts getting stored in the system’s

database. The system will keep collecting data from the target tasks and accumulate them in the

database. Depending on the organizational scope or operational in planning, observations in the

database can be separated in hours, shifts, days, activities, body parts, or even workers. Selecting

criteria in order to filter information can help to choose a way to solve the problem. Data

processing will start when the system receives the first batch of data so that relevant information

for the system’s goals can be accessed and evaluated. After that, whenever more data arrives to

the system, information is recalculated and updated to show the evolution of critical activities.

Furthermore, the system will display in a platform, as the interphase between the ECT and

System, which are the critical activities. The ECT do not determine which are the activities to

assess; they are automatically targeted and updated. Also, the system shall display the order of

relevance depending on the risk each activity represents.

Planning functions

The planning on how to solve the issues regarding safety and ergonomics will depend on

organizational policies, compromise, and goals. It is up to the EMT to convince other


Management and Engineering teams when to train their workers, how frequently, and when it is

absolutely necessary to stop work due to high risk of acquiring MSDs. The system will not

directly nor automatically register training sessions or stops for workers. The ECT must enter the

dates and times of training sessions so that the system of study can notify production systems and

other systems to coordinate work accordingly. Also, the system shall show alerts to the ECT for

when it is utterly important to stop activities due to some emergency and/or high risk of accident

or damage to happen so that the EMT is prompted to take action and correct the issues.

Control functions

Control functions of the system is the responsibility of the ECT. This team is in charge of

constantly monitoring information provided by the system. Full-time monitoring is required due

to the sensors’ high sampling ability. Since sensors gather samples constantly and consistently, if

designed and installed correctly, information varies a lot from time to time, so ECT needs to be

assessing information at all times. The ECT is in perpetual communication with the EMT.

Corrective functions

Corrective functions come from the human part of the system. OSH is in charge of

monitoring the corrective functions planned and instructed by the EMT which resulted from

information provided by ECT. Ergo, consistent and continual communication is required among

the three areas mentioned previously.

Feedback

Feedback in the system starts with new observations in the data gathering after having

completed a corrective action. New data collections from corrected activities in the system are

processed and turned into relevant information so that the ECT can control critical activities with

the aid of the EMT’s action and OSH’s corrective programs. The whole system’s purpose is to


minimize the risk of accidents and MSDs having critical activities assessed and corrected. Thus,

once an activity has an acceptable risk, determined by standards or the organization, the system

will choose another activity as critical so that such activity can be assessed and improved. The

system works with a sort of iterative process due to its continual improvement focus.

Relevance to IE

The management information systems proposed in this paper has several applications

regarding Industrial Engineering. The main three which will be explained in this section are as

follows: Ergonomics, Safety Engineering, and Quality Engineering. One of the reasons, this trio

of applications was selected is because they deal with human error reduction in the workplace.

Ergonomics

Ergonomics is multidisciplinary; it involves psychology, engineering, anthropometry, and

other disciplines. It must be multidisciplinary because adapting work to humans’ characteristics

is a complex task. As one of the members of Association Des Ergonomes d’Orsay (ADEO in

French) and the International Ergonomics Association (IEA), MSc. C. Ullilen professed in a

lecture:

Ergonomics is the field of study in charge of adapting workstations to employees’

capabilities and limitations, reducing unnecessary physical and mental efforts; also,

ergonomics aims to decrease the amount of error and offers opportunities and areas to

develop new abilities to the employees (personal communication, August 14, 2015).

The suggested MIS works with ergonomics because the system gathers information of

human postures and work methods through sensor, and these are analyzed continuously. The

systems will analyze human postures while developing their regular activities so that they can be

corrected, after critical analysis is performed.


The manner in which employees interact with the systems, including this fairly new MIS,

is a complex, but necessary, area to explore and study. Lacking to consider this field in the study

may result in the failure of the system. As Karwowski argues, “the success of future human–

systems integration efforts requires the fusion of paradigms, knowledge, design principles, and

methodologies of human factors and ergonomics with those of the science of complex adaptive

systems as well as modern systems engineering” (2012, p. 983). Design principles and

methodologies of human factors and ergonomics are aspects to consider when installing physical

devices to gather data from employees activities. For example, Kinect sensors, together with

other sensors, can, according to Diego-Mas and Alcaide-Marzal, be regarded as gadgets to use in

order to aid the ergonomists work (2014, p. 984). Positioning Kinect sensors adequately in the

workstation is crucial for them to gather data correctly and provide accurate information to work

with. Also, the number of Kinect sensors and their relationship with other sensors are two

variables to consider in the design. Again Diego-Mas and Alcaide-Marzal say:

Kinect sensors record a high number of samples of body positions in short time, and

provide precise and trustworthy measurements of “frequency and duration of risk

exposure.” Nonetheless, there are some complications when the subject of analysis is not

facing the apparatus’ camera or he/she is out of camera range (2014, p. 984).

Their statement shows that Kinect technology in evaluating postures may work better in

jobs that do not require the employee to march distances outside the camera range –a lot- and to

stop facing the Kinect’s camera. Probably, it is more suitable to use this technology in office jobs

and to arrange several Kinect’s together with other sensors to be placed around the worker’s path

or to have Kinect’s follow and trace the worker in his/her path.


Safety Engineering

Safety Engineering is closely related discipline to Industrial Engineering that assures that

systems provide are safe-enough to operate appropriately. Safety is a broad word; for the purpose

of this work, human safety will be considered its central focus given by the system’s specified

objectives. If the purpose of the desired system is to greatly reduce human errors and accidents,

then the system itself must operate safely. Some system requirements may come to mind when

you take into account safety engineering; for example, a functional requirement regarding safety

may be written as “the system shall emit radiation within permissible limits” or “the system shall

completely operate with an electromagnetic field below risky levels.” Both requirements would

need to be refined to clearly specify desired limits and levels.

Diego-Mas and Alcaide-Marzal’s technological application covered risk exposure in the

analysis. The term risk exposure links with Safety Engineering. The risk analysis developed in

their study considered postures only. However, in a real workstation, risk analysis should

consider more aspects. They conclude that using Kinect sensors technology in real work

environment requires additional study (2014, p. 984). This additional study must run in form of

pilot programs in real workstations, so that interference with work, different risks, and many

other parameters can be evaluated. Work interference risks are included in these parameters. It is

important to test whether this application blocks the path of workers and may cause any

accidents in the workplace.

As seen before, Safety Engineering relates closely with risk analysis. Also, Reliability

Engineering is strongly linked with Safety Engineering. Reliability is more related to Systems

Engineering than it is to Industrial Engineering. However, it should not be unnoticed in any

project because evaluating the system’s reliability is how the correct functioning of the new


system is guaranteed. Developing what-if scenarios is a technique that can be used to determine

if requirements are met.

Quality Management

Quality management is in charge of providing standard products and services. Quality

control and quality improvement are two of the main components of the main components. Both

are connected with this paper’s system operation because what the system does is to constantly

gather data and display up-to-date information in order to control work methods and, later,

improve the critical activity, recognized using statistical data, by training employees or

redesigning work places. The latter operations reflects a continual improvement process in the

sense that critical activities will vary after each assessment. Since continual improvement

consists in constantly solving one problem after another, having a different critical point after

each solution creates an iterative process ending in no problems, ideally.

Furthermore, improving quality standards may lead to a better management of resources.

Using resources better is called productivity. The quality of work can improve in terms of

productivity and other standards when an ergonomic intervention is performed in the right way.

In their study in Volkswagen facilities in Brazil, Soares et al. confirm that “the concern is

connected with the harmonization of work and daily life activity in order to improve both the

health and well-being of employees, as well as efficiency, quality and performance at the work

systems” (2012, p. 4421). Not only does an ergonomic intervention improve quality, as they

stated, but also it makes other aspects of the organization and employees better.

Importance to the organization

Every system to be implemented within a firm must have some level of importance for

the organization’s purposes. Such importance may have one or more dimensions to be measured.


In this case, the system’s importance to the organization many dimensions, such as, quality,

productivity, safety, cost, training, ergonomics, and other dimensions. Quality, safety, and

ergonomic were already explained in the IE applications section of this essay. Note that the

system has an ergonomics scope. Improving working conditions through a well-designed

ergonomic intervention performed by pertinent technologies can help to increase productivity,

reduce costs, have a better control of processes, and improve training.

Productivity

Productivity is directly linked with ergonomics. If workers feel more comfortable in their

workstations, they are more capable of performing their activities in a better way than under poor

conditions. In an office, for instance, if temperatures are in the right interval to make employees

comfortable, they may be able to work better. Lang reports that “when the office temperature…

increased from 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit, workers typing errors fell by 44 percent and typing

output jumped 150percent” (2005, p. 23). Even something that can be regarded as meaningless

by many, such as slightly changes in temperatures in air conditioning systems, can increase

productivity and reduce the amount of error.

Costs

Having an ergonomics scope or policy within a firm can also reduce costs. Not only can

it help reducing the cost of having accidents in the workplace, but also there are other types of

costs involved. Alan Hedge, as director of Cornell’s Human Factors and Ergonomics laboratory,

affirmed that “raising the temperature to a more comfortable thermal zone saves employers about

$2 per worker, per hour” (as cited in Lang, 2005, p.23). Having $2 dollars per worker, per hour

may not seem as a lot, but how about a not-so-large call-center business; such organization can

have more than 100 workers and the same number of workers in each of the two working shifts


of 8 hours. That yields a saving of $3200 per day, resulting in $96000 per month, assuming 30

working days in a month and that the temperature is set in the right range.

Training

With the aid of the training programs as a corrective action of the EMT, employees get a

better knowledge and understanding of what they are doing and why are they doing their jobs in

that way. Thus, employees may be more conscious of what they are doing right and wrong and

will avoid wrong practices. Moreover, if workers avoid harmful movements while performing

their activities at work, risk of acquiring MSDs will decrease. Therefore, the degree of critical

activities will decrease, perhaps reducing the number of them, and progressively moving efforts

to another activity.

Add-ins to the system

Tracking employees’ movements in the workplace may help to perform a more effective

assessment of risks and to monitor their activities more frequently. It is key to remember that

system’s sensors are installed in previously identified areas as critical in which work postures

and gestures may lead to accidents and/or MSDs. Then, sensors, as Kinect for example, must

have to be installed everywhere in the facilities so that they can trace employees movements

accurately because of their limited range. Another alternative is to have moving Kinect sensors

to follow workers, but the cost, accuracy, and feasibility of such an assembly in the workplace or

even in a laboratory is unknown due to lack of study. Diego-Mas and Alcaide-Marzal conclude

that Kinect as a low-cost range sensor is an effective apparatus in collection of data of gestures

(2014, p. 984). Adding a sub-assembly to the Kinect sensor to make it follow its target might

increment the cost of having this tool in the system.


RDIF technologies seem to bring a bright solution to this problem. RDIF tags can trace

the position of a moving object continuously and accurately. Then, why is this technology not

being used nowadays to track employees’ movements? Troyk asserts that technology is at a point

where RFID tags can be implanted in the human body (as cited in Foster & Jaeger, 2008, p. 44).

Today, people are already being traced using RDIF tags either implanted or external. However,

there are some ethical issues regarding privacy and health. Foster and Jaeger reported that there

may be a possibility of RFID implants to have carcinogenic effects in humans (2008, p. 46).

Regarding privacy, human beings have the right to choose what information to show what

personal information to show; location is a personal information that most people cherish. Foster

and Jaeger affirm that “privacy is a generic issue with RFID technology” (2008, p. 46). Also,

people shall have the right to choose whether they want implanted or external tags, and people

must be notified whenever any device uses RFID signals so that they can accept or decline to

utilize such gadget.

Conclusion

In summation, implementing a management information system which uses sensors and

RFID technologies to aid Ergonomics in managing Occupational Safety and Health is a complex

task due to its many variables and levels to consider. As for any other system, installing this

system requires some modifications within the organization prior to its operation. Such changes

are important due to the fact that they provide means for the system to attain its goal of reducing

risks related to human factors with a continual improvement scope. Perhaps, alterations to the

current organizational state imply some sort of sacrifice in terms of variations of operations,

hierarchy, and policies.


Nonetheless, all efforts are worth it because workers feel more comfortable, productivity

is increased, costs are reduced, and a continual improvement culture in ergonomics is adopted. It

is important to remark that the EMT must be a team of experts in ergonomics so that they can

plan the right training, design accurate modifications, and implement the desired solutions to

minimize the risks. “Nowadays range sensors can be used like a tool to support the ergonomists

tasks, but its technology is not enough developed to replace the assessment by human expert”

(Diego-Mas & Alcaide-Marzal, 2014, p. 984). As technology develops more accurate, more

reliable, and more automatic techniques, perhaps human participation in controlling the system

and assessing risks can be reduced to almost zero. However, ergonomists intervention is still

necessary today due to the wider variety of tools to evaluate risks of MSDs and accidents.

Finally, further research and experimentation is required to accurately prove that this

system or alike systems work in the real world. So far, only some of its possible characteristics

have been tested in laboratories with employees. Some other few have been tested in a

workstations-like environment, but with controlled variables. Also, there is not enough

documentation about the previously mentioned add-ins to show feasibility and cost-

effectiveness. Moreover, as mentioned in the add-ins section, the ethical issues are important to

consider whenever a new technology is to be used. Despite cost of new technologies, the impact

of them in employees is an important variable to take into account because the human resource is

one of the most important ones within a firm. Not only do employees work for the firm, but also

they learn and offer value to the organization.


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Sensors and RFID Technologies Aiding Ergonomics in Managing Occupational Safety and Health