Ergonomics History

History of Ergonomics

• The earliest origins of ergonomics are attributed to Bernardino Ramazzini, an Italian physician and philosopher and the founder of occupational medicine

• In the 1700s, Ramazzini published "De morbis artificum diatriba" covering worker diseases

• Ramazzini revealed common worker conditions linked to prolonged, irregular motions and postures during tasks

• These conditions mirror today's soft tissue injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome or tendonitis, caused by excessive repetition, force, and joint deviation

• Wojciech Jastrzebowski, a Polish scientist and author, coined the term "ergonomics" in 1857

• Frederick Taylor applied ergonomics principles to enhance factory productivity via work environment design in 1883

• According to Taylor, management should focus on maximizing prosperity for both the employer and employee

• Taylor strived for maximum efficiency by training and developing each worker to maximize individual output

• He argued that efficiency boosts employer profit and enables higher employee wages

• Taylor proposed that management achieve maximum efficiency by doing the following:

  • Develop a science for each work element to supersede general methods
  • Select, train, and develop each worker scientifically
  • Cooperate with workers for science-aligned work execution
  • Management should handle tasks best suited to them, rather than workers performing all tasks

• Implementing the four fundamental principles allows management to plan and apply scientific principles, leaving the worker to execute specialized tasks

• Resulting in increased prosperity for employers and improved job satisfaction for employees

• The formal development of ergonomics began in the early 1900s amidst industrial change in the U.S

• Military needs during combat further propelled ergonomic science, aiming to effectively meet soldiers' requirements

• In war, military scientists and psychologists researched humans in occupational settings

• Early ergonomic research focused primarily on "fitting the worker to the task"

• This pioneering work provided the basis for today's human factors and ergonomics field

• In the early 20th century, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth conducted motion analysis studies, providing insights into the movements and times for occupational actions

• These became known as "therbligs," which is "Gilbreth" spelled backward

• The Gilbreths studied skilled performance and fatigue, as well as workstation design for users with disabilities

History of Ergonomics Timeline

• 1700: Bernardino Ramazzini publishes "De Morbis Artificum Diatriba" (Diseases of Workers)
• 1857: Wojciech Jastrzebowski coins “ergonomics"
• 1883: Fredrick Taylor applies ergonomics principles to improve factory productivity
• 1900-1920: Frank and Lillian Gilbreth begin their work in motion study and shop management
• 1945-1960: Ergonomics begins to flourish in post-World War II societies
• 1949: The Ergonomics Research Society (now known as the Ergonomics Society) is established in Britain
• 1957: The space race begins, and human factors becomes an important part of the space program
• 1957: The Human Factors Society (now known as the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society) is founded
• 1960-1980: Rapid growth and expansion of human factors in the United States
• 1960: Membership in the Human Factors Society reaches 500
• 1970: OSHA and NIOSH are both created by the U.S. Congress
• 1979: Three Mile Island incident has a major impact on the perception of a need for human factors in the workplace
• 1980: Membership in the Human Factors Society reaches 3000
• 1980–Present: Human factors continues to grow and becomes more mainstream with commercials stating “ergonomically designed" as a buzz word

Federal Agencies and Ergonomics

• Many U.S. government agencies support human factors and ergonomics research:
  • Department of Defense (DoD): Conducts extensive human factors and ergonomics research for aircraft cockpits, weapons systems, processes, and team interaction
  • Federal Highway Administration: Applies ergonomic principles to highway design, road signage, and predicting driver behavior
  • National Aeronautical Space Administration: Designs for human capabilities/limitations in space, space stations, and vehicles and effective human use in support tasks on Earth, like maintenance
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: Studies car design, driver distraction, and the impact of drugs and alcohol on driving
  • Department of the Interior: Applies ergonomics in federally regulated fields like underground mining and fire fighting
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology: Focuses on the safe design of consumer products
  • National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health: Addresses ergonomic injuries in the workplace, along with industrial safety and work stress
  • Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): Provides private industries with guidelines, regulations, and standards for occupational safety.
  • Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Establishes design requirements for nuclear power plants, including controls, displays, and warning/monitoring systems
  • Federal Aviation Administration (FAA): Focuses on aviation safety, designing equipment, processes, and tasks for workers from air traffic controllers to pilots

Legislative and Regulatory Issues

• In the United States, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and OSHA were established, in 1970, and seek safe and healthy working conditions

• NIOSH focused on research, information, and education and OSHA focuses on developing and enforcing workplace regulations

• Government agencies provide legislation, tools, and guideines to support safety and ergonomic applications

  • OSHA is responsible for announcing standards

• Similar agencies include:

  • Australia (Australian Safety and Compensation Council [ASCC])
  • Canada (Canadian Centre or Occupational Health and Safety)
  • South Korea (Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency [KOSHA])

• Private organizations have also contributed to available guidelines and standards

Human-Centered and Human Integrated Design

• User-centered design (UCD) uses ergonomics principles to design systems, products, and processes focused on the user

• Implementation of UCD needs active participation of real users, as well as design iteration

• Approaches to UCD vary across industries and geographic regions and can include:

  • Cooperative design
  • Participatory design
  • Contextual design

• Cooperative Design:

  • Involves designers and users equally
  • Emerged from the Scandinavian tradition of Information Technology design, and is evolving since 1970

• Cooperative Design approach forms a collaborative team of designers, developers, nurses, doctors, and admin staff, and:

  • All stakeholders to meet regularly in workshops or brainstorming sessions
  • Users (nurses, doctors) provide input about their workflow, needs, and challenges
  • Designers propose ideas, create prototypes, and adjust them based on user feedback
  • Aims to create a design that represents a balance between technical feasibility and user requirements

• Example of cooperative design:

  • Nurses suggest a feature for medication tracking; designers collaboratively create and refine this feature with them

• Participatory Design (PD):

  • A North American term inspired by Cooperative Design, focusing on user participation
  • Actively involves end users in the design process to create user-meeting products

• Example of a participatory design approach:

  • Nurses, doctors, and administrative staff are invited to actively participate in creating solutions for the hospital management system:
    • Users are treated as co-creators
    • Participatory workshops held to sketch interfaces, suggest layouts, and decide on workflows
    • Users decide on system features, like patient status alerts, facilitated by designers
    • Empower users by involving them directly in decision-making and aligning the system with their needs

• Contextual Design:

  • "Customer-centered design," draws ideas from Participatory Design
  • Context refers to the circumstances of device use, within the user's current occupation

• A contextual design example:

  • Designers visit the hospital to observe and study users (nurses, doctors, administrators) in their natural environment:

    • Designers shadow nurses during their shifts, observing how they record patient information and manage medications
    • Interviews and observations help designers understand workflows, pain points, and inefficiencies
    • Based on this understanding, designers create a system tailored to real-world workflows
    • Goal is to ensure the system fits seamlessly into the work environment and minimizes workflow disruption

  • While observing, designers notice that nurses frequently misplace written notes

  • As a result, they create a quick-entry feature for patient data directly on tablets

• Gathering user input requires engagement and interaction with user base, using:

  • Focus groups
  • Usability testing
  • Observation analysis
  • Questionnaires
  • Interviews

• The UCD process consists of four essential elements:

  • Requirements and planning
  • Requirements specification
  • Design
  • Evaluation

• Once the design is complete after the four categories of UCD, it is ready for release

• Implementing UCD standards increases user acceptance, product quality, and profitability

• Requirements and planning:

  • Understanding and specifying the context of use for the product;
    • Identify intended users
    • Identify what the product will be used to accomplish
    • Identify the conditions under which the product will be used

• Requirements specification means specifying the user and organizational requirements, and to:

  • Define user goals that must be met
  • Define business requirements

• Produce designs and prototypes

  • Develop design in stages and ideally allow users to evaluate products at different stages of development

• Evaluation is carried out through user-based assessment of users who are representative of intended population

  • Evaluation goes through the iterative process to allow multiple evaluations as revisions are made to the product

Cost Justification for Ergonomic Program

• Ergonomic research and applications should be adopted to increase productivity, quality, and achieve cost savings

• Organizations can be unwilling to invest, although economic benefits have been extensively studied

• Whether investing in research, resources, or equipment, ergonomists must be ready to justify the financial case for ergonomics

• Ergonomic investments face same scrutiny as any business decision

• It is important to demonstrate scientific and economic benefit of ergonomics

• Organization cultures value and communicate benefits of ergonomics

• Example of benefits of ergonomic interventions:

  • Nintendo estimates $1 million savings yearly with a $400,000 ergonomic investment
  • Led to a 16%-20% fall in worker compensation costs with lifting-related injuries declined by 80%
  • Hewlett-Packard saw 105% return on investment in 1 year

• The Red Wing Shoe Company implemented their ergonomics program in 1985:

  • By 1989, workers' compensation insurance premiums were reduced by 70% and lost workdays went down by 79%

• 3M's ergonomic program nets an annual return of $250,000 from increased productivity

• A process is needed to prepare and make a case for ergonomics:

  • Clearly define the issues or problems that the proposed ergonomic intervention will address, for example:
    • Employee injuries
    • Workers' compensation costs for a work area
    • Employee turnover
    • Poor quality
    • Less than optimal productivity

• Calculate the cost of the intervention:

  • Costs for ergonomic equipment or software
  • Labor to install or implement the intervention
  • Time that workers will spend learning the system and/or training

• Use a validated ergonomic cost benefit analysis tool

  • Cost benefit analysis tools are available on the OSHA website, society websites, and some state occupational safety sites

• Develop a preliminary implementation/transition plan to launch the ergonomic improvement

• Schedule a phased implementation, during off-peak times to limit workplace/worker interruption

• Determine specific people needed for implementation

• Develop a training plan, including written, user-friendly procedures

• Anticipate and plan for any new challenges or issues

• Analyze/describe financial implications of the ergonomic intervention:

  • Key categories include increased productivity, compensation cost reduction, fewer lost workdays, and improved quality

• Note intangibles :

  • Compatibility with goals
  • Impact on morale/satisfaction
  • Benefits to the image of your organization
  • Improved safety

• Present the case to decision makers using a professionally prepared presentation with supporting documentation and outside resources, if necessary

Role of the Ergonomist

• Ergonomists use information about people to make the workplace safer, more comfortable, and more productive

• Ergonomists study tasks and how they are done by workers

• Working with engineers/designers using the information to ensure products/services used comfortably/safely/efficiently

• Product designers apply ergonomics to appeal to a diverse population including children, the disabled and elderly

• The ergonomist can also assess current products/services:

  • Identifying how they fail to "fit" users
  • Suggesting fit improvements

• Ergonomists main competencies and activities are to:

  • Investigate/analyze demands for appropriate workplace design interaction between work, product, and environment compare with human needs, capabilities, and limits
  • Analyze/interpret ergonomics findings
  • Appropriately documents findings

• Determine's compatibility of human capabilities with planned or existing demands

• Develops a plan for ergonomics design or intervention

• Makes appropriate recommendations for ergonomics changes

• Implements recommendations to improve human performance

• Evaluates outcome of implementing ergonomics recommendations

• Demonstrates ethical and professional behavior

Explore the history of ergonomics. From Bernardino Ramazzini's early work on occupational diseases to Wojciech Jastrzebowski's coining of the term and Frederick Taylor's application of principles to enhance factory productivity, discover the evolution and key figures.