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2019 | Buch

Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018)

Volume VIII: Ergonomics and Human Factors in Manufacturing, Agriculture, Building and Construction, Sustainable Development and Mining

herausgegeben von: Dr. Sebastiano Bagnara, Dr. Riccardo Tartaglia, Dr. Sara Albolino, Prof. Thomas Alexander, Prof. Yushi Fujita

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buchreihe : Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing

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Über dieses Buch

This book presents the proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018), held on August 26-30, 2018, in Florence, Italy. By highlighting the latest theories and models, as well as cutting-edge technologies and applications, and by combining findings from a range of disciplines including engineering, design, robotics, healthcare, management, computer science, human biology and behavioral science, it provides researchers and practitioners alike with a comprehensive, timely guide on human factors and ergonomics. It also offers an excellent source of innovative ideas to stimulate future discussions and developments aimed at applying knowledge and techniques to optimize system performance, while at the same time promoting the health, safety and wellbeing of individuals. The proceedings include papers from researchers and practitioners, scientists and physicians, institutional leaders, managers and policy makers that contribute to constructing the Human Factors and Ergonomics approach across a variety of methodologies, domains and productive sectors.

This volume includes papers addressing the following topics: Ergonomics in Manufacturing, Agriculture, Building and Construction, and Mining, and Human Factors and Sustainable Development.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Ergonomics and Human Factors in Manufacturing

Frontmatter
Designing a User-Centered Approach to Improve Acceptance of Innovations on the Shop Floor Using Rogers’ ‘Diffusion of Innovations’

Analyzing innovation implementation processes in theory and in the industry different approaches are observable. Whilst in Rogers’ ‘Diffusion of Innovations’ the future user is the initiator of the implementation process, the situation is different for shop floor innovations. Mostly, it is a planner or an innovation scouting department, who decide to implement a new technology. The workers as future users will be involved later for the purpose of a proof-of-concept. This late time of user involvement often leads to a low acceptance rate. In order to enhance user acceptance in a shop floor context this paper proposes a user-centered approach of innovation implementation based on Roger’s model. As a first step of the industrial application, I conduct guided interviews to involve workers into the process of my innovation use-case on smart glasses in order picking processes.

Nela Murauer
Possibilities and Challenges for Proactive Manufacturing Ergonomics

This paper identifies and describes product development activities where ergonomics issues could be considered and illustrates how that could be done through a number of different approaches. The study is divided into two parts where an interview study is done to identify where in a product development process consideration of ergonomics issues are or could be done. The second part of the study includes an observation, motion capture and simulation study of current manufacturing operations to evaluate and compare three different assessment approaches; observational based ergonomics evaluation, usages of motion capture data and DHM simulation and evaluation. The results shows the importance of consideration of ergonomics in early development phases and that the ergonomics assessment process is integrated in the overall product and production development process.

Erik Brolin, Nafise Mahdavian, Dan Högberg, Lars Hanson, Joakim Johansson
Human-Robot Collaboration in Manual Assembly – A Collaborative Workplace

The integration of humans into the assembly process in terms of human-robot collaboration (HRC) enables the flexibility of production processes with a high degree of automation, which are not flexible enough to overcome the challenges in nowadays production in all cases. However, this form of cooperation raises issues such as occupational safety or acceptance. In order to address these questions, a HRC workstation has been designed that is on the one hand characterized by traditional ergonomic design aspects with regard to conventional industrial requirements. On the other hand, data from intelligent sensors are used to adapt the system’s behavior to the way the working person works. The workstation was developed on the basis of the results of a requirement analysis. This article presents the ergonomic concepts of the workplace and their implementation.

Henning Petruck, Marco Faber, Heiner Giese, Marius Geibel, Stefan Mostert, Marcel Usai, Alexander Mertens, Christopher Brandl
Human Work Design: Modern Approaches for Designing Ergonomic and Productive Work in Times of Digital Transformation – An International Perspective

Today, enabling productive and ergonomic work processes, work methods and work systems plays a significant role and in the future, it is going to gain even more significance. The “Ergonomic Assessment Worksheet” (EAWS) is a screening tool to assess the physical workload on the human body in different workplaces. It was developed for ongoing production and for production planning in the automotive industry and similar industries. With EAWS, physical stress can be assessed in a very detailed way without requiring a lot of effort. Aspects of successive stress superposition can be greatly simplified for short cycle tasks. The results of the evaluation are the basis for the communication between management and workers councils. The new process building block systems Human Work Design (MTM-HWD®) describes motions of people in conjunction with an ergonomics assessments procedure - in this case EAWS - in one step. This way, it allows a direct correlation in designing productive and ergonomic work. This contribution presents principles, practical application cases and the standardized education concept of EAWS and MTM-HWD® in the light of their international application.For both methodologies, capturing or tracking of motions is essential in order to collect information about body postures of human beings, forces and loads for manual handling as well as information of the frequency of the repetitiveness of the upper limbs. An automatic collection of these kind of data by a motion capturing suit (AXS) and the connected gloves as well as the evaluation of the collected data by an EAWS and MTM-HWD® analysis will also be presented in this contribution from a theoretical and practical (business case) perspective.

Peter Kuhlang, Manuela Ostermeier, Martin Benter
Fukushima-Daiichi Accident Analysis from Good Practice Viewpoint

Fukushima-Daiichi Accident has been analyzed from the viewpoint of good practice, that is from resilience engineering viewpoint. The good cases of resilience response are observed in individual base and organizational base as below: The effectiveness of insight on accident cases (inundation in Madras, 9.11 terrorism and B.5.b. order for the countermeasures) and of the risk evaluation, Decision of continuation of sea water infusion (individual base), Reflection of the experience on Chuetsu-Oki Earthquake, Improvement of seismic building which is equipped emergency power source system and air conditioning system (organizational base), Deployment of fire engines (organizational base), The effectiveness of command system in ordinal time (on-site of organizational base), and Support by cooperation companies and manufacturers (designers and site workers of organizational base). It is important to ‘establish the feedback system on organization learning in ordinal time’, that is to establish the system admitting violation of order. The decision at on-site are given priority than other ones. The representative example is the decision of sea water infusion continuation which was given priority at on-site, even though the official residence and the main office of Tokyo Electric Power Company had ordered to stop the infusion.

Hiroshi Ujita
The Ergonomics of the “Seated Worker”: Comparison Between Postures Adopted in Conventional and Sit-Stand Chairs in Slaughterhouses

This case study aims to compare conventional and sit-stand chairs regarding Brazilian Regulatory Standard 36 (NR-36) requirements. Two types of chairs present in a slaughterhouse in southern Brazil were compared (sitting and sit-stand posture). The seven NR-36 requirements of seat characteristics were used: (1) to have height adjustable to the worker’s height and the nature of the tasks performed; (2) little or no conformation at the base of the seat; (3) rounded front edge; (4) backrest adapted to the body for protection of the lumbar region; (5) easy-to-use adjustment systems; (6) constructed with material that prioritizes thermal comfort; and (7) footrest that adapts to the length of the worker’s legs in cases where the operator’s feet do not reach the floor. The sit-stand chair met 6 requirements of the NR-36, lacking the attribute that requires backrest (4), in contrast, the conventional chair met all requirements. The function of the backrest in the sitting posture is linked to the reduction of load on the spine. Although the sit-stand chair has no backrest, the posture adopted when using this chair is more natural and distributes 60% of the body weight in the lower limbs, resulting in less intervertebral disc compression. Based on this principle, the sit-stand posture may be an alternative to be tested in slaughterhouses. It was concluded that both conventional and sit-stand chairs met most of NR-36 requirements, being options for alternating postures.

Natália Fonseca Dias, Adriana Seára Tirloni, Diogo Cunha dos Reis, Antônio Renato Pereira Moro
Simple and Low-Cost Ergonomics Interventions in Isfahan’s Handicraft Workshops

Introduction: In developing countries (IDCs), Handicraft is one of the industries in which a major part of the workforce is still contained with high prevalence of WMSDs complaints. Major problems associated with handicraft producing operations, awkward postures in different parts of body (i.e. neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists/hands, upper back, lower back, thigh, knees, and ankles). It is concluded that the high rate of absenteeism has an adverse effect on quality and quantity of production, efficiency of workers and organization. The aim of this study was to implantation of simple and cost-intensive ergonomic interventions based on the ILO ergonomic checkpoints in Isfahan Meenakari pots handicraft workshops.Methods: This is an interventional study by using ILO Ergonomic checkpoints (Second edition) for assessment ergonomic risk factors in Isfahan handcraft workshops around Imam square. This assessment performed base on checkpoint guideline.Results: After workplace assessment Base on adjusted checklist four intervention designed and prototyped. Those interventional projects were (1) Bending machine redesigning, (2) Resting facilities designing, (3) Raw material trolley designing, and (4) Hand-tools stand designing.Conclusion: With practical Checklist guidelines, simple and cost-effective interventions designed to improve the level of ergonomics and the health of workers at handicraft workshops.

Mohammad Sadegh Sohrabi
Low Back Biomechanics of Keg Handling Using Inertial Measurement Units

Workers handling beer kegs experience risk factors associated with occupational low back pain (heavy loads, awkward trunk postures). Many breweries are small and lack resources for materials handling equipment, causing much work to be done manually (including keg handling).Measuring worker motions (kinematics) may aid job design to reduce risk factors associated with lifting. Low back motions may be evaluated using observation techniques and devices which are oftentimes inconvenient in the field. Application of wireless inertial measurement units (IMUs) for human motion provides whole body kinematics information, including low back.The present study used a 3-dimensional motion capture system to investigate low back kinematics during keg handling at a Colorado brewery. Specifically, five workers lifted spent kegs onto a clean and fill line. Workers wore 17 IMUs as they handled kegs. Low back angular displacements were assessed during keg handling at two heights (low, high). Repeated measures analyses were performed with each trunk angular displacement variable as a function of lift condition.Differences in low back kinematics between lift conditions were identified. During low lifts, torso flexion was significantly greater than high lifts. A broader range of angular displacements was observed in high lifts. Data collection was feasible during operational hours due to IMU’s small design. Data collected from experienced workers provided researchers with information directly applicable to keg handling in small breweries. Results from the study can help improve workplace design in a craft brewery, reduce risk, and create safer work.

Colleen Brents, Molly Hischke, Raoul Reiser, John Rosecrance
Workload Estimation System of Sequential Manual Tasks by Using Muscle Fatigue Model

In this study, we sought to develop a system to evaluate the workload of multiple sequential tasks using a digital human and muscle fatigue model, as well as test its validity using a sequential task experiment. The muscle fatigue model is the three-component model introduced by Xia et al. The model assumes that the muscle motor unit consists of resting, activated, and fatigued components. We used a temporal smoothed value of the active component ratio to the non-fatigued component to estimate workload. A system was developed using this model to evaluate workload of any combination of sequential tasks of the single manual handling task. A sequential task consisting of three kinds of material handling task performed by a digital human and real environment was prepared as a validity test. We found that the estimated workload using the simulation and the subjective scores showed a similar pattern with the load of the sequential tasks and repetitions.

Akihiko Seo, Maki Sakaguchi, Kazuki Hiranai, Atsushi Sugama, Takanori Chihara
Epidemiological Survey of Occupational Accidents: A Case Study in the Flour and Animal Feed Business

Occupational accidents constitute a serious problem that can affect different organizational environments, ergonomic and safety-oriented actions can minimize risk factors. The objective of this study is to carry out an epidemiological-logical survey of occupational accidents at a company in the flour and animal feed segment, located in a small city, in the northern portion of Rio Grande do Sul. The research was characterized as a case study, exploratory and quantitative approach, developed through bibliographic and documentary analysis. The analysis occurred from January 2010 until September 2017, considering the cases of work accidents based on the following variables: number of accidents, gender, age, type of accident, function performed by the injured employee, days of absence, costs per accident, places of highest incidence of accidents in the company, part of the body affected in the work accident. The results showed the occurrence of 28 work accidents in the period, being 89% typical and most occurring in 2012 (29%). The highest incidence is between employees from 26 to 45 years old, mainly in the functions of full and junior machine operator, being traumas that affect the hands the main occurrence (48%). It was verified that 36% of the accidents let the employee away from his duty from a period between10 and 15 days, generating the direct cost of U$ 12,355.00 for the company in the period. The conclusion is that epidemiological surveys of occupational accidents can generate useful information for companies, enabling the development of ergonomic interventions capable of improving occupational safety, preventing new accidents, which can positively reflect the productive process, as well as reduce costs and improve health and quality of life in the workplace.

Lucas Provin, Cristiane Nonemacher Cantele
Driving the Company’s Players to Take Ownership of Ergonomics

To ensure the success of this ownership initiative, companies have to adhere to 5 major key performance points:1.show genuine commitment by the company’s senior management,2.mobilize all the necessary skills and make them work together,3.identify the priorities,4.integrate and organize the sustainability of the initiative,5.devote sufficient time to planning and to exploiting feedback. The first stage starts with a screening-diagnosis campaign, representative of the company’s activities. The analyses of the work situations observed must enable companies to undertake the first preventive actions. The approach must be suited to the company, and the recommendations must promote preventive actions.The second stage consists of a transfer of ergonomics skills by training people to become ‘officers’ in ergonomics as applied to the company’s activities. This entails training-action in the field with workshops organized by implementing the methods and tools proposed for the analysis of the activity as well as a method for appraising the physical workload or physical demands of the job.The third stage to be put in place involves sharing actions between plants, between factories (for manufacturing groups) and between companies within the same business sector, that could be coordinated by professional organizations.It is fair to say today that those companies which have undertaken diagnoses, pursue their actions with the same desire to continue making progress in evaluating risks liable to cause MSDs (musculoskeletal disorders) and, above all, in rolling out a culture of prevention of risk exposure factors.It is still too early to assert the role of this initiative in the decline in the number of MSDs, but companies committed to the issue are implementing long-term actions for the ongoing improvement of work situations and seeing the emergence of a prevention culture and a desire to involve all stakeholders.

J.-P. Zana
An Ergonomic Program in a Chemical Plant of Rhodia/Solvay in Brazil

Since 2002, an ergonomic program, assumed by the management of the industrial site, including the participation of employees, being done comes to identify, analyze, solve and control ergonomic risk factors at work. The steps of the ergonomic process are: 1. training of the employees in ergonomics (main concepts, risk factors identification, simplified and some advanced methods of ergonomic analysis, record activities/tasks; discussion and choice of solutions, action plan, implementation of solution, follow-up); 2. formation of the working group by plant; 3. identification of activities with potential risk to cause damage to health; 4. ergonomic analysis of activities/tasks at workplace and photo/filming of them; 5. discution of collected data, seeing photos/films and classification of risk degree, in group; 6. discussion and choice of solutions in group; 7. elaboration of technical report; 8. fill indicator «ergostatus» ; 9. elaboration of action plan by the team of the plant; 10. implementation of solution; 11. follow-up after implementation of solution; 12. update the indicator. The main achievements were: office furniture adequacy; labs furniture and practices adequacy; elimination of manual lifting to loads >20 kg; mounting of several mechanical lifting load devices; installation of force reduction devices in valves; automation of processes (ex.: filling and charging barrels at logistic; silica amorphous packing); improvement of management of equipments (forklifts in logistic); the initiative of each area or plant to identify and eliminate ergonomic risk factors (nowadays each area or plant has an employee in charge of ergonomics issues).

Valmir Azevedo
Ergonomic Analysis on the Assembly Line of Home Appliance Company

Benefits provided by ergonomics application in assembly systems design are linked to the reduction in occupational injury risks and to the improvement of physical and psychosocial conditions of the workforce with a drastic reduction in all costs linked to absence, medical insurance, and rehabilitation. Moreover, ergonomics improvements improve quality and operators productivity. An activity analysis was performed in a fan assembly production line. The study was developed in a company located in the Rio de Janeiro State that produces home appliances. The activity analysis consisted of systematic observations and interviews with the assembly line operators to understand the activities that are developed in the assembly of a fan, besides identifying possible limitations and existing occupational hazards in some stage of production. In the fans assembly line it was identified that operators does repetitive up and down movements in order to open a bag to packed the fan, which can cause pain, injury and muscle fatigue. As a solution, it was proposed to install a blower at the workstation that allows the opening of the bag and it prevents the operator performs repetitive movements and reduces activity time. This study shows the need for applications of ergonomic improvements that enable positive changes in the fans assembly line. The study is going to present the company and to expose the solution with future gains in relation to production efficiency and operator health.

Isabel Tacão Wagner, Jessica Nogueira Gomes e Silva, Vanessa Rezende Alencar, Nilo Antonio de Souza Sampaio, Antonio Henriques de Araujo Junior, Jose Glenio Medeiros de Barros, Bernardo Bastos da Fonseca
Evaluation Metrics Regarding Human Well-Being and System Performance in Human-Robot Interaction – A Literature Review

This literature review provides an overview on evaluation metrics regarding human well-being and system performance in human-robot interaction. In this context a systematic literature search in the Web of Science and IEEE Xplore databases was carried out. Thus, 30 relevant contributions out of 3854 studies were analyzed by multistage filtering. To gain an overview on and compare the different approaches and results, the studies are summarized in tables according to the following criteria: author, year, title, task, study design, measurement methods, population, and results. The evaluation metrics presented in this contribution in principle can be divided into questionnaire-based surveys and psychophysiological measurement methods. In addition, the studies are classified into evaluation metrics for measuring well-being and performance.The research was carried out with regard to an industrial engineering and ergonomics context, but is independent of specific application areas.

Jochen Nelles, Sonja Th. Kwee-Meier, Alexander Mertens
Towards an Engineering Process to Design Usable Tangible Human-Machine Interfaces

Internet of Things (IoT) technologies gave rise to a multitude of new opportunities and challenges for creating human-machine-interfaces. Especially for mobile devices like tablets, tangible user interfaces (TUI), providing the haptic controls for manipulating the GUI, and in extension tangible human-machine interfaces (tHMI), also including hardware elements for handling and operating the computing device, are to be designed. Currently only rudimentary design guidelines exist and state-of-the-art engineering methods are not comprehensive enough to cover the elaborate design process. In this paper, we follow a design science based approach to develop and evaluate an engineering process for usable tHMI. We empirically evaluate the engineering process by creating a tHMI for a mobile assistance system for maintenance workers, focusing on the subjective quality measures for the created artifacts. Measuring electrical activity in involved muscles as an objective benchmark, we show that tHMIs created using our method are significantly better than current available commercial alternatives. The prototype resulting from our instantiation provides a basis for useable mobile devices in an industrial context and is evaluated as highly suitable for use by domain experts. Hence our engineering process is one of the first comprehensive approaches that covers all aspects of designing, building and evaluating tHMI for IoT devices in production settings and is supplemented with a choice of rigorous methods for evaluating usability in the field.

Michael Wächter, Holger Hoffmann, Angelika C. Bullinger
Thumb Plastic Guard Effect on the Insertion of Push Pins Using Psychophysical Methodology

The present study was made through the usage of the psychophysical methodology applied to 14 women previously being trained for 4 days making insertion tests with the usage of their thumb finger on time frames of 8 h for five days to obtain knowledge. Maximum strength level in the insertion of 1 to 4 Push-pins using a thumb splint. During the investigation 14 workstations with push pins involved on the labor operation were selected, more than 90% were above the recommended acceptance limit of strength, which is of 10 lb from 1–7 push pins and 7 lb from 8–12 (Longo et al. 2004). This research evaluates the usage of a thumb plastic guard customized to plant population to implement new protective personal equipment in order to increase the strength of this muscular group in workstation with push pins. Test was divided into 4 weekly sessions; First is an inclusion per minute with dominant hand, non-dominant and both thumbs per minute, Second: two insertions per minute with dominant hand, non-dominant and both thumbs, Session 3: three insertions per minute with dominant hand, non-dominant and both thumbs, Session 4: four insertions per minute with dominant hand and non-dominant. It showed that performance with splint increase since without this device applied force does not exceed 11 lb.

Alejandro Iván Coronado Ríos, Delcia Teresita Gamiño Acevedo, Enrique Javier De la Vega Bustillos, Francisco Octavio Lopez Millan
Estimation of Lifting and Carrying Load During Manual Material Handling

Low back injuries and low back pain are often caused by improper task execution, overuse or lack of guidance and training. Our current understanding of dose-response relationships between risk factors that contribute to these injuries remains unclear. Enhanced monitoring of risk factors contributing to injuries could provide more complete exposure-response information. It is difficult to continuously monitor workers and their exposures to ergonomic risk factors using existing technologies. This paper presents a practical approach to advance continuous measurements of common risk factors by quantifying the weight of an object during lifting and carrying, lift frequency and lift duration during manual material handling (MMH). We estimate these parameters based on the ground reaction forces (GRF) and considering trunk dynamics. The results show that by considering trunk dynamics and applying simple signal processing techniques, we can precisely estimate these risk parameters. These parameters can then be used to estimate injury risk of workers. The developed methodology is designed for real-time continuous monitoring applications and sets the foundation for future development of in-field monitoring of workers with wearable sensors.

Mitja Trkov, Andrew S. Merryweather
Assessment of Productivity and Ergonomic Conditions at the Production Floor: An Investigation into the Bangladesh Readymade Garments Industry

The goal of this study is to investigate the change in productivity in the garments production floor initiated by lean and to assess the possible consequences for health and safety of workers. The study covers six garments factories where production lines with 250 sewing machine operators were included. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were applied. Three key lean tools (VSM, 5S, Time and Motion Study) have been applied and significant changes in productivity were found. Subsequently the actual changes initiated by lean have been assessed. The ergonomic assessment shows that the tangible lean changes tended to have either a neutral or a positive effect on OHS, whereas negative consequences were limited to attempts in pushing workers to work faster. The latter is not necessarily an inherent part of the lean methodology. The paper thus suggests that there may be possibilities for using lean to improve OHS and that the frequent critique of lean for intensifying work may not always be true. However, more research is necessary to study long term consequence for both productivity and OHS.

Abu Hamja, Miguel Malek Maalouf, Peter Hasle
A Human Postures Inertial Tracking System for Ergonomic Assessments

Since the early development for health purposes in 1950s, motion tracking systems have been strongly developed for several applications. Nowadays, using Micro Electro-Mechanics Systems (MEMS) technologies, these systems have become compact and light, being popular for several applications. Looking at the manufacturing industry, such as the automotive one, ergonomic postural analyses are a key step in the workplaces design and motion tracking systems represent fundamental tools to provide data about postures of workers while carrying out working tasks, in order to assess the critical issues according to ISO 11226 standard.The aim of this work is to present an experimental wearable inertial motion tracking system, developed at the Dept. of Engineering of the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” in collaboration with Linup S.r.l., composed by several low-cost inertial measurement units (IMU).The system allows to estimate the orientation of selected human body segments and to analyze the postures assumed during the working tasks. To increase the flexibility of use, the system is highly modular: it’s composed by 4 independent modules in full-body configuration, each one made of 3 or 4 inertial units.In this paper, the overall system is presented, supported by several test cases, carried out in Fiat Chrysler Automobile (FCA) assembly lines, to test the system reliability in industrial environments. Furthermore, an automatic posture analysis code is presented to evaluate the postural critical issue of the workplaces.

Francesco Caputo, Alessandro Greco, Egidio D’Amato, Immacolata Notaro, Marco Lo Sardo, Stefania Spada, Lidia Ghibaudo
Hutchinson Engaged for MSD’S Prevention Since 2006

Hutchinson make Ergonomics’ analysis since 2007, to prevent professional diseases like Musculo-squelletics disease (MSD) but also to fight penibility at work.This presentation illustrates the best practices of our plant dedicated to aerospace products, products that require many manual activities. The plant Hutchinson is located in Chemillé, France. The manual tasks that are very present on the site are analyzed and rated to allow ergonomic evaluation of the activity. Both technical and organizational solutions are put in place to eliminate exposure to MSD and improve ergonomics at workstations.The first step in the methodology used by the Chemillé site is the risk analysis and identification of the most demanding tasks in posture, handling and MSD (such as sewing activity). The second step is to set up a working group in collaboration with occupational medicine and employees. The third stage is deployment with the phase of understanding, diagnosis, awareness, action and valorization.Concrete examples will be provided. The methodology in place since 2007 has made it possible to reduce the number of occupational diseases, even if it is still very difficult to estimate a figure. However, there are still some activities to improve or technical solutions are not easy to implement and sometimes need to revise the manufacture of our parts with the agreement of our customers.

D. Minard, P. Belin, C. Desaindes
Assessment of Job Rotation Effects for Lifting Jobs Using Fatigue Failure Analysis

Job rotation is a common method employed by industry to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). However, the efficacy of this technique has been open to question and methods of quantifying the effects of job rotation strategies have been scarce. However, recent evidence has suggested that MSDs may be the result of a fatigue failure process, and new risk assessment tools have been developed that have the capability to assess the effects of various job rotation strategies on MSD risk. The current analysis uses the Lifting Fatigue Failure Tool (LiFFT) to assess cumulative loading for a simulated job rotation scheme. Results of this analysis suggest that attempting to “balance” a high risk, medium risk, and low risk lifting job ends up creating three jobs that are all high risk. Rotation may somewhat reduce the risk associated with the worst job, but this will be accompanied by a steep increase in risk faced by all other workers in the rotation pool.

Sean Gallagher, Mark C. Schall Jr., Richard F. Sesek, Rong Huangfu
From Prescription to Regulation: What Workers’ Behavior Analyses Tell Us About Work Models

In 2004, PSA developed PSA Excellent System, an organizational system based on the Lean Manufacturing principles to optimize vehicle production. One of the pillars of this system is the follow up of a “work standard” designed by the methods engineers. In theory, work standards allow for the balancing of shifts, i.e. the organization of tasks that operators can perform within a given period. The objective here is to maintain the operators’ performance and health.Despite this approach, errors and complaints on the assembly lines have emerged. In order to understand these phenomena, we carried out a detailed analysis of the operators’ activity on workstations. For the data collection, we adopted a bottom-up approach by combining several methodologies: hierarchical task analysis of the prescribed and actual operators’ tasks, filmed observations, behavioral coding and interviews with the operators and methods engineers. Data analyses revealed discrepancies between work standards and actual tasks. “Anticipated” and “individual” regulations could explain these differences. Although these regulations are essential to the production, they involve additional actions and are not taken into account in the design of workstations. Similarly, they escape the methods engineers and are symptomatic of a dichotomy between the Lean Manufacturing rules shaping workstation design and real production constraints. We attempt to identify these constraints to improve the PSA Excellent System’s predictive performance models. In this paper, we present the results of an analysis on a workstation in the assembly plant in Sochaux (France).

Lisa Jeanson, J. M. Christian Bastien, Alexandre Morais, Javier Barcenilla
Assistive Robots in Highly Flexible Automotive Manufacturing Processes
A Usability Study on Human-Robot-Interfaces

Increasing demand for more product variants combined with shorter life cycles lead to higher complexity in production processes. One opportunity to overcome these challenges is seen in the combination of manual and automated work within usable instructive Human-Robot-Collaboration (iHRC). An assistive robot receives instructions from a worker, where and how to execute the next production steps. This allows a flexible adaptation to various production conditions without altering the robot programming. In order to realize such production systems, usable Human-Robot-Interfaces (HRIs) are necessary. Frameworks for the conceptual and methodological design as well as evaluation of such systems cannot be found in scientific literature or practice. This paper reports the development of an iHRC system for the automotive sector with the use of a mixed-method user-centered design framework. We show multi-dimensional usability aspects of HRIs as well as reflect on the suitability of the chosen development methods and their use in practice. The resulting prototype, the executed analysis and usability studies provide a basis for usable iHRC. First design principles for further developments of HRIs in the industrial context can be derived.

Tim Schleicher, Angelika C. Bullinger
Validation of the Lifting Fatigue Failure Tool (LiFFT)

Manual material handling is common in industry and has demonstrated a strong association with the development of low back disorders (LBDs). Several risk assessment tools exist in the literature to assess acceptable lifting limits, and/or the development of improved design of manual lifting tasks. However, recent evidence has strongly suggested that LBDs (and other MSDs) may the result of a process of mechanical fatigue failure. Prior tools have not used fatigue failure methods to assess risk, which may be beneficial is these disorders are indeed the result of such a process. The purpose of this paper is to describe a new risk assessment tool for manual lifting (LiFFT) and to provide validation of this tool using two existing epidemiological databases. Results demonstrate that the LiFFT cumulative damage measure is significantly associated with low back outcomes in both epidemiological studies.

Sean Gallagher, Richard F. Sesek, Mark C. Schall Jr., Rong Huangfu
Between Ergonomics and Anthropometry

The food industry sector production of Martini Alimentare Srl lives actually a period of big transformation influenced by the constant changing of the market conditions.

Massimo Grandi
Passive Upper Limb Exoskeletons: An Experimental Campaign with Workers

Wearable exoskeletons are currently evaluated as technological aids for workers on the factory floor, as suggested by the philosophy of Industry 4.0. The paper presents the results of experimental tests carried out on a first prototype of a passive upper limbs exoskeleton developed by IUVO. Eighteen FCA workers participated to the study. Experimental tests were designed to evaluate the influence of the exoskeleton while accomplishing different tasks, both in static and dynamic conditions.Quantitative and qualitative parameters were analyzed to evaluate usability, potential benefits and acceptability of the device. Results show, on average, that wearing the exoskeleton has a positive effect in increasing: (i) endurance time while holding demanding postures with raised arms and/or having to lift and hold small work tools, (ii) endurance time and accuracy execution in precision tasks. The users also declared a lower perceived effort, while performing tasks with the exoskeleton.

Stefania Spada, Lidia Ghibaudo, Chiara Carnazzo, Laura Gastaldi, Maria Pia Cavatorta
Ergonomics Management Program: Model and Results

The objective of this work is to present the Ergonomics management program of a multinational company based in the state of São Paulo (Brazil), and its positive results, which has generated an improvement in the working conditions and the quality of life of the operators who work there. The program involves several actions (planned, controlled and documented) based on the Ergonomics of the Activity (whose main objective is to understand the work to transform it) and in the national legislation, covering the ergonomic workplace analyzes (which contemplate the three dimensions of ergonomics - physical, cognitive and organizational), execution and validation of projects of ergonomic improvements (conception and correction), investigation of work-related outpatient complaints, follow-up of return to work processes and inclusion of people with disabilities in workstations, trainings (both work-related and non-work related issues) and actions aimed at the well-being and quality of life of the employees, with relaxation, strengthening and postural alignment activities in a place inside the company equipped and with professionals specialized in Physical Education and Physiotherapy. Therefore, with the combination of the Ergonomics concepts of the activity and the management model of the PDCA cycle, it is possible to propose steps for an Ergonomics program that seeks the continuous improvement of the work processes and the constant validation of the actions performed by it.

C. M. C. Varella, M. A. L. Trindade
Physical and Virtual Assessment of a Passive Exoskeleton

The paper describes the testing activity carried out on a commercial passive lower limb exoskeleton: the Chairless Chair, a wearable sitting support that allows workers to switch between a standing and a sitting posture. Tests were carried out with FCA workers who volunteered for the study. Laboratory trials served to familiarize the users and to obtain an initial feedback on the usability of the device in the assembly line. At a second step, virtual modelling of a few static postures was carried out, reproducing the anthropometry and the postural angles of the worker while using the exoskeleton. A main output of the model is the estimate of what forces are exchanged between the subject and the exoskeleton. In the case of the lower limb exoskeleton, an important parameter to consider is the percentage of the subject’s weight that is sustained by the exoskeleton frame. The higher is this percentage, the lower will be the strain on the subject’s lower limbs. First comparison between experimental and simulated results showed good agreement and auspicious advantages of exoskeletons in relieving the strain on workers.

Stefania Spada, Lidia Ghibaudo, Chiara Carnazzo, Massimo Di Pardo, Divyaksh Subhash Chander, Laura Gastaldi, Maria Pia Cavatorta
Holistic Planning of Material Provision for Assembly

Due to the rising variety and increasing flexibility of products and processes for assembly, the planning processes and the work systems need to be designed in a goal oriented and adaptive way. Especially the manual assembly and the provision of materials associated are taken into consideration. Scientists of the Institute “InnArbeit” prepared the “concept for the systematic planning of the material provision”. This approach guarantees the organized and structured planning for the material provision. For holism the approach considers up- and downstream processes.Potentials of the Virtual Reality (VR) – Technology are utilized for defining appropriate steps of the approach and include ergonomic evaluations. Tools for the continuous planning (e.g. “Stratergie-Matrix”, “Förderkette” and “Digitaler Erweiterbarer Katalog für Bereitstellequipment”), which are included in the approach to assist the process planners within the material provision were also created by the institute.

Leif Goldhahn, Katharina Müller-Eppendorfer
Digitalization in Manufacturing – Employees, Do You Want to Work There?

IT-driven transformation processes in manufacturing result in major changes for employees’ daily work and they are ever-present in media and research, called inter alia digitalization, computerization or Industry 4.0. A variety of research focuses on these new hardware and software technologies. Research dealing with motivational processes and attitudes of employees in manufacturing, however, is lacking. How do they face these changes?Data were collected using a standardized questionnaire (KFZA) that was returned by n = 109 apprentices working in manufacturing. The questionnaire queried the actual state of the work situation, as well as the target state. Additionally, fears, opportunities, and general aspects participants associate with a highly digitalized work environment, were also investigated.Results are divided. Firstly, they show that young employees are negatively opposed to the changes of Industry 4.0 and digitalization in manufacturing as they fear massive job losses. Then again, they favour the idea of learning something new, having a greater degree of self-determination, and versatility, which is also connected to future work tasks.Thus, early clarification of realistic risks and chances connected to digitalization in manufacturing is necessary in order to prevent young employees from being resigned and disillusioned before they even start their professional career.

Caroline Adam, Carmen Aringer-Walch, Klaus Bengler
Systematic Approach to Develop a Flexible Adaptive Human-Machine Interface in Socio-Technological Systems

Modern automatic machines in production have been becoming more and more complex within the recent years. Thus, human-machine interfaces (HMI) reflect multiple different functions. An approach to improve human-machine interaction can be realised by adjusting the HMI to the operators’ requirements and complementing their individual skills and capabilities, supporting them in self-reliant machine operation. Based on ergonomic concepts of information processing, we present a systematic approach for developing an adaptive HMI after the MATE concept (Measure, Adapt & Teach). In a first step, we develop a taxonomy of human capabilities that have an impact on individual performance during informational work tasks with machine HMI. We further evaluate three representative use cases by pairwise comparison regarding the classified attributes. Results show that cognitive information processes, such as different forms of attention and factual knowledge (crystalline intelligence) are most relevant on average. Moreover, perceptive capabilities that are restricted by task environment, e.g. several auditory attributes; as well as problem solving demand further support, according to the experts’ estimation.

Julia N. Czerniak, Valeria Villani, Lorenzo Sabattini, Frieder Loch, Birgit Vogel-Heuser, Cesare Fantuzzi, Christopher Brandl, Alexander Mertens
Proposal of an Intuitive Interface Structure for Ergonomics Evaluation Software

Nowadays, different technologies and software for ergonomics evaluations are gaining greater relevance in the field of ergonomics and production development. The tools allow users such as ergonomists and engineers to perform assessments of ergonomic conditions of work, both related to work simulated in digital human modelling (DHM) tools or based on recordings of work performed by real operators. Regardless of approach, there are many dimensions of data that needs to be processed and presented to the users. The users may have a range of different expectations and purposes from reading the data. Examples of situations are to: judge and compare different design solutions; analyse data in relation to anthropometric differences among subjects; investigate different body regions; assess data based on different time perspectives; and to perform assessments according to different types of ergonomics evaluation methods. The range of different expectations and purposes from reading the data increases the complexity of creating an interface that considers all the necessary tools and functions that the users require, while at the same time offer high usability.This paper focuses on the structural design of a flexible and intuitive interface for an ergonomics evaluation software that possesses the required tools and functions to analyse work situations from different perspectives, where the data input can be either from DHM tools or from real operators while performing work.

Aitor Iriondo Pascual, Dan Högberg, Ari Kolbeinsson, Pamela Ruiz Castro, Nafise Mahdavian, Lars Hanson
Proposal of a Guide to Select Methods of Ergonomic Assessment in the Manufacturing Industry in México

This paper presents the particular situation on the manufacturing industry in Mexico, a sector of the economy that provides important figures for the economy and that generates an important number of jobs, and the relevance of ergonomics in the health care of workers, in particular the Work Muscle Skeletal Disorders (WMSD). In recent years there has been an increase in the number these cases. In addition, the new legal regulations that require companies to identify and evaluate Ergonomics Risk Factors (ERF) have taken effect and it is needed take actions to minimize the risk of exposure to a WMSD. The paper presents a review of the ERF and the WMSD described in the literature as well as the proposal of a methodological guide to select the Ergonomic Assessment Methods (EAM) with greater application for the manufacturing industry, distinguishing two main activities; repetitive work and manual handling of loads. For each of these, the EAMs with the simplest application in two levels are suggested; the recommended EAM and at a second level the alternative EAMs to complement the evaluation. The guide is presented graphically and a brief description of each method and its scientific reference is provided.

López Millán Francisco Octavio, De la Vega Bustillos Enrique Javier, Arellano Tanori Oscar Vidal, Meza Partida Gerardo
Analysis of Physical Workloads and Muscular Strain in Lower Extremities During Walking “Sideways” and “Mixed” Walking in Different Directions in Simulated U-Shape in the Lab

The muscular strain at the lower extremities was analysed in the IAD-lab using the simulated U-shape with short-cycle tasks (approx. 80 s.) with walking “sideways” and “mixed” walking (sidesteps and normal steps). Also focus was on analysis of the effects of “walking sideways counter clockwise” vs. “turn clockwise sideways” on the muscular strain in the three selected muscles in the right and the left leg. Four different scenarios were tested. The U-shape consisted of five work stations, was 2 m long and 1.4 m wide in scenarios walking with “sidesteps” (A, B) only. In scenarios with “mixed” walking the assembly U-shape was about 3,2 m long and 1.4 m wide. The EA-activities in selected three leg muscles in the left and right legs were analysed using surface EMG-method. Six test subjects, between 19 and 30 years old, without experience in assembly work took part in the study. The results complement the study Wakula et al. (2017a,b) and show that walking “sideways” counter-clockwise (CC) cause the selected right leg muscles more strain compared to the left leg muscle by some test persons. When walking clockwise (C) two muscles in the left leg were more stressed compared to the right leg muscles. Changing the direction of moving at the U-line: CC $$ \to $$→ C $$ \to $$→ CC $$ \to $$→ C is positive for the muscular strains - it brings some balance of the EA values in analyzed right and left leg muscles. Walking with “mixed” (lateral and two-three normal) steps in the analyzed U-shape did not reduce muscular strains in the legs compared to walking with “sidesteps” only.

Jurij Wakula, Stefan Bauer, Sören Spindler, Ralph Bruder
Risk Assessment of Repetitive Movements of the Upper Limbs in a Chicken Slaughterhouse

Brazil is one of the main exporters of chicken meat since 2004. However, improvements in the working conditions in this sector have not expand at the same rate as production grows. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the risks associated with repetitive movements of the upper limbs in different meat processing tasks in a poultry slaughterhouse. The study was conducted in a poultry slaughterhouse with 3,500 workers, in which 300,000 chickens were slaughtered daily. In order to evaluate the risks associated with repetitive movements of the upper limbs, 10% of the workforce was evaluated while carrying out their work tasks, using the Checklist proposed by OCRA method. Descriptive statistics was used, as well as the Student t-test (SPSS 17.0) to compare the risk between left and right side of the body (p ≤ 0.05). The average of occupational repetitive actions performed by workers was 64.7 ± 13.3 per minute, representing 9 points in the OCRA scale (0 to 10 points scale). The average score of OCRA Checklist was 19.5 ± 2.5 (moderate risk). The scores for the right upper limb (20.0 ± 3.0 - moderate risk) were significantly higher (p = 0.024) than the contralateral limb (17.7 ± 2.8 - moderate risk). Considering the five risk categories proposed by the OCRA method, one work task was considered high risk (7%) and 14 presented moderate risk (93%). Through simulations, it was possible to reduce the risk of UL-WMSDs to very low levels by reducing only the activity working pace (–48.5 ± 11.8%).

Diogo Cunha dos Reis, Adriana Seara Tirloni, Eliane Ramos, Natália Fonseca Dias, Antônio Renato Pereira Moro
Ergonomics Now Has a Place in the Arkema Group as Part of a Permanent Improvement Initiative

The rollout of an initiative focusing on ergonomics came about as a result of the negotiation of an agreement on the prevention of harsh working conditions. The initiative has however been extended to be part of a continuous progress approach. It applies to all our production facilities.The initiative entails a systematic diagnosis of working situations and the creation of a network of representatives: areas of application include analysis and improvement of existing situations as well as design of new plants. This network of representatives, who come from a variety of professions and activities, is responsible for overseeing the initiative in the field. They have been trained in analyzing the operations, and meet on average twice a year to discuss and share their practices and continue their training.This initiative has been communicated in the Group’s Annual Report.

Dominque Massoni, Raphaële Grivel
Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders and Posture Assessment by QEC and Inter-rater Agreement in This Method in an Automobile Assembly Factory: Iran-2016

Background: Workers in the automotive industry due to the nature of the jobs are prone to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The aim of this study was evaluating the prevalence of MSDs and inter-rater agreement in posture assessment with QEC method.Methods: In a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical in an automobile assembly plant in the Bam city in 2016, 148 people have completed MSDs Nordic questionnaire with census method sampling. Posture analysis was performed using the QEC. Two evaluators had experience of assessment in similar jobs at least 50 times before carrying out the assessment in this study. They independently evaluated 31 job tasks that were the worst posture in each task. SPSS software was used for statistical analysis with a significance level of 0.05.Results: 88.6% of the subjects were married and they were in range age of 21 to 42 years. More prevalent have been in waist 78.3% (n = 90), wrist/hand 59.5% (n = 66), shank/feet 57.7% (n = 64), Shoulder 56.1% (n = 60), knee 55.1% (n = 59), upper back 46.2% (n = 49), neck 39.9% (n = 59), forearm 17.9% (n = 19) and thighs 13.8% (n = 13) during the last 12 months.The incidence of MSDs of the neck and upper back were significantly associated with weight in the last 12 months. Neck disorder was the statistically significant correlation with the height.Pearson correlation test shows quantitative evaluation score with QEC method in both evaluators was highly correlated and acceptable (r = 0.91). The maximum difference score between two evaluators in posture assessment was 22 which was 12% of maximum total score in the QEC method.Conclusion: The high prevalence of MSDs was consistent with the high score in the QEC method. Ergonomic interventions are essential to improve the ergonomic status of the car assembly plant.

Akram Sadat Jafari Roodbandi, Forough Ekhlaspour, Maryam Naseri Takaloo, Samira Farokhipour
Managing the Risk of Biomechanical Overload of the Upper Limbs in a Company that Produces High-End Clothing for Men

The manufacturing facility that is the subject of this case study, where around 300 workers work, is organised by department (cutting, sewing, pressing, final testing) and has an incentive system based on the individual performance of each worker, which is calculated with respect to the standard timeframe needed to carry out operations.The study carried out will analyse how risk indicators pertaining to biomechanical overload of the upper limbs vary in relation to the following factors:trends in the individual performance of workers with regard to individual operationsrotation of personnel through various operations with differing risk indicatorstime that workers are exposed to different operationsthe inverse proportion between worker performance and times during which workers maintain inappropriate posture in each joint areaDue to the way in which all production cycle operations are mapped out, software has been implemented to enable users to manage risk in production departments in a more efficient and effective way.In particular, via the integration of this system with the management system previously in use at the company, it is possible to obtain data relating to:the actual presence of workers in individual workplacesperformance of workers in individual workplacesAs a result, it is possible to measure an individual worker’s actual exposure to risk during an entire work shift.Thanks to risk indicators being updated in real time, managing the rotation of personnel in production departments is improved. This also provides the versatility needed to balance times that workers spend carrying out operations with varying levels of risk.

Nicola Schiavetti, Laura Bertazzoni
Analysis of Ergonomic Risk Factors in a Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Company

Ergonomic workplace analysis (EWA) in manufacturing industries have been carried out in various industrial sectors to evaluate the risk of Work Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WRMSD). A prospective EWA was conducted by a team of ergonomists in a pharmaceutical manufacturing company located in an Industrially Developing Country. Initially, an onsite inspection of workstation was done to identify ergonomic risk factors that might be considered to predispose the workers to WRMSD. Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion (BRPE), Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) and Rodgers Muscle Fatigue Analysis (RMFA) were used to identify risks in the respective tasks. All the 11 tasks involved high risk of WRMSD involving neck, back, knees, ankle, arm, elbow, hands and fingers and some task involving most body parts on RMFA. Scores of REBA also showed a very high postural risk. The top 3 tasks that had highest ergonomic risk scores evaluated were: 1. filling powder bottle (Task 4), 2. primary packing of tablets (Task 8) and 3. Loading (Task 11).

Jerrish A. Jose, Deepak Sharan, Joshua Samuel Rajkumar

Agriculture

Frontmatter
The Work of the Agricultural Pilot from an Ergonomic Perspective

Brazil has the second largest agricultural aircraft fleet of the world, and more than 70 million hectares are sprayed annually by national agricultural aviation. Previous studies indicate that the work of agricultural pilots involves a series of risks factors and difficulties of physical, cognitive and organizational nature. Although agricultural aviation in Brazil represents only 5% of the national fleet, it accounts for 25% of all air accidents. This study aims to identify the main determinants of agricultural pilot activity, responsible for problems in the field of ergonomics and work safety. The method adopted is based on the application of semi-structured interviews, based on questionnaires, to the main actors involved in the problem: pilots, aircraft designers and air accident investigators. The main results allowed the characterization of the agricultural pilots according to demographic and labor relations criteria. The main ergonomic and occupational safety problems pointed out by the actors refer to aircraft design deficiencies and organizational issues. The conclusion points to the need for adjustments and improvements of several elements of the aircraft cabin, especially the flap lever, seat and joystick. Also, the environmental cabin conditions and organizational issues should also be improved.

Juliana Alves Faria, Mauro José Andrade Tereso Tereso, Roberto Funes Abrahão
How to Improve Farmers’ Work Ability

The aim of this study was to identify the factors contributing to the improvement of farmers’ work ability. The study sample comprised the full-time farmers (n = 2169) of the ‘Occupational health and agriculture in Finland’ study. The research material was analysed using cross tabulation and logistic regression methods, and we examined the relationship between perceived work ability and variables related to farmers’ work, management, working conditions, workload, job satisfaction, health, and health-related behaviour. The ‘good work ability’ group (8–10 on a scale of 0–10) mostly included those under 64 years of age; those who placed a high value on managerial duties; those who felt that their work was not so physically strenuous; those who experienced work engagement more frequently; those who felt that their health was good; farmers with no debilitating long-term illness or injury diagnosed by a doctor; farmers who had not had, during the 30 days prior to the study, both musculoskeletal and mental symptoms, either for a prolonged period or recurrently; and farmers of normal weight.

Merja Perkiö-Mäkelä, Maria Hirvonen
A Study to Develop the Framework of Estimating the Cost of Replacing Labor Due to Job-Loss Caused by Injuries Based on the Results from Time Study in Agriculture of Korea

Measuring the time for human-driven agricultural work and establishing the standard time for the work are essential for estimating compensation or insurance cost when work-related damage and/or disaster are occurred. Our study aims to investigate the steps required for cultivating crops, and try to estimate the time and amount of job-loss due to the injuries occurring in the agricultural environment. From the analysis we found the work time recorded in the diary was greater than the time measured using GPS by 7% on average. Additionally, we develop the Excel-based macro application that can calculate the costs for the replacing labor forces based upon the data obtained from the time study.

Hee-Sok Park, Yun-Keun Lee, Yuncheol Kang, Kyung-Suk Lee, Kyung-Ran Kim, Hyocher Kim
The Gap to Achieve the Sustainability of the Workforce in the Chilean Forestry Sector and the Consequences over the Productivity of System

The forestry sector is facing a number of challenges that having impact of the sustainability of the workforce and over productivity of the system. This study examines the relationship between the working conditions in the forestry sector and the workers. In addition examines the strategies the Chilean forestry companies are using. Finally, using two examples identify the consequence over the productivity of the system. The overall objective of this study was to investigate the impact of working conditions on the workforce in the Chilean forestry sector and over the productivity of the system. The study involved data collection from 350 forestry workers, both Chilean forest companies and contractors companies along with interviews with managers and experts in the area of forestry, ergonomics, working conditions and health and safety and the study cases. The findings indicate that even though working conditions in the Chilean forestry sector have been improve, they continue to have a negative impact on workers in terms of occupational health, market attractiveness and ageing population. Strategies that forestry organizations have implemented these are not enough to solve the problems mentioned before. The strategies are focuses on the prevention of accidents rather the OH problems and none of the strategies pays attention to the wellbeing of the workforce and the development of resources, aspects the workers demand. Finally, due the problem mentioned above, a negative impact over the productivity of the systems, based on examples related with pruning and harvesting.

Felipe Meyer
Ergonomic Practices in Africa: Date Palm Agriculture in Algeria as an Example

For more than fifty years, early ergonomists such as [1–4] called for the application of ergonomics in developing countries to expand its application rather than its confinement to developed countries. Indeed, ergonomists from developing countries applied ergonomics to many traditional workplaces, machines, and jobs in the field of what was called at that time, traditional ergonomics. Despite what has been done, the African share of ergonomic studies is modest when compared to the ergonomic work done in other continents. Date palm farming is considered as one of the most important economic resources especially in hot and dry areas in Africa. In Algeria, according to Bouguedoura et al. [5], the number of date palms is in millions. The number of people who work in date palm industry is also very great. The majority of date palm work is carried out after the farmer climbs the trunk to reach the crown. The worker climbs the palm tree, which may be about 21–23 m in height, barefooted and in rare cases uses a harness or a rope for support. The work is insecure and associated with significantly higher rates of work related musculoskeletal disorders. This paper aims to answer the following questions:What attempts can be made to solve the problem of falling from the date palm crown?What attempts can be made to fight WRMSDs?

Mohamed Mokdad, Mebarki Bouhafs, Bouabdallah Lahcene, Ibrahim Mokdad
Agriculture into the Future: New Technology, New Organisation and New Occupational Health and Safety Risks?

Agriculture is a hazardous industry, with a high frequency of injuries. As working life has changed over the last decades, so has also agriculture. In Norway, farm size has increased, and agriculture has become technology intensive with a high amount of automated milking systems (AMS) and is now more dependent on hired help. The aim of the study is by sociotechnical system theory to explore how a new generation of farmers describe their work organisation in relation to occupational health and safety. The study is an explorative interview study at five farms having implemented AMS. An open interview guide was used. The interviews were recorded and thereafter transcribed. Analyses were based on the balance-theory with the domains technology, organisation, physical environment, task design, and individual characteristics. The results show that AMS changes the farm as a sociotechnical work system. AMS is considered a relief with regards how tasks become less physically demanding, less time consuming, and with less animal contact. On the other hand, cognitive demands increase. The results indicate that the technology increases both complexity and vulnerability, these factors being less considered by the farmers. The findings underline the importance of farmers’ increasing awareness of their role as a manager and for an increased system perspective.

Kari Anne Holte, Gro Follo, Kari Kjestveit, Egil Petter Stræte
Estimation of Output in Manual Labor Activities: The Forestry Sector as Example

Apud and Valdes [1] and Apud, Gutierrez [2] developed an area of research were they proposes study different activities in forestry sector and determine which element were related with the output of the workers. Planting, pruning, site clearing, commercial harvesting and harvesting were the main activities that were studies. The main objective was set up standard references for output in forestry work, since the output depends on the workload that a worker can reach in a sustainable way without fatigue or other risks and on the difficulties, they can found to carry out his job, mainly related to the type of trees, climate and ground. In other words, in forestry there is no chance to demand of a worker always the same amount of work. This puts a difficulty to calculate incentives and salaries, especially when workers are paid by piece rate [3]. Therefore is not enough to carry out work-studies, having only subjective criteria to choose the workers and to decide after if they are doing the job at the right pace.

Felipe Meyer, Elias Apud
Comparison of Ergonomic Training and Knee Pad Using Effects on the Saffron Pickers Musculoskeletal Disorders

Saffron picking is the job that capable to create a field for musculoskeletal disorders due to inappropriate working positions such as bending, kneeling and pressure that imposed to the body in these positions. The purpose of this study was compare two methods contain knee pad and training pamphlet application to prevent and reduce musculoskeletal disorders in saffron pickers. This survey was randomized clinical trial with register number IRCT2012100811043N1. Samples included 60 persons of saffron picker workers. Sampling was random & easy and used tools were including REBA, Body Discomfort Chart (BDC). During the saffron harvest before intervention take code to parts of workers bodies based on the REBA method. Workers discomfort levels were determined by BDC questionnaire. These steps are repeated after the intervention. Then the data entered into SPSS software version 16 and data analysis were performed with statistical tests (Mann–Whitney and t-test). BDC questionnaire analysis indicated a significant effect on the knee discomfort after knee pad using (P = 0.0004). But in the upper back (P = 0.27) and lower back discomfort (P = 0.12) had no significant effect. Also, REBA analysis results indicate a significant impact of the training pamphlet intervention on the scores: A (P = 0.025), C (P = 0.027) and final (P = 0.028). But no significant effect on B table scores (P = 1.000). According to the results, the effect of training pamphlets was higher than kneepad using. Probably, both interventional methods can be appropriate methods to prevent and reduce knee and trunk discomforts of saffron pickers.

Nasrin Sadeghi, Mojtaba Emkani

Building and Construction

Frontmatter
Evaluation of Participatory Strategies on the Use of Ergonomic Measures and Costs

The implementation and use of ergonomic measures is dependent on behavioural changes of both employers and employees. In these stakeholder-groups different barriers could emerge with respect to using ergonomic measures. Participatory strategies – guided by professional ergonomic consultants – are thought to stimulate behavioural change of the stakeholders and a better chance for starting interventions on barriers in order to increase the use of ergonomic measures. In the present cluster randomized controlled trial, the effect of two participatory guidance strategies – a face-to-face or an e-mail guidance strategy - on the use of ergonomic measures among construction workers and related company costs were studied. Only five out of twelve companies actually implemented ergonomic measures. Within these five companies, both participatory guidance strategies are thought to be capable of improving the actual use of ergonomic measures by workers. The face-to-face guidance strategy, however, may be more suitable in a company context where lack of insight in relevant work-related risk factors exists. Costs were determined by guidance costs in the F2F group and purchasing costs in the EG group. The cost analysis provided insight into the financial consequences of the ergonomic measures to the companies, but the large variety in purchasing costs made a comparison between the two guidance strategies in this study irrelevant.

Steven Visser, Henk F. van der Molen, Judith K. Sluiter, Monique H. W. Frings-Dresen
Effectiveness of Interventions for Preventing Injuries in the Construction Industry: Results of an Updated Cochrane Systematic Review

Various interventions to prevent occupational injuries in the construction industry have been proposed and studied. This continuing updated Cochrane review systematically summarizes the most current scientific evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to prevent injuries associated with construction work. Search terms that covered the concepts of ‘construction workers’, ‘injury’, ’safety’ and ‘study design’ were used to identify intervention studies in five electronic databases up to April 2017. Acceptable study designs included randomized controlled trials (RCT), controlled before–after studies (CBA) and interrupted time series (ITS). In total 17 studies, 14 ITS and three CBA studies, from the US (6), UK (2), Italy (3), Denmark (1), Finland (1), Austria (1) Germany (1) Spain (1), Belgium (1) met the inclusion criteria. Most studies were at high risk of bias. There is very low-quality evidence that introducing regulations as such may or may not result in a decrease in fatal and non-fatal injuries. There is also very low-quality evidence that regionally oriented safety campaigns, training, inspections or the introduction of occupational health services may not reduce non-fatal injuries in construction companies. There is very low-quality evidence that company-oriented safety interventions such as a multifaceted safety campaign, a multifaceted drug workplace programme and subsidies for replacement of scaffoldings may reduce non-fatal injuries among construction workers.

Henk F. van der Molen, Prativa Basnet, Peter L. T. Hoonakker, Marika M. Lehtola, Jorma Lappalainen, Monique H. W. Frings-Dresen, Roger A. Haslam, Jos H. Verbeek
Co-design in Architectural Practice: Impact of Client Involvement During Self-construction Experiences

This paper investigates how self-construction processes, considered as the utmost form of clients’ involvement in the realm of building a family house, impact clients’ and architects’ interactions. The study of four cases (two involving “traditional” processes, two involving “self-built” processes) and the drawing of Experience Maps for each of them nurture reflections about satisfaction assessment, perceived quality and clients’ integration to the architectural design process (potentially including co-design attitudes).

Pierre Schwaiger, Clémentine Schelings, Stéphane Safin, Catherine Elsen
Thermal Comfort Differences with Air Movement Between Students and Outdoor Blue-Collar Workers

In order to explore the comfort zone of airflow and thermal comfort differences with air movement between students and outdoor blue-collar workers, the experiment was carried out in a climate chamber in Chongqing university. The research shows that the range of the outdoor blue-collar worker (0.7 m/s–2.89 m/s) is wider than that of the students (0.9 m/s–2.76 m/s). In addition outdoor blue-collar workers are not sensitive to changes of the temperature compared to the students. The upper threshold of the acceptable temperature and humidity is different between the two groups. The upper limit of the white-collar workers is 30 °C/70%, while the outdoor blue-collar workers could maintain their thermal comfort with air movement even in 32 °C/90%.

Yu Ji, Hong Liu
Standardizing Human Abilities and Capabilities Swedish Standardization with a Design for All Approach

Several standard works in Sweden from the period 2000–2017 have been focused on converting visionary welfare political goals into down-to-earth-oriented guidelines for subsequent realization and implementation. The present paper is focused on the conversion of general welfare goals into standards that apply to areas that require a trans-disciplinary approach to address accessibility issues in built environment, services and transportation. The study suggests that standardization with a design for all perspective becomes an interpretive work in which words and phrases are contemplated in relation to the ethical stance of the national disability policy. This framework is situated at the very interface between real-life settings and visionary thinking. Consequently, participants in standardization works revolving around design for all activate several individual knowledge fields of ethical, ideological, practical and theoretical nature. In communal discussions between the participants, the development of standards proceeds through an analytical work that is like an iterative creative process that uses concepts, phrases and words as instruments. The overall conclusion is that standardization with a design for all approach has left the strict focus on products and started to target the design process in view of a built environment, products or services that are centered on the fit between the design and a wide range of human abilities.

Jonas E. Andersson
Construction Ergonomics: A Support Work Manufacturer’s Perceptions and Practices

Temporary works designers influence construction ergonomics directly and indirectly. The direct influence is because of design, details, and method of connecting, and depending upon the type of procurement system, supervisory, and administrative interventions. The indirect influence is because of the type of procurement system used, pre-qualification, project duration, partnering, and the facilitating of pre-planning.A questionnaire survey was administered among attendees attending an inhouse support work designer and supplier ‘designing for construction ergonomics’ workshop.The following constitute the salient findings. A range of temporary works design related aspects impact on construction ergonomics, and the respondents’ organisation considers/refers to such aspects frequently, and on a range of design, procurement, and construction occasions. Experience predominates in terms of how ergonomics knowledge was acquired.The paper concludes that respondents contribute to construction ergonomics, but there is potential for enhanced contributions.Recommendations include that tertiary-built environment education should address temporary works design and construction H&S and ergonomics, temporary works design standards should highlight designing for construction H&S and ergonomics, and practice notes, and continuing professional development (CPD) should be evolved.

John Smallwood
Construction Ergonomics: Construction Health and Safety Agents’ (CHSAs’) Perceptions and Practices

Construction entails exposure to a range of ergonomics hazards and risks: bending, lifting, repetitive movement, and vibration; environmental stresses such as heat, sun, noise, poor illumination, and wet or damp work; skin and respiratory exposure to chemicals and dust, as well as mental stress. In accordance with the South African Construction Regulations, clients may appoint CHSAs to fulfil their functions, which requires CHSAs to interface with and guide clients and designers, and conduct interventions during the construction process.A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted among CHSAs registered with the South African Council for the Construction and Project Management Professions (SACPCMP) to determine, inter alia, CHSAs’ perceptions and practices, and CHSAs’ source of knowledge. Findings and conclusions include: CHSAs understand and appreciate that construction ergonomics can be influenced during all the stages of projects, and especially design development; CHSAs do consider/refer to construction ergonomics on various occasions, design included, and relative to various design related aspects, which indicates that it is important to CHSAs. CHSAs do have an understanding and appreciation of the impact of design related aspects on construction ergonomics. CHSAs are ‘lacking’ the requisite competencies, as they rate themselves as average in terms of their knowledge with respect to ergonomics, and their source of ergonomics knowledge being informal as opposed to formal.Recommendations include: CHSAs should be appointed during the initial stages of projects; CHSAs should register for and complete formal tertiary education programmes, and appropriate continuing professional development (CPD) courses should be evolved.

John Smallwood, Claire Deacon
Environmental Design and Human Performance. A Literature Review

Ambient conditions inside the buildings may work as positive stimuli for occupants, or as stressors, given that the human body is regulated by physiological and psychological processes, that react to the physical factors. So, air, warmth or cold, lighting, daylight and views, sound and acoustic setting, layout and building details, must be seen today as important architecture elements to manage and control for designing places not only healthy and comfortable, but also effective and productive, because it may contribute to human performance and productivity. However, while references on occupant health and comfort in buildings results plentiful, literature on the effects of physical factors on human performance appears dated, scarce and inhomogeneous, and thus difficult to consult. The paper presents a literature review aimed at starting a state of the art about effects of physical factors of building interiors on occupant’s performance. Particularly, the purpose is to overview environmental conditions and interior details of buildings, that have been experimented and resulted to have effect on occupant performance and ability, considering which category of occupant have been involved and which kind of ability have been observed; in which kind of buildings these observations have been made. As result, an updated selection of research about effects of buildings interiors feature on occupant performance is identified, based on which more confirmed research aspects emerge and those to be further developed detected.

Erminia Attaianese
Ergonomic Quality in Green Building Protocols

The control of living conditions in built spaces is a key aspect of design in order to guarantee the final user to live in healthy and safe spaces. This importance is also recognized in green building rating systems that, in fact, present criteria on wellbeing with particular link to physical issues. In this context, the adoption of an ergonomic approach would be useful in order to address the interaction between user and built environment as a whole, considering both factors that affect physical wellbeing (i.e. thermo-hygrometric, acoustic, lighting, air purity), and those that complete the complex sphere of wellbeing, that are psychological and social too. The aim of this study is to appraise how green building evaluation tools are able to bring out user’s wellbeing in all its complexity. With respect to ergonomic quality, the study analyses LEED, a widely internationally widespread green building rating systems, and WELL, the first rating system with a specific focus on user wellbeing. A comparison between the two systems is carried out, with respect to their efforts in bringing out the ergonomic quality of built environment. The results show that both the analyzed tools give space to building features for user’s wellbeing. Properly, the weight given to these aspects is less in LEED, because user’s wellbeing is not its unique goal; however, some efforts would be useful to increase and reward the related criteria. In both cases, ergonomists within the project team can be a key element to pursue wellbeing in an effective user-centered vision.

Ilaria Oberti, Francesca Plantamura
An Ergonomic Approach of IEQ Assessment: A Case Study

Only in the last fifteen years, the application of the ergonomics principles stated the need to achieve a good IEQ (indoor environmental quality) as a result of thermal, visual, acoustic comfort and indoor air quality (IAQ). The awareness increased that an adequate design of the indoor environment, where people work and live, requires a synergic approach to all facets involved in full compliance with sustainability. IEQ strictly affects the overall building energy performances and exhibits an antagonistic relationship with respect to the energy saving requirements. In addition, the effects of low IEQ levels on the health and the productivity at work could even greater than those related to the energy costs of building facilities.The role played by IEQ is very important especially in school environments. Particularly, children are extra sensitive to a poor indoor environment as they are physically still developing and, in comparison to healthy adults, will suffer the consequences of a poor indoor environment with also negative effects in learning ability. Because of all mentioned issues an integrated approach in the design and in the assessment of school buildings is required where ergonomics plays a crucial role.Since more than 20 years InEQualitES (Indoor Environmental Quality and Energy Saving) team, made by researchers and professors from Universities of Salerno and Naples, has focused the research on the environmental quality in schools. The experience gained in the field allowed to build a large database of subjective and objective data and helped us to find effective solution aimed to solve most common problems related to the application of assessment methods.Based upon this experience, this discussion will be mainly focused to the main criticalities related to the thermal comfort assessment in schools with special reference to the integration of objective investigations (referred to a mean subject statistically significant) and subjective investigations which are the only able to show possible differences (age, gender and so on) in experienced perception.

Erminia Attaianese, Francesca Romana d’Ambrosio Alfano, Boris Igor Palella
Human Factor and Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Motivating End-Users Behavioural Change

Energy efficiency in buildings does not only rely on efficient technical solutions and design of the building features, but is also highly dependent on how occupants decide to set their comfort criteria, as well as on their energy-related and environmental lifestyles. In this perspective, raising user awareness among occupants by training them to adopt a more “green” and energy-friendly behaviour has become a crucial aspect for reaching energy efficiency goals in buildings. Motivating occupants to change their behaviour can become a challenging task, especially if they are expected to internalize and adopt the new behaviour on a long term. This means that information and feedback provided to the occupants must be stimulating, easy to understand, and easy to adopt in the daily routine. In this context, first methodological progresses are here presented within an European project, designed to raise user awareness, reduce energy consumptions and improve health and IEQ conditions in different typologies of demonstration case studies by providing combined feedback on energy, indoor environmental quality, and health. In particular, this paper presents one out of five MOBISTYLE demonstration testbeds – a residence hotel - located in central Turin (IT). In detail, this paper describes the setup of a tailored engagement campaign for hotel apartments and the reception area. Based on selected monitored variables, user-friendly feedback was defined to provide the users with real-time information on energy use and environmental quality, as well as guidance on how to save energy and optimize consumption profiles while creating an acceptably comfortable and healthy indoor environment.

Verena Barthelmes, Valentina Fabi, Stefano Corgnati, Valentina Serra
An Application of Ergonomics in Workstation Design in Office

This study sought to insert the systemic view provided by the ergonomic approach in the design practice of the office workspace, particularly in the aspect of delimiting the amount of area occupied by the user. It was verified that technical publications and regulatory norms provide data to mark office space, but it was identified in the specialized literature deficiency in the application of specific data of identification of the activities and the quantification of space. A methodology based on the Hypothetical-deductive research method was developed. As a case study, an office of a public office was proposed. From the analysis of the workspaces, it was noticed that, besides the dimension, the form of distribution influenced directly in the functionality of the same, concluding that not only the quantity of space determined its functionality, but that the form of distribution and use of work surfaces directly influences the functionality of the workspace. This article was extracted from the doctoral thesis of the author Costa.

Ana Paula Lima Costa, Vilma Villarouco
Ergonomic Analysis of Secondary School Classrooms, a Qualitative Comparison of Schools in Naples and Recife

In contemporary educational systems, innovative learning environments require spatial rearrangements and the introduction of new tools such as cloud computing, tablets and smartphones, in addition to ergonomic spatial planning. Ergonomics of the Built Environment studies spatial adequacy for human activities and goes beyond technical issues by including users’ needs and expectations. Because users interact with the environment, poorly built projects may affect cognitive perception and organizational ergonomics. Applying ergonomic criteria to interior design may contribute to a better environment performance in terms of wellbeing and user satisfaction, because ergonomics methods strongly recommend user participation as a principle. This research was carried out in Naples, Italy and Recife, Brazil. It aims to analyze two secondary school environments, considering user characteristics, means of socialization and classrooms conditions. Guidelines were elaborated for new learning environment design, considering ergonomic recommendations, technological adequacies and user satisfaction.

Thaisa Sampaio Sarmento, Vilma Villarouco, Erminia Attaianese
Prototyping a Learning Environment, an Application of the Techniques of Design Science Research and Ergonomics of the Built Environment

School environments and infrastructure are fundamental elements to the success of the educational system. The purpose of this article is to describe the triangulation of three methods used to develop a conceptual model of learning environment appropriate to technology-based learning. An ergonomic approach to the built environment should consider constructive aspects, psychological effects and users’ expectations about their learning environment. The application of ergonomic methods is a strategic advantage to obtain innovative ideas to be applied in different types of environments. One of the highlights of this research is its participative nature, involving high school students and teachers. Motivating these people to get involved in a future perspective thinking exercise is one of the principles of Science Design [1]. The central method of this research is Design Science Research [2], which was supplemented with ergonomic techniques for the analysis and design of built environments - The Ergonomic Methodology for the Built Environment - EMBE (MEAC in Portuguese) [3] and the studies on ergonomics for design the built environment [4]. A conceptual model of learning environment was obtained and presented in four different layouts: for activity rotation, group activities, laboratory activities and expository activities. Additionally, technical specifications were also presented regarding: constructive elements, comfort conditions, environmental systems, furniture and equipment criteria. Finally, the developed method is presented as a contribution to the field of Design and Ergonomics of the Built Environment.

Thaisa Sampaio Sarmento, Vilma Villarouco, Alex Sandro Gomes
Architectural Risk of Buildings and Occupant Safety: An Assessment Protocol

Architectural risk of buildings relates to the possibility that technical and environmental elements of buildings interiors and outdoor spaces, may create dangerous situations for health and safety of occupants due to their engineering properties and their state of preservation, maintenance and use. Despite dangerous situations arising from architectural features of buildings are mentioned but undervalued in safety regulations, and a limited number of built environment aspects are currently analyzed in standard assessments of health and safety on work, many evidences demonstrate the strong relation between injuries or diseases of occupants and technical and environmental features of life and work environments. From this background, the study presents a Protocol for the Assessment of Architectural Risk (ARAP) for working environment proposed by Laboratory of Applied and Experimental Ergonomics of University of Naples Federico II (LEAS), with the Campania Chapter of INAIL, the Italian National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work. Main results of an application of the ARAP Protocol to an office building are also presented.

Erminia Attaianese, Raffaele d’Angelor
The Particular View: The User’s Environmental Perception in Architectural Design

From the analyzes on correctional facilities, the ergonomic approach is still relatively strict. Thus, although this work is not innovative, the application to the physical space of these institutions reveals a gap. In this way, this research seeks to increase the knowledge of the architecture and to reduce the existent gap on the subject in the brazilian ergonomics literature. The analysis aims the perception of the users as a determining factor in the elaboration of correctional facilities for adolescents in sanction compliance. For the purpose, we use the theoretical and methodological apparatus of the Ergonomic Analysis of Work and Cognitive Ergonomic, with the support of the technique idealized by Abraham Moles for the extraction of the user’s perception, called the “Constellation of Attributes”. This technique collects data about the idealized space and the occupied space, explaining its (in)compatibilities. The research also explored the analysis of perception based on characteristics such as: gender, time in the public service, seeking to identify the relationship between these characteristics and the interviewees’ perception. By examining the collected data, the distance between the space project and its respective user was ratified, generating conflicts in the activity dynamics, damaging the mental health and the results of the public policy, besides the financial impact after the occupation of the building due to adaptations and reforms. We also identify a distance between the users’ imagery and the socio-educational determination of public policy, which allows us to question how much architecture contributes to the effectiveness of adolescent resocialization.

Rodrigo Mendes Pinto
The Environmental Contribution to Wayfinding in Museums: Enhancement and Usage by Controlling Flows and Paths

The field of research in which wayfinding is situated refers to the way people move in reaction to environmental stimulation. It therefore fully concerns not just signage but also space designing, its geometric configuration, technical solutions and their material characterization. The focus is consequently on environmental factors that facilitate wayfinding in a museum (accessibility, visibility, etc.) and on other elements such as spatial configuration, architectural features and functional aspects. These factors influence relational phenomena and therefore visitors’ satisfaction. Methods and tools for designing and managing spaces have been studied in the research. The configurational analysis method of space has been used to objectify syntactic features of space. In particular, the outcomes of an experimental project, which have been analyzed in a master’s thesis on the re-functionalization of the museum of Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, are presented. Permeability, proximity, connections of spaces, namely meaningful features to ensure wayfinding have been examined. Space parameters resulting from the geometry of the layout, from the visual connections and from the changes of direction were then evaluated. The outcomes have been used as inputs for designing a unitary tour route circuit, that also reconnects the museum’s second floor, and for planning three independent alternative routes for a differentiated use of the museum.

Federica Romagnoli, Teresa Villani, Angelo Oddi

Sustainable Development

Frontmatter
Do Indoor Plants Improve Performance Outcomes?: Using the Attention Restoration Theory

The current study used the Attention Restoration Theory to investigate whether plants in an office context produced restorative effects that enable employees to perform better. This study was one of the first attempts to empirically investigate the effect of indoor plants on experiences of performance outcomes within South Africa. In this experimental study, 120 participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) no plants or pictures of plants; (2) only plants; (3) only canvas pictures of plants. The rooms were identical in every other respect. Participants completed two tasks (a card-sorting task and a reading task) and two questionnaires, namely the connectedness to nature scale to assess participant’s nature identity and a perceived task performance questionnaire. The results from the ANOVA’s demonstrated a reduction in participants’ errors (F(2, 117) = 7.137, p = 0.001), a positive reaction to the given task (F(2, 117) = 8.904, p = 0.000), as well as reduction in participants’ task completion time (F(2, 117) = 43.422, p = 0.000) in the plants condition. The result from the two-way ANOVA’s demonstrated that nature identity did not moderate the above relationships (errors: F(1, 114) = 2.060, p = 0.132; completion time: F(1, 114) = 0.967, p = 0.383; reaction to the task: F(1, 114) = 0.017, p = 0.983).

Kaylin Adamson, Andrew Thatcher
Negotiation and Emotions: Does Empathy Affect Virtual Bargaining?

Virtual negotiations are becoming increasingly important as most of current interactions take place online or via computer-mediated media (CMC). The present study aims to analyze the role of empathic and emotional skills in virtual bargaining. For this purpose, 320 people aged between 19 to 25 were involved in a simulated virtual negotiation through a specifically created software. Subjects who took part in the experiment were faced with a written description of a scenario. Each subject interacted with one scenario. Scenarios could be related to either a monetary or non-monetary bargaining negotiation and proposed a bid for the presented asset, framing it in a positive or negative state of mind. Subjects were also given a Basic Empathy Scale (BES) questionnaire. Results show that negotiation was affected by emotions experienced during the test and by the perception of the opponent as real more than by empathy.

Sofia Marchi, Niccolò Targi, Oronzo Parlangeli
The Way Forward for Human Factors/Ergonomics and Sustainability

In this paper we outline a vision for human factors/ergonomics and sustainability in the 21st century. The paper extends and updates earlier work by Moray (1995) which posed a number of global challenges for the discipline of HFE. In particular we point to several trends and priorities within HFE, these include: a shift away from specialization and towards trans-disciplinarity; greater emphasis on systems and complexity in HFE as compared to an earlier focus on micro-ergonomics; the emergence of values and ethics as central concerns for the discipline; moving away from mitigation and towards adaptation and intervention in our efforts to tackle global issues and sustainability; and, the importance of local, tailored and devolved solutions to problems such as climate change and disaster resilience. Our overall aim in the paper is to motivate and challenge HFE researchers and practitioners to further address and confront some of these priorities. The HFE discipline is well-placed to make significant contributions towards resolving global problems and our hope is that further and significant progress can be made in the coming decades.

Andrew Thatcher, Patrick Waterson, Andrew Todd, Paul H. P. Yeow
Design of a Sustainable System for Harvesting Energy from Humans, Based on the Piezoelectric Effect in Places of High Mobilization of People

The present project seeks to design a novel sustainable energy generation system at a University taking advantage of non-conventional renewable energy that can be obtained from humans using piezoelectric tiles. This idea came up from the opportunity to use human movement as a source of energy due to the great flow of people on campus, that’s why the aim of this project was to analyze their characteristics to design the distribution of the tiles on the floor in such a way that the greatest amount of energy can be obtained. The method was based in the anthropometrical and biomechanical profiling of the population in order to quantify the potential energy that could be obtained through the movement of people when they activate the piezoelectric product, located and distributed in the place that will be identified as the area with the greatest possibility of energy generation. The tiles proposed for the final design are composed of 80% recyclable materials, which shows that it is an environmental-friendly product. As a result, it was obtained that when a woman with a weight of 48,88 kg (5 percentile) activates a tile produce a power of 4,83 W and a man with a weight of 93,94 kg (95 percentile) produce 9,67 W. The selection procedure of the piezoelectric system configuration was designed using the methodology of the hierarchical process analysis – HPA. The project also contributes to mitigate the environmental impact and the costs of current energy sources from the university. If the piezoelectric tiles were installed as indicated by the final configuration in the main traffic path obtained in the analysis of this project, 84.478 kg of CO2 could be saved in the case of producing the minimum energy which is 424.517 kWh and 169.133 kg of CO2 saved in the case of producing the maximum energy corresponding to 849.913 kWh.

Ana Isabel Fernández Carmona, Nelly Michelle Restrepo Madriñan, Tania Torres Raymond, Luis Andrés Saavedra Robinson
Hydrogen Energy Technologies’ Acceptance Review and Perspective: Toward a Needs’ Anticipation Approach
First Results

As preoccupation for climate change is of growing significance and call for disruptive innovation [20], Hydrogen Energy Technologies (HET) have been steeply identified as a potential key factor to address the energy transition [6]. Whereas public acceptance is recognized to be of great importance – and even equal to the technology – in the success of energy projects [9], HET’ acceptance is questionable. This study aims (a) to portray the works that have focused on the acceptance of HET, (b) to highlight the limits of acceptance-based approaches, (c) to point out the benefits of adopting a Needs’ anticipation approach rather than an acceptance-based approach in human technology relationship issues, (d) to attest its relevance in the context of HET and (e) to propose a Needs’ anticipation approach related to a need seeker innovation strategy. Our findings indicate that a large majority of the studies followed a techno-centered approach of acceptance. We propose a paradigm shift regarding human technology relationship approach by making the dichotomy between traditional acceptance-based approach and Needs anticipation approach. While the first is techno-centered and aim to push for the use of a technology by modulating deployment conditions, the second is human-centered and has the ambition to shape the technology to the user’s future needs and requirements. Thereby, given the high stakes and the future-oriented nature related to HET issues, we support the idea that a Needs’ anticipation approach must be applied in designing HET to ensure future uses.

Antoine Martin, Marie-France Agnoletti, Eric Brangier
Migration and Democracy

This paper investigates the effect of democracy on migration using a dynamic panel model. Our model controls for the network effects of migration and country fixed effects. We construct a binary measure of democracy indicating a precise transition of political regimes and reducing measurement error. The baseline results show that democracy can increase migration by 29% in the long-run. Using the waves of democratizations and reversals as instruments for democracy, we find comparable estimates. Our findings suggest that democracy can increase migration by permitting dual citizenship, allowing sending remittances, providing better health, improving human development and human capital.

Kalam Azad, Gamal Atallah
Towards Quality of Life Through the “ErgoSustaiNomics” Approach

The Ergonomics as a human-centered science concerns with human beings and their quality of life. Undoubtedly, the integration between ergonomics and the concept of sustainability might culminate in higher levels of quality of life (QoL). The author believes that making an appropriate communication and association between ergonomics and sustainability will end to better condition for people and quality life. To confirm and assess the importance of the mentioned integration between ergonomics and sustainability, some related papers were reviewed. The findings show that there are some characteristics in both ergonomics and sustainability in terms of quality of life promotion. Some of these potentials are common in both mentioned firms and some of them are specified in each field. Therefore, the author believes that making the synergy between ergonomics and sustainability make an effective and efficiency situation for the evolution of QoL, not only for daily life and for daily product usages by end users but for blue and collar workers during their jobs. The mentioned synergic field is named ErgoSustaiNomics by the author as a new paradigm. It seems that this new paradigm helps the related experts to manage a better future life for all.

Hassan Sadeghi Naeini
Safety Training Parks - Cooperative Initiatives to Improve Future Workforce Safety Skills and Knowledge

Construction is one of the most unsafe industries worldwide. Safety training is one essential element to improve occupational safety skills and performance. A wide variety of different safety training methods has been introduced, and a need for more engaging training methods has been recognized. Finnish construction industry has introduced a new Safety Training Park (STP) concept to meet that challenge. Three STPs have been constructed in Finland. STPs are concrete learning environments, in which real life work situations are demonstrated at training points. This study focuses on STP in northern Finland (STPNF). STPNF is a macroergonomics construct designed, financed and constructed by a large consortium of 80 different stakeholder organizations. In addition to construction companies, stakeholders such as schools and universities, municipalities and service providers are included in the consortium. This descriptive study aims to provide an overview of the STPNF concept and describe the most typical STPNF utilization approaches. Further, stakeholder collaboration is discussed and a discussion is initiated on the potential and prerequisites for the transferability of the STP methodology to other contexts.

Arto Reiman, Olli Airaksinen, Klaus Fischer
Haptic Feedback in Eco Driving Interfaces for Electric Vehicles: Effects on Workload and Acceptance

The pervasive inclusion of electric vehicles on our roads is already a reality and is here to stay in the future. Many car manufacturers are including full electric or hybrid models in their catalogues and more will come in the near future. However, since the electric vehicles’ range is still insufficient to compete with combustion-engine vehicles, for many electric vehicle owners reducing energy consumption, in order to increase available range, has become a matter of increasing concern. This paper is based on previous work conducted as part of the European Commission project ecoDriver. EcoDriver’s main purpose is to teach efficient driving strategies and facilitate drivers’ decision-making processes through several feedback modalities, in order to help increase driving efficiency. Here, the Full ecoDriver System combined with a haptic feedback gas pedal was tested in real driving conditions. In this paper, the drivers’ subjective assessments in terms of effectiveness, workload and acceptability are presented. The sample profile was composed by thirty young but experienced drivers who had to drive around an open track which allowed several possible scenarios. The main results suggest that the system effectiveness depends on the event type and the feedback modality provided. The haptic feedback did not increase workload compared to visual feedback, however, as a prototype, it showed some acceptance constraints. Results presented in this paper advance further research concerning human factors in eco-driving and haptic feedback systems research.

Jaume R. Perelló-March, Eva García-Quinteiro, Stewart Birrell
Relationship Between Group Performance and Physical Synchrony of the Members in Small-Group Discussion

This paper reports on a study of the relationship between the performance in small-group discussions and the synchrony of body sway of the group members. The study participants were asked to engage in a task that required divergent discussion and a task that required convergent discussion. Seat-cushion devices with pressure sensors, which measure the weight and location of center of gravity of each user continuously, were used to calculate the value of synchrony of body sway among the group members. The relationship between the performance of the respective tasks and the value of synchrony of body sway among the members during the discussions was then evaluated. The results showed that some subjectively evaluated items were significantly correlated either with the task performance or the value of synchrony of body sway, but a correlation between the task performance and the value of synchrony during the task was not found. A more detailed analysis is needed of the direction of shifting the center of gravity of the body and the process of discussion.

Yuko Matsui, Masaru Hikono, Masaki Masuyama, Yuichi Itoh
Sustainable Development, Arguments for an Immaterial Ergonomics

The concern for sustainability recall ergonomics back to its initial objectives: in order to help the working activity to meet its anthropological expectations, by responding to the personal, ecological and societal requirements it faces. But to face these initial goals in today’s world, it is necessary to design and develop a service economy able to support and achieve the goals of sustainable development, and this in turn requires the emergence of a new economic concept: “the performance of use”. This paves the way for a new combination: immaterial (or intangible) ergonomics and the Economics of Functionality and Cooperation (EFC) united to address these emerging issues of working activity.

François Hubault, Sandro De Gasparo, Christian Du Tertre
Communicating Climate Change Data: What Is the Right Format to Change People’s Behaviour?

This study looks at a comparison of three data formats for the communication of climate change information; a dynamic visual representation, tables and charts, and pictures. Using design principles which are largely drawn from the field of cognitive ergonomics, good examples of each data format that represented a local climate change issue were identified. A sample of 453 students was randomly assigned to one of the three data format conditions and compared on their understanding and comprehension of the data format information and their motivation to act to mitigate the effects of climate change. Results suggest that there was no clear “best” data format, although tables and charts were likely to have the most consistently positive impact. These results are discussed in the context of climate change communication.

Andrew Thatcher, Keren-Amy Laughton, Kaylin Adamson, Coleen Vogel
Creativity and a Social Graphic Design Project in the Rego Neighbourhood in Lisbon

Social awareness in contemporary graphic design should involve new approaches in university education curricula. This paper analyses the process and results of a graphic design project called “Festival da Ponte” (“Bridge Festival”), an annual event to disseminate the social intervention programme “O Nosso Km2” (“Our Km2”). The “O Nosso Km2” project was designed to encourage active citizenship, improving the residents’ well-being, and to promote local companies and organisations and find solutions for identified problems. It started as a Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation initiative. It is a programme that deals with the intercultural and intergenerational conflicts and social problems in the area surrounding the Foundation’s headquarters. The festival organizers presented the project to our communication design master’s students and explained its origins and objectives, as well the collaboration that was expected from them. The students were also encouraged by the teacher to work on the project intensely, and they became very interested in getting to know the social context through dialogue and relationships with the people involved. Several initiatives were then developed, organizing creative activities with the residents. This project was a pedagogical contribution for the students, and potentially key for some specific fields. Firstly, it further developed essential ethical and social awareness in graphic design. But it also further developed critical faculties, attention to the specific contexts, and improved communication abilities based on the limits inherent to graphic designers’ work: budgets, the client’s expectations, the audience’s characteristics and deadlines.

Teresa Olazabal Cabral
The Effect of Displaying Kinetic Energy on Hybrid Electric Vehicle Drivers’ Evaluation of Regenerative Braking

More energy efficient and sustainable systems become increasingly widespread in automotive applications (e.g., hybrid electric vehicles; HEVs). Yet, their real-world energy efficiency strongly depends on driver behaviour and, often, showing optimal eco-driving behaviour is challenging especially if energy dynamics are not sufficiently represented in the driver interface. For example, previous research indicated that HEV drivers try to actively utilize and regain electric energy, without sufficiently considering conversion losses that are part of this process (i.e., energy conversion fallacy). One possible explanation is that HEV drivers do not actively consider kinetic energy while driving, mainly because it is not represented in energy displays. The object of the present research was to examine whether drivers can be supported in a less biased perception of the efficiency of regenerative braking when an indicator of kinetic energy is also represented in the interface. To this end, we designed an online video experiment. Two displays were presented to drivers, a conventional energy flow display in which only electric energy resources were represented and an adapted display in which also kinetic energy resources were represented. Drivers rated the perceived energy efficiency of two types of deceleration scenarios, regenerative braking and neutral mode. The results provide first evidence that adding a representation of kinetic energy resources to displays of energy flows in HEVs can reduce drivers’ energy conversion fallacy.

Doreen Schwarze, Matthias G. Arend, Thomas Franke
Freedom-Form Companies as an Enabling Environment: A Way to Human Sustainability?

Our communication aims to show that freedom-form companies [7] have some characteristics specific to the enabling environment [6] and to examine whether they are potentially human sustainable work organizations. We will show this on the basis of the first stage of a study in a freedom-form company. In conclusion, we discuss the universal, preventive and developmental dimension of the freedom-form companies. We will show that the developmental character broadly supports the other two perspectives of the enabling environment in the studied company. The freedom-form company, by strongly strengthening autonomy and thus the ability of each individual to design his or her own working environment, allows employees to adapt it and thus strengthen its preventive and universal dimension. We will also discuss the current limitations and difficulties of this organizational model in the studied company. Indeed, the need to acquire skills to discuss the work is emerging today. Decision-making and the distribution of roles in particular would merit more regular but also better instrumented exchanges in the light of this initial analysis. Finally, we will discuss the human sustainability of this freedom-form company.

Xavier Rétaux
Does Traffic Safety Climate Perception of Drivers Differ Depending on Their Traffic System Resilience and Driving Skills Evaluation?

Road traffic accidents are one of the most important public health problems in Turkey and all over the world. Traffic system involves many agents from a micro level, such as drivers, to a macro level, such as traffic climate. Traffic system resilience and driving skills are crucial factors that determine the road traffic accidents and their outcomes; in addition to being related to the development of sustainable and safer road traffic system. In this study, it is aimed to investigate group differences derived from traffic system resilience and driving skills with respect to traffic safety climate. For this purpose, 323 drivers (177 female, 146 male), between the ages of 19 and 57 (M = 28.56, SD = 8.96), participated in the study. Participants filled out a questionnaire including demographic information form, Driving Skills Inventory, Traffic Climate Scale, and Traffic System Resilience Scale adapted to traffic settings by the researchers. The data were analyzed by using t-test to be able to compare groups. According to the results, traffic systems that are perceived to be high in terms of resilience were also perceived to be less externally demanding and more functional. In this study, traffic system resilience was evaluated by the perception of drivers and the relationships between traffic system resilience, driving skills, and traffic safety climate were evidenced for the first time in the literature. The implication of the results is discussed by focusing on the ways the findings could be used to improve traffic safety.

Gizem Güner, Ece Tümer, İbrahim Öztürk, Bahar Öz
Maintaining Sustainable Level of Human Performance with Regard to Manifested Actual Availability

Artificial intelligence enables us to gain new insights in psychometric data; this article in particular explores new relationships between attributes (categories) of Questionnaire Actual Availability (QAA) from AH-Model uncovered by implementation of decision trees classification algorithms. Clustering analysis was already employed in development of QAA – it identified composite attributes on which decision tree classification was deployed. Already imbedded clustering analysis thus enabled us to do efficient feature construction and selection and negated the need to employ tree pruning or any other noise reduction algorithm.The QAA has been implemented on the sample of 2031 workers from the financial sector. Estimations of actual availability parameters have been implemented for the average working day.In regard to prediction of general actual availability the most important feature is psychical fatigue. The first level of decision tree divides population in 2 intervals of different levels of psychical fatigue.The depth of the decision tree is 5 due to the minimization of prediction error. Presented decision tree with maximum depth 5 describes 100% of influential attributes determining human performance in real working situation. Only workers who overcome their high levels of psychical fatigue with high motivation and absence or lower levels of stress maintain their high availability.The presented results upgrade the AH-Model with the specific identification of attributes shaping workers performance and identify the griping points for intervention to keep a sustainable workers’ performance.

Marija Molan, Gregor Molan
Underground Workspaces: A Human Factors Approach

With increasing population density in urban areas, underground space use in these urban centres is also on the rise. This can be in the form of more traditional underground (UG) facilities, such as water treatment plants and subway stations, but also more diversified uses such as underground offices and data centres. As these relatively novel underground workspaces are constructed, we need to take a human centric approach to ensure that the workers are happy and healthy. When designing any space, it is important to consider the relationships between the environmental, architectural characteristics and behavior and wellbeing. This is crucial in underground developments, as the initial cost of developing an underground space is significantly higher (at least in the short term) than aboveground and would have to be offset by a longer building life. Previous studies show negative attitudes towards working underground and hint at possible psychological and health complaints. Major themes include lighting and circadian rhythms, metabolic changes and claustrophobia. However, these studies are over thirty years old and mainly concentrate on self-report measures. To respond to this challenge, we have systematically examined the relationship between underground spaces and human performance in a 4 year research program. Using mixed methods such as psychophysiological measurements, cognitive tests and interviews, we examine the architectural and engineering choices that could impact or mitigate specific issues related to underground work environment.

Chee-Kiong Soh, Vicknaeshwari Marimuther, George I. Christopoulos, Adam C. Roberts, Josip Car, Kian-Woon Kwok
An In-Depth Analysis of Workers’ Attitudes Towards an Underground Facility in USA with a Focus on Breaks and Breakrooms

With the increase in urbanization and industrialization and the ever-increasing problem of space, sustainable solutions such as underground work places are on the rise. However, considering the huge investments required to make such spaces a success, in-depth studies regarding various aspects of underground workplaces (UW) need to be made. One such factor that determines this success is breakrooms. Though several studies have identified breakrooms to be a major factor in employee health and satisfaction, this hasn’t been explored in the context of UW. In this paper, we present an analysis of a qualitative study conducted in Missouri, USA on 73 underground workers to understand worker attitudes and behavior during breaks and towards breakrooms.According to our analysis a wider variety of food choice (cafes, food courts or well stacked and hygienic vending machines), restorative elements (such as outdoor gardens, indoor greenery, pictures of landscapes or virtual windows), private rest spaces for employees to get some personal time and the ability to communicate with the outside world (connectivity, Wi-Fi, landlines etc.) are important factors that need to be considered while designing such spaces.

Vinita Venugopal, Kian-Woon Kwok, George I. Christopoulos, Chee-Kiong Soh
An Improved Design of Calico Grocery Eco-Bag

The use of plastic bags has a negative environment impact, and other alternatives such as paper bags, boxes and current eco-bags proved to have a short lifetime. Due to the problems encountered by consumers in current calico eco-bags in supermarkets, there is a need to redesign the eco-bags. This study focused on an improved design for calico eco-bags which considers different customer needs in terms of its function and ergonomics aspect. The main concern of this study was to address the problem with regards to the eco-bag’s water resistance, presence of dividers, ease of cleaning, and durability. An environmentally conscious product development methodology which was integration of Environmentally Conscious Quality Function Deployment (ECQFD), Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ), Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to select the best design which addresses the problem with current calico eco-bags. The effectiveness of the prototype was tested in terms of its performance and usability. Based on the conducted tests and survey, the prototype was able to address not only the main concerns of consumers, but the minor problem as well. The satisfaction rating of all the customer needs, except for the weight, obtained a lesser value compared to the satisfaction rating of the current eco-bags in the market. This proves that the prototype is better than the current eco-bags. A research was done regarding the selling price and it was decided that the optimal selling price is Php450.

Alma Maria Jennifer A. Gutierrez, Aena Camille M. Arsua, Yna Dominique V. Capuno, Emilio Joaquin R. Castillo III
Digging Deep: The Effect of Design on the Social Behavior and Attitudes of People Working in Underground Workplaces in Europe

With the cities of the world grappling with the ever-increasing challenge of land scarcity, sustainable solutions such as Underground Workplaces (UW) have been getting renewed interest. However, considering the hefty investments that will go into building UW and since the success of this solution relies on the wellbeing of the people who are to occupy it, there is a need to examine existing UW from a human factor point of view. In this paper, we present an analysis of how design factors in UW affect the attitudes and social behavior of employees and how these perceptions and attitudes towards the workplace vary across different work types. According to our analysis organic elements, art, architecture and lighting affect social behavior and attitudes. These factors can be manipulated according to the type of work and environment in a way that is in line with company values. The paper also attempts to create a framework for how the significance of the work environment varies with the type of work and workplaces.

Vinita Venugopal, Gunnar D. Jenssen, Adam C. Roberts, Kian-Woon Kwok, Zheng Tan, George I. Christopoulos, Chee-Kiong Soh
On-Demand Work in Platform Economy: Implications for Sustainable Development

The global importance of crowd or on-demand work via digital platforms is increasing. Platform enterprises create and manage two- or many-sided markets by enabling suppliers and buyers of services meet in a flexible and scalable way, creating new economic efficiencies. However, platform work may also increase invisibility, uncertainty, risks, and competition for workers [2]. This paper investigates the sustainability of on-demand work through a dynamic analysis of the resources available to workers when facing an abrupt change in their work organization. Our empirical case is a platform-driven food courier company in the Helsinki region, Finland. We discuss the resources we found in the light of the immunity, control and fungibility mechanisms that lead to both opportunities and vulnerabilities for the on-demand workers [9]. The paper yields practice-based empirical insights of how immunity, control and fungibility are experienced by workers, and thus add our understanding of the often invisible and dark side of on-demand work. At the end, we present our conclusions regarding research on sustainable development.

Laura Seppänen, Mervi Hasu, Sari Käpykangas, Seppo Poutanen
A Development Scenario of the Work Area “Intralogistics” Under the Influence of Industry 4.0 Technologies and Its Evaluation on the Basis of a Delphi Study

A “worker journey” (as already known from the customer journey) was created here. In this journey the daily routine of intralogistics activities are presented under the influence of digitalisation technologies. The changes that took place and their plausibility were evaluated using a two-stage Delphi study. Respondents were experts from companies in German industry who are already actively involved in the topic of Industry 4.0, not only in the context of intralogistics.Result of this reflection and evaluation is a innovative picture of the work of this profession in the future. The results go even further and gives discussion approach for organizationally interesting questions such as “How is the number of employed people changing?”, “How likely is automation in this work field?”, “What qualification measures are necessary?” and “What opportunities do skilled and unskilled employees have?”.

Wilhelm Bauer, Jessica Klapper
A Sustainability and User-Centered Approach Towards Extending the Life-Cycle of Mobile Computers

The aim of this article is to provide an understanding of cognitive and physical barriers concerning extending the lifecycle of mobile computers. Reference to Triandis’ theory of interpersonal behavior, (1) attitudes; (2) contextual factors; (3) personal capabilities, and (4) habits will be discussed to overcome these barriers. A survey among 449 subjects, complemented by an expert interview, was conducted to find out motivators and resistors for retaining computers though renewal processes. Results were structured and presented using a Computer Life-Cycle Extension Model. The emphasis on “Emotion” indicated that a pragmatic view by understanding what practical things to do and what knowledge to seek for is not enough. To motivate end-users to prolong the life of their computers, emotional incentives are equally important to extend the life-cycle of their mobile computers. For example, personalized design can also make users feel more attached to their computers, and thereby facilitate an emotional connection. This connection can make users more inclined to keep their computers longer. Moreover, a need has been observed to break away from stereotyping computer culture and usage.

Nora Tomas, Vibeke Nordmo, Wei Wei, André Liem
Health and Wellbeing in Modern Office Layouts: The Case of Agile Workspaces in Green Buildings

At this moment in time, there exists the opportunity not only to report the effects of what exists within the workspace and its changing nature, but to influence the redesign, development, and implementation of the workplace and its environmental factors (Davis et al. 2011). With the change in the nature of work, the spaces in which work is done have also changed. Such a change is partly due to the recent trend of designing and operating energy efficient green buildings. As green building standards require improvements to attributes of indoor environment quality, it is claimed that green buildings improve the health, productivity, and comfort of their occupants. The current research was part of a preparatory study conducted at a large South African organisation before they moved to their new green building. This research investigates how the different existing types of workplace layout, including agile workspaces, impacted on elements of the perceived comfort, health and satisfaction of the employees.

Keren-Amy Laughton, Andrew Thatcher
Networks and Cities in a Dynamic Society

The scope of practice and theory of ergonomics is expanding, and large socio-technical systems such as cities are now being investigated using ergonomics methods. Within this context the value of Rasmussen’s [1] dynamic risk model is even more apparent. However, as complexity increases, so must ergonomics’ adaptability both in its concepts and methods. Therefore, this paper argues that an expansion of the mental model proposed by Rasmussen [1] through the explicit inclusion of social network and stakeholder analysis concepts and methods is warranted. This is because these concepts provide valuable insight into how cities and communities maintain their sustainability and resilience over time. The paper closes by providing an example of how the model assists ergonomists in thinking about city-level dynamics and their influence upon stakeholders.

Hayden Searle, Andrew Todd
Ergonomics and Technologies in Waste Sorting: Usage and Appropriation in a Recyclable Waste Collectors Cooperative

Waste collection and sorting are important stages for the municipal waste management. Since the 90´s in Brazil, due to the gap left by public power and structural unemployment, activities in the collection, sorting and commercialization of recycled materials had been done by collectors´ cooperatives. However, authors point that these organizations present a limited productivity, due to lack of technological infrastructure (facilities, equipment and adequate process) and also due to the poor working conditions. In this context, this paper aims to discuss technology and work, comparing the usage and appropriation of technologies in a recyclable waste collectors’ cooperative. The research was carried out qualitatively, as a case study, following the approach delineated by French-speaking ergonomics theories. Three situations were selected for data collection: spaces usage and materials flow in the facility; tools use in the activities carried out; and use of adapted mover equipment and containers. Data collection comprised interviews with the cooperative president and two sorting operators, free and systematic observation of operators’ work and pictures taking. Results show that facilities, equipment and materials’ movers were mostly donated from other organizations to the cooperative. Therefore, we see that the cooperative operates in a location where the facilities, equipment and machinery are not aligned with the type, amount and variability of the waste that the organization needs to sort to achieve its economic goals. To overcome this situation and actually fulfill its job, the cooperative develops different uses of spaces and technology, which sometimes happens at the cost of workers health, safety and well-being.

Renato Luvizoto Rodrigues de Souza, João Alberto Camarotto, Andréa Regina Martins Fontes
Work, Innovation and Sustained Development

There is an agreement to consider human work as being insufficiently considered in the challenges set by Sustainable Development. This communication discusses why work is a “forgotten dimension” of sustainable development. We suggest (i) the interest for a greater attention to the relationship between work, technique and activity, (ii) the necessity to articulate on the one hand the design of innovative technologies and on the other hand the question of living together at work, and (iii) the need, given the depth of changes required on work activity during transitions to sustainable development, to pay attention to the experience of the workers.

Pueyo Valérie, Pascal Béguin, Francisco Duarte
Development of an Interactive System that Senses Air Quality in Parking Lots Indicating Situations of Health Risks

Detecting various pollutants in the environment is an important tool for decision making related to the health of the population. Inappropriate concentrations of various gases or volatile particles can cause various levels of health risks to people in the respiratory tract, as well as skin and eye conditions. There are systems in the market for the detection of these pollutants that, when used properly, make it possible to accurately quantify the presence of any of these contaminants; however, such systems has been directed primarily to be used by specialized professionals, who require a certain level of training and qualification both in the daily use of the equipment and in its configuration, maintenance and interpretation of data; Moreover, determining what actions should be taken after the detection of a specific level of contamination, usually falls on various actors who are not usually part of the population exposed to such risks. This paper exposes approaches and constrictions of the under development system for censing air quality in interior spaces, specifically parking lots, that will be equipped with an interactive interfaces aimed at the general population, allowing them real-time access to the air quality conditions in said spaces encouraging their active participation in preventive or corrective actions leading to mitigate said risk situations, when possible, without requiring specialized knowledge.

Rodea Chávez Alejandro, Mercado Colin Lucila
HF/E in Protocols for Green Neighborhood and Communities

Recently literature is showing follow up studies on green certified buildings, and critical reviews of building sustainability assessment and rating systems. A lot of criticism of current systems are emerging, due to a restricted idea of sustainability, usually limited to the environmental facet. But, although it is accepted that environmental certification protocols at the building scale pay little attention to social dimension of sustainability and, particularly, to ergonomics facets, their recent evolution toward the neighborhood scale is becoming to include social human-related factors issues and participatory practices, since it has been confirmed that they are more capable to pursuit aims of social justice, by enhancing the ethical dimension of design of built environment. The study analyzes main assessment systems of sustainable green neighborhood and communities, by a social point of view, to identify how human related factors, in a wide sense, have been considered in terms of indicators and parameters for assessing sustainability or for informing urban design. Social and human-related factors have been observed considering those influencing both environmental performance both social aspect of sustainability, such as health, safety, inclusivity and quality of life.

Erminia Attaianese, Antonio Acierno
Eco-Driving from the Perspective of Behavioral Economics: Implications for Supporting User-Energy Interaction

Eco-driving can essentially be regarded as driver behavior targeted towards increased energy efficiency. As such, eco-drivers have an impact on fuel efficiency when selecting a vehicle (strategic eco-driving), selecting routes (tactical eco-driving) as well as selecting eco-driving strategies (operational eco-driving). On the operational level, a key task for electric vehicle drivers is to decide how to control and interact with the system-inherent energy flows (i.e., user-energy interaction). With the control of the energy flows, drivers convert energies into each other with the goal of achieving optimal energy efficiency. Consequently, user-energy interaction can be regarded as a regulation of energy resources that is composed of a series of economic decisions. Therefore, we examine economic decision-making as a framework for understanding drivers’ eco-driving decisions on the strategic, tactical and operational level of eco-driving. So far economic decision-making has been most extensively studied with the resource money creating a whole research discipline, namely behavioral economics. A plethora of research has indicated that humans tend to use heuristics and succumb to fallacies when making economic decisions. Therefore, we describe heuristics and biases that have been identified for driver behavior and that are relevant to eco-driving. Based on these, we discuss possible implications of the behavioral economics perspective for user-energy interaction. Opportunities to support drivers’ user-energy interaction on the levels of eco-driving and directions for future research are highlighted.

Matthias G. Arend, Thomas Franke
The Promotion of Ergonomics in Nigeria

The view held by many, but not all ergonomist that the application of ergonomics in Nigeria could bring about major benefits to productivity and health is not widely accepted outside ergonomics community. Nevertheless the needs to improve the productivity raise occupational health and safety standards and general improvement of quality of life in Nigeria are widely acknowledged. This paper summarizes the key characteristics of the knowledge and practice of ergonomics and provides the basis for establishing the status of practicing it in Nigeria. Some examples of indigenously and exogenously ergonomics activities are given in an attempt to understand the current situation. These in turn are used as a basis for suggesting possible future options for the further development and raising the profile of the knowledge and practice. The role and support of ErgoAfrica in facilitating the promotion in Nigeria in this regard will be appreciated.

Samson Adaramola
How Much Traffic Signs in Iran Are Usable? A Use of System Usability Scale (SUS)

The huge rate of road accidents in Iran demonstrates the necessity of implementing prevention interventions in this field. Traffic signs are communication tools for passing information to the road users. However, misunderstanding of their messages could be a major cause of road accidents. The aim of the present study was to measure the usability of traffic signs used in rural and urban areas of Iran. 356 Iranians licensed drivers (39.0 years ± 9.7) were requested to rate their estimation about the effectiveness of the 20 selected traffic signs on the Persian version of System Usability Score (SUS). The mean of usability score for all signs were 59.37 ± 15.3. Mean usability score of Indication signs was higher than two other groups (63.2 ± 29.3) followed by Mandatory signs (60.9 ± 13.5). Warning signs had the lowest level of usability (53.9 ± 15.2). Except two signs (“Unguarded railway crossing in 200 m”) with the SUS score of less than 50 and “Camping” with the SUS score of higher than 70, the effectiveness of all signs was assessed to be at moderate level (50 > SUS < 70). It could be concluded that the majority of Iran traffic signs are marginally usable for Iranian population. Taking into account ergonomic features in designing traffic signs, could result in increasing sign effectiveness and decreasing road accidents. Appropriate strategies should be implemented to design more user-friend traffic signs.

Mahnaz Saremi, Yoosef Faghihnia Torshizi, Sajjad Rostamzadeh, Fereshteh Taheri
The Trucks as the Main Tool in the Cargo Transport in Brazil: The Driver’s Health Impacts and the Sustainable Developments

The truck driver evolved and became a powerful tool of the industrial logistic in the Brazilian territory. However, with an unbalanced politics, the highway transport overlapped the other systems, representing nowadays more than 60.0% of the products transported in the country. This trend made an overload of the highway grid, creating serious negative impacts directly to the truck drivers and indirectly to the society. The difficulties to buy a modern and efficient truck, considering ergonomics facts, performance of the engine and fuel consumption, are, undoubtedly, an obstacle for the improvement of the working conditions. Besides this, there is the violence along the highways which represents a loss factor for the purchasing power of this professional, in addition to the high stress levels. The content submitted are the results of a study guided by a descriptive scientific methodology structured on the following levels: references analysis and crossing information about the market/context reality; evaluation and interpretation of the rates and figures linked to the transport in Brazil; discussions between the coop-authors, representatives and experts on the area, besides working professionals. Lastly there is the production of a report which generated this article.

Róber Dias Botelho, Jairo José Drummond Câmara, Ivam César Silva Costa, Bárbara dos Santos Trintinella
HFE in Green Buildings: Protocols and Applications

Green building rating tools are systems developed for fostering buildings stakeholders, professionals and consumers, to request, adopt and implement sustainable goals in the design of buildings. They focus on projects, and rate levels of their performance compliance with specific goals and requirements, considering the building’s life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. While the certification methods vary across different rating tools, their common objective is that certified projects within these programs are conceived and designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment both on the natural environment and, in theory, on the human health. Recent studies, based on a worldwide comparison of the main sustainable buildings rating tools, showed that human-related factors among assessment credits expressed in implicit and explicit terms, are limited and underweighted. Starting from these premises, the study is aimed to analyzing green buildings protocols applications by a human factor perspective. A review of 14 green high level certified realized buildings is presented, from an architectonic perspective, for understanding which explicit and implicit human-related points have been applied and how they have been translated in design features.

Erminia Attaianese, Nunzia Coppola
The Territorial Anchorage of Waste Sorting Activities and Its Organization for Prevention

Based on a research led in the waste sorting and recycling sector in France, we propose to reflect upon the territorial anchorage of the work activities for household waste. In this article, we will argue that the territory is a determinant of work, forgotten by the commercial and industrial logics that organize waste sorting and structure the design of work systems. We will also place the territory as a scale of action for occupational risks prevention that conducts to involve internal actors from the waste sorting centers and external actors from the territory.

Leïla Boudra, Valérie Pueyo, Pascal Béguin
Sustainable Development and Ergonomics: A Reflection Stemming from the Commission “Concevoir pour le Développement Durable”

Is our community sufficiently organized from an institutional and disciplinary standpoint to meet the challenges of Sustainable Development? As co-chairs of the “Concevoir pour le Développement Durable” commission of the ARPEGE association, we wish to take the opportunity of this joint session to gather to exchange ideas on this issue with colleagues from different countries and associations. After briefly describing the French context in which the commission was born, and ARPEGE goals, we highlight some of the institutional challenges by considering the experience of the commission concerning sustainable development in Ergonomics. While our commission responds to a current need of several ergonomists, researchers and stakeholders in France, it is obvious that it cannot provide an institutional environment powerful enough to structure all the changes needed. There may be a need to collaborate more strongly in the future, and maybe to create other functional and legitimate agents (research groups, networks, research and training centers, etc.) focused explicitly on Sustainable Development.

Julien Guibourdenche, Gaëtan Bourmaud, Magali Prost, Xavier Retaud
What Becomes of Lean Manufacturing After It Is Implemented? A Longitudinal Analysis in 2 French Multinational Companies

Lean production implementation may lead to intensive work systems and worker health issues. Since lean work situations evolve over time, what factors are likely to steer them later towards more sustainable work systems? This paper is a preliminary attempt to address lean change from a longitudinal perspective. It combines ergonomics methods with processual analyses of change in order to understand: (a) the overall trajectory of the lean change over a period of a few years; and (b) its impact on work activity and worker health. It draws on collected data from prior ergonomics case studies that were supplemented a few years later. It compares two lean manufacturing trajectories, respectively at a Vehicle Equipment Manufacturer (VEM) and at an Aeronautical Manufacturer (AM). Data analysis reveals: firstly (1) a rigid lean change, decided by a multinational group and driven by external experts, then (2) 12 to 18 months later, a redirection (characterized by different natures at the VEM and at the AM), and (3) a lean approach managed and adapted by the company, more flexible (with regard both to method and to objectives). These two illustrative case studies call for replications in different settings, in order to better understand the processes implemented during organizational innovations, so as to identify ways of developing workers, teams and organizations and of consolidating ergonomics diachronic methods of analysis.

Evelyne Morvan, Willy Buchmann
Eco-Productivity: A Useful Guide for Sustainability Decision-Making

Originally written and presented to establish direct interdisciplinary connection between the area of ergonomics and the field of ecology, Ergoecology aims to integrate evaluation and intervention processes used by ergonomics and environmental management systems. Ergoecology -from a systemic focus- “takes care of studying the human being and its relationships with the environment -through its activities (work)- to establish, analyse, reduce, prevent, control and rectify the (positive and negative) impacts that derive from such a relationship”. Ergoecology, pursuing dynamic equilibrium and environmental balance, proposes a series of principles, postulates and axioms to achieve the social, environmental and business sustainability. Its postulates are eco-efficiency (systemic) and eco-productivity. However, eco-productivity has not been sufficiently developed in a way to be applied. That is why we unfold this concept and point out some guidelines for its application.Within Ergoecology, eco-productivity is “the ability of systems to transform energy, matter (resources) and information into products or services, without generating negative impacts on other systems that interact with them”. This implies impact-variables rationalization to control productive system, always tending to operational equilibrium. In this sense, eco-productivity implies the application of environmentally friendly innovative technological changes to develop environmentally acceptable products and processes.As eco-efficiency (systemic) and eco-productivity concepts cover economic, social, and environmental dimensions, we may conclude that they become strategic indicators when the interdependencies between artefact-human (sociotechnical) systems and natural systems are being evaluated. Then, ‘eco-productivity guidelines’ contribute to decision-making in the different phases of production processes to ensure the long-term sustainability of organizations.

Martha Helena Saravia-Pinilla, Carolina Daza-Beltrán, Gabriel García-Acosta
Analysis of Ergonomics in the Reuse and Recycling of Solid Materials in Brazilian Cooperatives

With workers needing to find new sources of income, new possibilities for organizing work emerged in Brazil at the end of the 20th century. In this context, the solidarity economy, as a guide for the construction of self-management models in companies, influenced the creation of cooperatives based on socialist concepts to foster cooperativism. Concern over the efficiency and productivity of different productive chains induces cooperatives to continuously reassess their goals and methods to maximize its indicators. In the context of the study of organizational management, it is necessary to approach and evaluate factors that influence cooperative survival. The economic sector that includes recycling cooperatives in turn becomes the target of negative analyses concerning the organization of work, health, safety, and ergonomics with low indicators of efficiency and productivity. This study addresses the application of ergonomics in different contexts to a solid waste recycling and commercialization association located in the central region of Brazil. Its findings suggest that several aspects of the cooperative could be improved, requiring worker participation in this change process to improve postures, methods, and work dynamics.

Hebert Roberto da Silva
Work Activity as a Social Factor of Metropolis Sustainable Development: Case of a Non-profit Organization in St. Petersburg (Russia)

The study of activity-centered ergonomics discusses centrality of work in the life of modern society and in the construction of a person’s identity. The article argues that one of the major functions of a work activity is workers’ social integration that improves the quality of their lives and, therefore, ensures sustainability of a metropolis. The age groups that require special attention are older persons and younger people as the most vulnerable groups in the labour market. The present article brings the results of a study conducted in a nongovernmental organization “Center for Women’s Initiatives”. This organization provides space for experience exchange between representatives of older and younger generations that is mainly aimed at improving their manual work skills and enhancing their knowledge. The present research aims to show how work of this center helps to support sustainable development of a modern metropolis, as it ensure integration of vulnerable groups of the population by including them in various work activities.

Aleksandr A. Volosiuk, Viktoriya Lipovaya, Olga P. Sopina
How to Assess Mental Workload Quick and Easy at Work: A Method Comparison

In context of Industry 4.0 and the ongoing digitalization, the industrial worker will still maintain a key role. Thereby, the needs and preferences of the workers shall be considered in real-time and the production process should automatically adapt to the worker. A suitable interface for human-automation interaction is needed to allow the worker to easily provide information regarding his/her physiological and psychological state. Using a smartwatch with implemented surveys for data assessment seems a promising solution. However, some studies found a significant difference when presenting the NASA-TLX on a monitor screen. The scores were higher than in the paper version. Thus, the first step should be to examine whether questionnaires presented on a smartwatch have the same outcome as presented on paper.In a laboratory experiment, 29 participants performed a constant calculating task and, afterwards, filled out the NASA-TLX via paper or via smartwatch by using the bezel or the touchscreen.The results show that the workload score in the paper version was significantly lower than the workload score in the smartwatch versions (bezel as well as touch). Nevertheless, the relative differences between the altered levels of difficulty of the arithmetic tasks could be equally well identified using the NASA-TLX scores assessed with the smartwatch version compared to the paper version.In conclusion, the assessment via smartwatch can differentiate between different levels of mental workload and therefore qualifies for the application in the field. Especially for an industrial environment, the implementation of a smartwatch carries great potential.

Sebastian Mach, Jan P. Gründling, Franziska Schmalfuß, Josef F. Krems
For Systemic Approaches to Permaculture: Results and Opportunities for Thinking About Sustainable Development

Permaculture seeks to organise and facilitate appropriate interactions between ecosystem components. In the wake of previous research on a different work situation, we aimed to identify the resource systems that people use in context. Drawing on the analysis of one permaculture farmer’s activity, we discuss his/her practices from a twofold systemic angle, in terms of (1) the systemic principles of permaculture: to each plant’s primary or intrinsic functions, must be added those of its contribution to the overall farming system, positive or otherwise; crop beds themselves forming systems, just as much as sub-systems in the growing zone as a whole, etc.; (2) resource systems proper to the permaculture farmer: material (diverse tools) and immaterial (knowledge) artefacts; criteria and values (workload generated by a cultivation sequence, plans to sell to the general public, or induced consumption of water, etc.); etc. This study could also form the basis for broader research that goes beyond permaculture. It aims to suggest methods of analysing criteria and value systems that relate to sustainable development, guiding the way people mobilise resources.

Gaëtan Bourmaud
When Creativity Meets Value Creation. A Case Study on Daytime Cleaning

Since the Brundtland Report, published in 1987 at the request of the United Nations, it has been agreed to integrate three dimensions into the concept of Sustainable Development, in favour of a political strategy that respects future generations: the economic, social and environmental dimensions. There are two orientations underlying this notion: taking into account the needs of the poorest populations and focus on the use of resources (Brundtland 1988).

Sandro De Gasparo, Pierre-Yves Le Dilosquer, François Hubault, Laerte Idal Sznelwar
Activity Resources, Resources for Sustainable Development: The Case of Waste Management in a Zoological Park in France

Aimed at raising awareness among the general public and visitors, the zoo-park was created in France to implement, develop and support conservation actions for the preservation of global biodiversity, as well as scientific research programs to better know the animals and protect them effectively. The park is thus part of a sustainable development approach and it has created a few years ago an anaerobic digestion plant (biological process that aims to transform the manure produced by animals into energy and natural fertilizers, as well as waste some of which are brought by local farmers). Like dump, other ways exist to manage the diversity of waste produced in the park. The dump has many problems depending on the agents in charge of waste management. Some agents mention the fact that they treat a lot more waste since the arrival of a couple of pandas, presence generating a number of visitors in strong growth. The work of the agents thus depends in particular on the number of visitors, the reservations to the hotels and their consumption. In high season, agents also see their workload increase. If they have to harvest the waste before the park opens, they are often required to take care of the waste in the afternoon. The arduous nature of the work of the zoo agents in charge of waste management is strong, as we will show. Not unrelated, many conflicts between employees of the park appear regarding the management of waste (e.g. poorly closed bags, bags too heavy, bags spilled in the local garbage). Noting these conflicts, the management tried to put in place various solutions in order to better manage these conflicts. Without conclusive results, the Management decided to address an ergonomist. We observed that the agents concomitantly developed other resources related to the waste sorting activity; the exploitation and the valorization of waste constituting some quite interesting.

Alexis Favreau, Gaëtan Bourmaud, Françoise Decortis
Sustainable Development Policy and Impact on Activity: The Case of Gardeners in the Suburbs of Paris
Special Session: Organizational Design, and Sustainable Development

This text discusses the impacts of introducing new work tools that fall within the framework of a policy of sustainable development on the activity of gardeners in Parisian suburbs. Introduction of new tools without taking into account the gardener’s way of working and the organizational and temporal constraints leads to tensions. The analysis of the gardener’s activity shows that three forms of prescription guide his activity: (1) The hierarchical prescription comes from the work organization, (2) an implicit prescription comes from the residents for whom the gardeners work, (3) an individual prescription form the gardeners themselves with own rules built on personal experience. Oppositions between the directions given by the management, the capacity of the gardener to find a balance to carry out his own work activity and the adjustment between the 3 forms of prescriptions can appear. Tensions in the group of gardeners and with the managements characterize the organization. The lack of debate on how to proceed between the gardeners but also between gardeners and management, leads to contradiction between the three forms of prescriptions. The lack of discussion about methods in using the new tools and how they are integrated in the daily organization is the ground for these tensions. Our ambition here is to defend the need to create the conditions to discuss and deliberate on the forms of prescriptions in work organization with sustainable development issues.

Nadia Heddad, Sylvain Biquand
Use of Reflexive Practice in Students of Industrial Engineering for the Construction of Knowledge in Ergonomics

What is the previous knowledge that the student uses to internalize the new knowledge and how does he translate it into the final work of the ergonomics course and in his professional performance? How does he explain the unconscious or poorly verbalized ideas about what he did in the field? When we train our engineering students we do not expect them to become ergonomists but we understand that ergonomics is a very interesting way to transform a work situation, that they should multiply the need to apply ergonomics in the workplace and during this process we expect they modify their approach to the problem. We have worked with three conceptual frameworks

Gabriela Cuenca, Michelle Aslanides
How Green is Ergonomics in India?

Green ergonomics is defined as ensuring human and natural system well-being through understanding the bidirectional relationships between natural and human systems. Green ergonomics, the importance of design in achieving sustainability, and certification programmes for green buildings are the current buzzwords in developed nations, and which are picking up in India. Green ergonomics plays a role in the conservation and preservation of natural systems and, more actively, the restoration of natural systems. On the other hand, natural systems provide a range of resources that can be harvested by humans for a range of human benefits. Green buildings beneficially impact the environment, reduce energy consumption and improve employees’ health, well-being, satisfaction and productivity. The ‘IGBC Green Existing Building O&M Rating System’ is offered by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) for applying sustainable concepts for existing buildings.

Deepak Sharan

Mining

Frontmatter
Programs for Integrating New Workers into Quebec Mining Companies: Formal Structure and In-the-Field Adaptations

Faced with fluctuating production marked by high-demand periods, as well as worker retirement and worker migration to other industries, the mining industry is experiencing massive hiring needs at a time when there is a shortage of trained and experienced workers. Compounding these problems of workforce availability are labour planning practices usually designed to “maximize production and minimize costs in response to immediate pressures” [1]. Moreover, OHS issues are prominent in this sector, where the frequency rate for compensated work-related injuries was 2.3 times higher than the average for Québec companies for the 2005–2007 period [2]. At the request of the Joint Health and Safety Association, Mining Sector, a field study was conducted to document the conditions conducive to the safe and secure integration of new workers, the problems encountered, and possible avenues for improvement. This paper presents the formal integration programs implemented in the companies studied and the adaptations made during their application in the field.

Elise Ledoux, Sylvie Beaugrand, Sylvie Ouellet, Caroline Jolly, Pierre-Sébastien Fournier
Ermenek Mine Accident in Turkey: The Root Causes of a Disaster

Mining accidents are one of the critical safety concerns all over the world. From the general point of safety, it is important to identify human factors, especially violations, and other types of barriers with respect to the occurrence of an accident. Root Cause Analysis helps to identify the mechanism behind accidents and develop future countermeasures for prevention. In the current analysis, Ermenek Mine Accident in Turkey was evaluated by using Root Cause Analysis Tool Kit and Manchester Patient Safety Framework (MaPSaF). Safety issues were structured by using Five Whys, Fishbone Diagram, and Barrier Analysis and safety culture were evaluated by using some of the dimensions of MaPSaF. Main factors were structured by using Five Whys, Barrier Analysis, and Manchester Safety Framework. According to these main factors, fishbone diagram was constructed. In general, natural, personnel, general policy in mining industry, and management issues in mining industry were determined as main four deficiencies affecting the occurrence and consequences of the accident. These main four factors were detailed in the fishbone diagram. The results indicated the importance of including different agents in the process of mining and working in cooperation to develop necessary policies and actions. Some methodological and practical suggestions were made for safety related issues. It is important to state policies related to basin in mining by considering both economic factors and safety factors. Moreover, reports related to safety issues should be more detailed by considering individual and organizational safety culture factors.

İbrahim Öztürk, Rıdvan Mevsim, Ayça Kınık
Risk Factors Associated with Work-Related Fatigue Among Indonesian Mining Workers

This study aimed to examine the association between risk factors for work-related fatigue (WRF) among Indonesian mining workers. This preliminary study was conducted among 201 surface mining workers as part of a larger study in a mineral mining industry in Indonesia. A validated self-reported questionnaire was used to obtain information on individual characteristics (i.e. age, smoking and exercise habits, duration of work, shift work, and job position), physical (i.e. duration of working in sitting posture, squatting posture, trunk flexion posture, hand above shoulder, using vibrating hand tool, exposed to whole body vibration, and lifting), and psychosocial (i.e. effort, reward, over commitment, supervisor support, co-worker support, job satisfaction, and work stress) factors. Two sets of validated questionnaires were used to assess acute and chronic WRF as the outcomes. A multivariate linear regression model was developed for each outcome. This study found that being mining operators and processing plant operators, doing activities that involved hands above shoulders, using vibrating hand tools, and reporting high effort score increased acute WRF score. In contrast, former smokers and high supervisor support decreased the score of acute WRF. Being mining operators, warehouse crews and processing plant operators, reporting high effort score, high over commitment score and their job to be mildly/moderately to very/extremely stressful increase chronic WRF score. In conclusion, job position and both physical and psychosocial factors increased the acute WRF score, whereas for chronic WRF, only job position and psychosocial factor increased chronic WRF score.

Baiduri Widanarko, Robiana Modjo, Julia Rantetampang
Physiological Work Load During Rescue Activities in a Controlled Simulation of Earthquake and Tsunami in a Seaport of a Mining Company

Disasters, are almost impossible to predict, so it is necessary to have good organization systems to react fast and efficiently. Emergency brigades are fundamental to take control and protect populations affected. It is important to organize work to balance the work load between members of the crews. Therefore, simulations are useful to analyze work organization.The objective of the study was to determine the level of physiological load imposed by the activities that brigade members carried out during earthquake and tsunami simulations. The evaluations were performed in the port of a mining company. The rescue of two operators was evaluated. One of them was injured and the other unconscious. Seven workers divided in two crews participated in the rescues. Cardiac frequency was registered simultaneously in all the workers. Work studies were conducted during the time that lasted the simulation.The results reveal that there were significant differences in the physiological load of the members of the brigade. While some of them performed light activities, other workers reach dangerous levels overloading their cardiovascular system by more than 80%. Considering that they were suitable for the job, the organization of work should be re-examined, so that there is a better distribution in the intensity of the efforts in the people who make up the crew. Therefore, it is recommended to carry out participatory activities and re-evaluate simulations in order to verify if organizational changes lead to a better work load distribution.

Esteban Oñate, Elías Apud
Effect of Work Boot Characteristics on Vibration Transmitted to Workers’ Feet and Subjective Discomfort

The objective of this study was to evaluate vibration transmissibility to the foot, and subjective reports of discomfort, when randomly standing on four different outsoles and three different insole materials. Tests were performed with twenty participants standing on seven different materials fixed on the steel platform of an electrodynamic shaker. Vibration transmissibility from the vibration platform to ten anatomical locations on the foot was measured with a laser Doppler vibrometer. After each test, participants were asked to report subjective discomfort on a scale of 1 to 10. The reported discomfort was correlated with the softness of the material, while the correlation between the vibration transmissibility from 10–200 Hz was extremely poor. Therefore, improved exposure measures are required to document exposure characteristics as relying on subjective reports of discomfort is not sufficient to determine if a worker is exposed to vibration levels associated with elevated injury risks.

Marco Tarabini, Tammy Eger, Katie Goggins, Filippo Goi, Francesco Corti
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018)
herausgegeben von
Dr. Sebastiano Bagnara
Dr. Riccardo Tartaglia
Dr. Sara Albolino
Prof. Thomas Alexander
Prof. Yushi Fujita
Copyright-Jahr
2019
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-96068-5
Print ISBN
978-3-319-96067-8
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96068-5