Lecture 12 - Industrial Ergonomics

Question 1

Examples of industrial ergonomics

Answer 1

• > manufacturing
• > construction
• > jobs requiring use of hand and power tools

Question 2

ergonomics cost justification

Answer 2

see sl. 4 for diagram
- > you have a risk and you must identify the problem then assess future impact and its associated cost
- > then you design solution(s) and compare risk vs cost (repeat the cycle from here; identify a new problem from your old plan)

Question 3

mains ergonomics expenses + factors that influence these

Answer 3

Direct Cost
- > largely worker compensation
- > costing injuries and predicting injuries
Indirect cost
- > investigation, corrective actions
- > compensating actions used to avoid injuries
- > worker retention - turnover and absenteeism due to injury
Performance cost
- > sub optimal performance will produce less product and therefore money
Performance saving
- > enhancements to standard operating procedures
Human error
- > accident avoidance/near misses

Question 4

why would replacing workers increase cost

Answer 4

• > hiring
• advertising, testing, adding wage rolls and benefits
• > orientation, job training time and trainer time
• > supervisor time
• > productivity ramp up (if theres a big turnaround

Question 5

A delta T

Answer 5

A: actual production or process cost
T: theoretical (optimal) production or process costs
delta: production or process cost differential

AdeltaT
- > engineering this differential to bring production/processing costs to a minimum

Question 6

delta losses

Answer 6

Productivity losses and operating costs
- > maintenance and service costs
- > bottlenecks
- > productivity/yields
Additional time or labour costs
- > turnover costs
- > training
- > sub-optimal performance
- > overtime pay
Product quality
- > by defect severity and area/type
Compensating actions used to avoid lost production or to avoid defects
- > special training
- > increase quality inspection
- > additional labour

Question 7

what are performance gains

Answer 7

improvements over current expected and/or desired performance
- > sales
- > quality
- > productivity
- > labour

Question 8

7 keys items of delta loss

Answer 8

Human resources
1. Labour turn-over
2. Absenteeism
3. Overtime
4. Sub-optimal labour
Production
5. Waste
6. Rework

Question 9

8 main steps of developing industrial ergonomics

Answer 9

1. Understand the problem
2. Create several solution alternatives
3. Select a target solution
4. Determine the full costs of the solution
5. Identify the benefits of the solution
6. Determine the total value of all costs and benefits
7. Perform the ergonomic justification
8. Present recommendations to management

Question 10

how do we analyze the cost of ergonomics solutions

Answer 10

we use a value/cost matrix (4 sqares; effectivenes of solution in z axis and cost of solution in x-axis)
- > we ideally want highly effective solutions at a low cost and avoid high costs with low effectiveness
- > high cost+ high effectiveness and low cost low effectiveness can be used but they aren’t ideal
generally the saved $$ cost of injuries will fund these interventions

Question 11

look through L12; slides 28 - 47 to see a case study that went through the entire process for developing industrial ergonomics

Question 12

micro vs macroergonomics

Answer 12

Microergonomics
- > an approach to ergonomics that focuses on the detailed examination of individual operator-machine interfaces
Macroergonomics
- > an approach to ergonomics that examiines the overall work systems from a broad perspective in which all factors (physical, environmental, organizational and cognitive) are considered

Question 13

six sigma approach

Answer 13

seeks to improve the quality of a process outputs by identifying and removing errors; process improvements
- > reduce the possibility of errors occuring