Work Study and Ergonomics

Background of Ergonomics

Ever since human first began to interact with his environment in any complex way, the tendency to produce conformity by aggressive or illogical means has been widespread and same is called procrustean approach. Particularly the industrial worker has been ‘customized to fit the demands of his physical work, consequently with most sufferers usually accepting a significant degree of discomfort and disability without too much argument. The procrustean approach explained through a situation like the arms of an operator have elongated to reach inaccessible controls and perceptual abilities stretched to be able to hear or to see virtually inaudible or invisible signals. At the other end of the procrustean range, legs have cut down to fit confined workplaces and cognitive capacities shrink to fit tedious tasks.

The problem has become increasingly important since the industrial revolution, particularly with the expansion in the complexity of both work and machines. Because of a poor ‘fit’ between the human operator and his environment, lives have been lost, productivity reduced and errors have been vital, the needs and abilities of the man and compatibility with in the environment have been as secondary importance.

Training the operator in tasks is no doubt difficult to carry out, but also a costly procedure. In most of the cases, training and production time can be reduced to a significant extent by designing the machine in harmony with the operator's capability. Even though it is possible to train an operator to a high level of competency and skill, training alone will not solve their problems and increase their output. Moreover with the increasing complexity of industrial setup, it is impractical to assure operator's effectiveness without creating the appropriate environment. Further, he needs help in the form of suitable designed controls, information displays and other aspects of his environment for maximizing the effects of training. Chaney and Teel (1967) performed a study and compared the detection efficiency of skilled inspectors of machine parts, either after a four-hour training programme or after giving a set of specially designed visual aids and display to help them for defect detection. The result of the study revealed that, the training programme resulted in a 32 per cent hike in defect detection, whereas the use of the suitable visual aids resulted in 42 per cent increase.