The Discipline of Ergonomics and Human Factors (original) (raw)

2006, Handbook of human factors and ergonomics

Table 2 Objectives of the HFE Discipline Basic operational objectives Reduce errors Increase safety Improve system performance Objectives bearing on reliability, maintainability, availability and integrated logistic support Increase reliability Improve maintainability Reduce personnel requirements Reduce training requirements Objectives affecting users and operators Improve the working environment Reduce fatigue and physical stress Increase ease of use Increase user acceptance Increase aesthetic appearance Other objectives Reduce losses of time and equipment Increase economy of production Source: Chapanis (1995). 2004). Examples of relevant topics include communication, crew resource management, design of working times, teamwork, participatory work design, community ergonomics, computer-supported cooperative work, new work paradigms, virtual organizations, telework, and quality management. The traditional domains noted above, together with new domains, are listed in Table 1. According to the discussion above, the paramount objective of HFE is to understand interactions between people and everything that surrounds us, and based on such knowledge to optimize human well-being and overall system performance. Table 2 provides a summary of specific HFE objectives as discussed by Chapanis (1995). As pointed out by the National Academy of Engineering in the United States (NAE, 2004), in the future, ongoing developments in engineering will expand toward tighter connections between technology and the human experience, including new products customized to the physical dimensions and capabilities of the user, and the ergonomic design of engineered products. 2 HUMAN-TECHNOLOGY INTERACTIONS Whereas in the past, ergonomics has been driven by technology (reactive design approach), in the future, ergonomics should drive technology (proactive design approach). Technology can be defined as the entire system of people and organizations, knowledge, processes, and devices that go into creating and operating technological artifacts, as well as the artifacts themselves (NRC, 2001). Technology is a product and a process involving both science and engineering. Science aims to understand the "why" and "how" of nature (through a process of scientific inquiry that generates knowledge about the natural world). Engineering represents "design under constraints" of cost, reliability, safety, environmental impact, ease of use, available human and material resources, manufacturability, government regulations, laws, and politics (Wulf, 1988). Engineering seeks to shape the natural world to meet human needs and wants: a body of knowledge of design and creation of human-made products and a process for solving problems. Contemporary HFE discovers and applies information about human behavior, abilities, limitations, and other characteristics to the design of tools, machines, systems, tasks, jobs, and environments for productive, safe, comfortable, and effective human use (Sanders and McCormick, 1993; Helander, 1997b). In this context, HFE deals with a broad scope of problems relevant to the design and evaluation of work systems, consumer products, and working environments, in which human-machine interactions affect human