An inclusive design method for addressing human variability and work performance issues

Humans play vital roles in manufacturing systems, but work performance is strongly influenced by factors such as experience, age, level of skill, physical and cognitive abilities and attitude towards work. Current manufacturing system design processes need to consider these human variability issues and their impact on work performance. An ‘inclusive design’ approach is proposed to consider the increasing diversity of the global workforce in terms of age, gender, cultural background, skill and experience. The decline in physical capabilities of older workers creates a mismatch between job demands and working capabilities which can be seen in manufacturing assembly that typically requires high physical demands for repetitive and accurate motions. The inclusive design approach leads to a reduction of this mismatch that results in a more productive, safe and healthy working environment giving benefits to the organization and individuals in terms of workforce satisfaction, reduced turnover, higher productivity and improved product quality

The ageing workforce: a case study

Digital human modelling (DHM) most frequently models humans that are able-bodied and of working age. However, increased life expectancy is resulting in employment above ‘normal’ retirement age, often reflected in legislation changing state pension age and freedom for workers to work as long as wish. The resulting older workforce has many positive aspects including increased experience, wisdom, loyalty and motivation, but negative effects such as the loss of capabilities in strength, mobility, vision and hearing will also be present. Inclusive design aims to accommodate more of the workforce in the design of workplaces so it is essential that design methods are able to cope with the ageing workforce. A case study was conducted in a furniture manufacturing company, particularly to investigate the usefulness of a DHM-based inclusive design method in determining working strategies that are suitable for older workers in terms of work productivity, well-being and safety

An Inclusive Design Method for Addressing Human Variability and Work Performance Issues

Humans play vital roles in manufacturing systems, but work performance is strongly influenced by factors such as experience, age, level of skill, physical and cognitive abilities and attitude towards work. Current manufacturing system design processes need to consider these human variability issues and their impact on work performance. An ‘inclusive design’ approach is proposed to consider the increasing diversity of the global workforce in terms of age, gender, cultural background, skill and experience. The decline in physical capabilities of older workers creates a mismatch between job demands and working capabilities which can be seen in manufacturing assembly that typically requires high physical demands for repetitive and accurate motions. The inclusive design approach leads to a reduction of this mismatch that results in a more productive, safe and healthy working environment giving benefits to the organization and individuals in terms of workforce satisfaction, reduced turnover, higher productivity and improved product quality

Using ergonomic risk assessment methods for designing inclusive work practices – a case study

In common with many industries, manufacturing faces the challenge of effective management of a diverse workforce. Humans differ greatly but traditional manufacturing work practices do not take into account human variability issues during the work design process. Variations in individual and organizational work performance due to many individual factors such as age, gender, level of skill, experience and background bring performance inconsistencies. This research investigates the effects of individual skill on work performance in general, and workplace safety and human well-being in particular. A research framework is proposed for highlighting major differences in work performing strategies, their potential impact on work performance and how these findings can be used for designing more inclusive work practices. A case study has been presented where ergonomics risk assessment methods have been used to validate the usefulness of this framework. It is also concluded that skill has a strong relationship with the level of risk attached to various task performing strategies

Supporting Inclusive Design of Mobile Devices with a Context Model

The aim of inclusive product design is to successfully integrate a broad range of diverse human factors in the product development process with the intention of making products accessible to and usable by the largest possible group of users. However, the main barriers for adopting inclusive product design include technical complexity, lack of time, lack of knowledge and techniques, and lack of guidelines. Although manufacturers of consumer products are nowadays more likely to invest efforts in user studies, consumer products in general only nominally fulfill, if at all, the accessibility requirements of as many users as they potentially could. The main reason is that any user-centered design prototyping or testing aiming to incorporate real user input, is often done at a rather late stage of the product development process. Thus, the more progressed a product design has evolved - the more time-consuming and costly it will be to alter the design. This is increasingly the case for contemporary mobile devices such as mobile phones or remote controls

Chapter Supporting Inclusive Design of Mobile Devices with a Context Model

Embedded system

Using Ergonomic Risk Assessment Methods for Designing Inclusive Work Practices: A Case Study

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: HUSSAIN, A. ...et al., 2016. Using ergonomic risk assessment methods for designing inclusive work practices – a case study. Human Factors in Manufacturing & Service Industries, 26 (3), pp.337-355., which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20650. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.In common with many industries, manufacturing faces the challenge of effective management of a diverse workforce. Humans differ greatly but traditional manufacturing work practices do not take into account human variability issues during the work design process. Variations in individual and organizational work performance due to many individual factors such as age, gender, level of skill, experience and background bring performance inconsistencies. This research investigates the effects of individual skill on work performance in general, and workplace safety and human well-being in particular. A research framework is proposed for highlighting major differences in work performing strategies, their potential impact on work performance and how these findings can be used for designing more inclusive work practices. A case study has been presented where ergonomics risk assessment methods have been used to validate the usefulness of this framework. It is also concluded that skill has a strong relationship with the level of risk attached to various task performing strategies

Workforce challenges: 'inclusive design' for organizational sustainability

Today's challenge for workforce management lies in providing a healthy, safe and productive working culture where people are valued, empowered and respected. Workforce diversity is becoming an essential aspect of the global workforce, and ageing is the most prominent and significant factor in this regard. Diversity brings many opportunities and challenges, as workers with different backgrounds, cultures, working attitudes, behaviours and age work together, and in future, the key to organizational effectiveness and sustainability will heavily depend on developing and sustaining inclusive work environments where people with their differences can co-exist safely and productively. Manufacturing organizations expect the highest levels of productivity and quality, but unfortunately the manufacturing system design process does not take into account human variability issues caused by age, skill, experience, attitude towards work etc. This thesis focuses on proposing an inclusive design methodology to address the design needs of a broader range of the population. However, the promotion and implementation of an inclusive design method is challenging due to the lack of relevant data and lack of relevant tools and methods to help designers. This research aims to support the inclusive design process by providing relevant data and developing new design methodologies. The inclusive design methodology suggested in this thesis is a three step approach for achieving a safe and sustainable work environment for workers, with special concern for older workers. The methodology is based on the provision of relevant human capabilities data, the capture and analysis of difference in human behaviour and the use of this knowledge in a digital human modelling tool. The research is focused on manual assembly through a case study in the furniture manufacturing industry and joint mobility data from a wide-ranging population has been analysed and the task performing strategies and behaviours of workers with different levels of skills have been recorded and analysed. It has been shown that joint mobility significantly decreases with age and disability and that skilful workers are likely to adopt safer and more productive working strategies. A digital human modelling based inclusive design strategy was found to be useful in addressing the design needs of older workers performing manufacturing assembly activities. This strategy validates the concept of using human capabilities data for assessing the level of acceptability of any adopted strategy for older workers, and suggests that the strategies adopted by skilful workers are more likely to be equally acceptable for older and younger workers keeping in view differences in their joint mobility. The overall purpose of this thesis is to present a road map towards the promotion and implementation of the inclusive design method for addressing workforce challenges and in future the same strategies might be implemented within a variety of other industrial applications. The proposed three step inclusive design methodology and getting a reasonable understanding of human variability issues along with the use of human capabilities data (joint mobility in this case) in a human modelling system for design assessment at a pre-design stage can be considered as the major contributions of this research

Validation of the HADRIAN system using an ATM evaluation case study

The HADRIAN human modelling system is under development as part of the EPSRC funded AUNT-SUE project. The HADRIAN system aims to foster a 'design for all' ethos by allowing ergonomists and designers to see the effects of different kinds of disability on the physical capabilities of elderly and people with disabilities. This system is based upon the long established SAMMIE system, and uses data collected from 102 people, 79 of whom are registered as disabled, or have age related mobility issues. The HADRIAN system allows three dimensional CAD data of new products to be imported, with a subsequent automated analysis using all of the 102 sample members. The following paper describes the process and results gathered from a validation study using an ATM design as a case study. The results indicated that fine tuning of the behavioural data built into HADRIAN would improve the accuracy of an automated product analysis