Portuguese firefighters’ boots: obtaining user input for an ergonomic redesign

Firefighters are the first responders to a wide variety of situations which require them to perform an array of movements. Firefighters’ personal protective equipment is designed to protect against hazardous conditions and must allow the accomplishment of firefighting job tasks with maximum safety and minimal limitations. Fire boots are made to protect firefighters’ feet, ankles, and lower legs from high heat, slippery surfaces, standing water, punctures, cuts, abrasions, and so on. However, literature shows the impacts of fire boots on firefighters’ performance. This paper presents preliminary results of an ongoing study which main goal is to propose solutions for an Ergonomic redesign of personal protective equipment used by Portuguese firefighters. In order to obtain first insights, identifying firefighters’ perceptions and specific needs, a pilot study was conducted in a fire brigade located in the North of Portugal. For qualitative data collection, both an online survey and an in-person semi-structured interview were administered. The responses and specific considerations about the structural fire boots obtained from 49 firefighters who participated in the pilot study are described and discussed. Findings from this study allowed a better understanding of the main issues encountered by Portuguese firefighters in wearing their fire boots and provided valuable inputs for developing the next phases of the study.FEDER funds through the Competitive Factors Operational Program (COMPETE) POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136 and by national funds through FCT-Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project UID/CTM/000264

Ergonomics applied to the development and evaluation of insoles for protective footwear

Knowledge of ergonomics/human factors plays an important role in the creation and design of safety shoes and insoles, contributing to worker protection, comfort, and stability. The purpose of this study is to compare previous insole designs and analyze the plantar pressure and gait pattern kinematics using the Oxford foot model protocol. The tests were performed comparing the environments on the three rockers of the gait, represented by the heel, midfoot, and forefoot, according to the classification of foot type. The analysis of plantar pressure, regarding its total and maximum distribution, showed that the innovative insole presents a better load distribution in terms of the maximum plantar pressure exerted in the hindfoot and forefoot regions. In the biomechanical analysis of gait, the five variables studied did not show variation in the normal mechanics of the foot in any of the three environments considered. The hallux joint was the one that presented the greatest divergences with the barefoot in terms of amplitude and variability, as expected.SHOE@FUTURE: Technological Solutions for Professional Footwear, POCI-01-0247-FEDER-033835, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program under the “Portugal 2020” Program. This work has been supported by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020

A atividade e a conceção dos artefatos de trabalho: contribuições da Ergonomia

Tese de doutoramento em Engenharia Industrial e de SistemasO problema da incompatibilidade entre os artefactos e as pessoas manifesta-se em objetos de uso quotidiano mas também naqueles que constituem os meios de trabalho: máquinas, ferramentas e sistemas que formam as bases técnicas dos processos produtivos. A Ergonomia dedica-se a minimizar esse problema, e para isso, o ergonomista busca compreender e participar dos processos projetuais. Nesta investigação, também partilhamos essas intenções. Um dos objetivos centrais almejados foi participar da conceção, reconceção ou adaptação de um artefacto de trabalho, atuando juntamente de uma equipa de engenharia, construindo novos critérios e requisitos. Duas ramificações da Ergonomia – a Ergonomia da Atividade e a Ergonomia de Conceção, serviram como base teórica-metodológica para o desenvolvimento da investigação. A etapa de campo foi realizada numa empresa produtora de pneus, sendo o foco da investigação a reconceção de um equipamento industrial de grande porte – uma calandra de 4 rolos, que seria instalada numa de suas unidades industriais, localizada no norte de Portugal. Visávamos inserir o contributo do ponto de vista da atividade de trabalho, como conceptualizada no seio da Ergonomia da Atividade, para tal projeto. De acordo com o método da Abordagem da Atividade Futura, utilizamos como situação de referência um equipamento semelhante ao que seria instalado, para que fosse possível buscar demandas para a conceção do novo equipamento e participar na construção de possíveis soluções. A análise da situação de referência, baseada no método da Análise Ergonómica do Trabalho, revelou a importância de situações de variabilidade para o contexto da produção, e da importância da gestão dessas situações para cumprir os objetivos do processo da calandragem. Demonstramos também a relevância das estratégias desenvolvidas pelos operadores para fazer face a essas variabilidades. Entretanto, o objetivo de atuar junto à equipa de engenharia, construindo e incorporando novos critérios e requisitos para a conceção, não foi alcançado. A partir desse facto, apresentamos algumas reflexões sobre a construção técnica e social da investigação: em termos da conceção em si, dos seus critérios e dos seus requisitos, assim como da condução do projeto, de como buscamos nos integrar a equipa de engenharia responsável, como negociamos a nossa participação, entre outros. Descrevemos como a investigação foi conduzida na Empresa no sentido de perceber os motivos pelos quais um dos objetivos planeados não foi atingido e defendemos que a atividade é uma importante fonte de renovação das prescrições do trabalho, o que inclui a conceção de suas bases técnicas. Com isso, a partir da atividade, é possível promover uma conceção mais coerente com o trabalho real.The incompatibility between artifacts and people manifests itself in objects used daily, but also in instruments of labor: machines, tools, and systems that constitute the bases of technical production. Ergonomics is dedicated to minimizing this problem: ergonomists seek to understand how artifacts are designed and to participate in the design process. In our research, we also pursue these aims. One of its main goals was to participate in the design, re-design or adaptation of a work-related artifact, acting together with a design team, building new design criteria and requirements. We sought to introduce contributions from the work activity viewpoint, as conceptualized within the Activity Ergonomics Approach, to the design of the artifact. Two Ergonomic branches, the Activity Ergonomics Approach and the Ergonomics Design, served us as theoretical-methodological basis for the research development. We carried out the field research in a tire manufacturing company. The research focus was the re-design of a large industrial equipment – a four-roll calender, which was going to be installed in the fabric. In order to accomplish this, and according to the Future Work Activity Approach method, an equipment similar to the one that was going to be installed was used as a reference situation. Our intent was to identify opportunities to improve the design of the new equipment. The analysis of the reference situation, based on the Ergonomic Work Analysis, revealed the importance of variability situations in the context of the production, and the workers’ role of managing them to fulfill the objectives of the calendering process. We also demonstrated the important role of the operating strategies developed by the workers to deal with the variability. However, our goal of being integrated with the project team, developing and incorporating new design criteria and requirements, was not achieved. From this, we present some insights regarding the technical and social construction of the research: in terms of the design itself, its criteria and requirements, as well as the project development and our attempts to be part of the design team, how we negotiated our research. We describe how the research was conducted at the company so one can understand the reasons why we could not achieve the planned goals. We argue that activity is an important source of renewal of work prescriptions, which includes the design of its technical bases. In doing so, activity can help to promote a more coherent design process and develop alternative design practices. We defend that design must be focused on the possibilities of use and be based on a dialogue of different expertise