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

Inclusive design drivers and barriers: a manufacturing perspective from Pakistan

Developing countries contain a large proportion of the global population and the percentage of older people and people with disabilities is increasing. The demographics are discussed in the context of inclusive design and the drivers and barriers to inclusive design have been identified. Data was collected from 50 manufacturing-related individuals from various industrial sectors in Pakistan. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) relates to inclusive aspects of products, environment or service design, but most respondents either did not know about CSR or did not have a CSR post in their organizations, but 64% had awareness of inclusive design terminology. The study concluded that motivation through social responsibility; innovation and differentiation; demographics and consumer trends; brand enhancement; customer satisfaction; new market opportunity and legislation were the perceived drivers for manufacturers in Pakistan. Most respondents felt that lack of resources and guidance, lack of awareness about inclusive design, difficulty in changing the business culture, lack of government regulations and the perception that inclusive design is expensive were the most significant barriers to the promotion of inclusive design in manufacturing industries. Consequently, strategies should be adopted to raise inclusive design awareness, promote perceived drivers and overcome barriers

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

Autonomous vehicles in developing countries: a case study on user's view point in Pakistan

Technological advancements are continuously changing the human life. Like many other developments, autonomous vehicle system is attracting public interest and being widely discussed by all the stakeholders. Recent reports show that in future, autonomous vehicles or self-driving cars will be on roads in developed countries such as in UK and US. In this age of information technology, advancements made in developed countries not only move to the developing countries but also impact the opinions and lives of the people living in these countries. Therefore, there is a need to develop more effective strategies which can help the adaption of upcoming technologies in transport systems like autonomous vehicles. In this respect, user’s perception becomes highly significant as this can help designers by providing them the information about real time issues and human observations. Up till now, no significant work has been carried out on exploring the user’s perception about autonomous vehicles in developing countries like Pakistan. This study aims at capturing the user’s view point about the use of autonomous vehicles which can provide relevant information on perceived benefits and challenges in user’s perspective. An underlying objective is also to compare this perspective with developed countries like US, UK, and Australia etc. Findings of the study will help in assessing user’s perceptions in terms of challenges, the level of awareness and understanding about autonomous vehicles. It will lead to shaping up the strategies to address the needs of users so that more viable and equally acceptable technological interventions can be mad

Ergonomic risk assessment – a case study of a garment manufacturing industry

Pakistan is the eighth largest exporter of textiles, and this sector contributes 8.7% to the country's GDP. The garment industry contribution to the total textile-based exports from the country is 47%. Skilled labour is available at relatively cheap rates. Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are prevalent in this sector and this research is aimed at finding the levels of risk attached to working activities and to gain knowledge of the major causes of musculoskeletal disorders. The Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) method was used for this purpose. It was found that postures related to the wrist (0–15° or >15° flexion or extension with twist or deviation), lower arm (100° flexion) and neck (extension and flexion with twist or side flexed) are the major causes of musculoskeletal disorders. These findings will help in the design of workplaces and working strategies to minimize risk and so increase satisfaction, productivity and overall well-being at the workplace

Workforce demographics, challenges and strategies: a ‘design for all’ method in a manufacturing industry perspective

The workforce is ageing rapidly in most parts of the world. Today‟s challenging and economically com-petitive working scenarios demand the retention of skilled, experienced and more loyal older workers. Ageing affects work performance and it becomes necessary to understand the effects of ageing. However, there are many negative stereotypes which result in discrimination in relation to older workers. A „design for all‟ method is considered helpful in the promotion of the employment of older workers where prod-ucts, service and workstation design requirements of older workers might be addressed proactively. This approach uses realistic data about physical, physiological and cognitive abilities of a variety of people who belong to different age groups, shapes and sizes. Implementation of this strategy can potentially en-sure better and safer working environments for all workers. This paper reveals the need to use this com-puter-aided design for all methodology for industrial applications, especially assembly activities in the manufacturing environment

Workforce ageing, the need for an inclusive design approach in manufacturing industry

Demographic trends clearly indicate that the number of people over 60 years of age is increasing in most developing countries, while the availability of a young workforce is decreasing due to falling birth rates. Successful global competition drives the need to ensure the availability of a skilled workforce which accommodates older workers, is a real challenge for industrial organizations. An Inclusive Design approach is considered helpful in the assessment of workstations, product or service design requirements and the establishment of realistic production standards during the design development phase in any manufacturing industry. The approach can be used for a variety of industrial applications especially in manufacturing tasks such as assembly, maintenance, lifting, loading, unloading, transporting and machine operating activities. This paper reveals the need for an Inclusive Design approach that can potentially increase the productive time of the older workforce which can then make a valuable contribution to the economy. The paper also describes initial research which involves the re-analysis of a very large UK survey on ageing and disability and new data on joint mobility and its significance to the ageing workforce

Experimental investigation of surface roughness for different thickness of aluminium in abrasive waterjet machining

Abrasive waterjet machining is a novel method of machining complex shapes and profiles. Surface roughness is a widely used machining characteristic to define the quality of the machined components. This present study reports the effects of workpiece material thickness, abrasive mass flow rate and standoff distance on surface roughness while performing abrasive waterjet machining. A L9 Taguchi array is used for the design of experimentation signal to noise ratio and analysis of variance is carried out. The experimental results show that the most influential parameter affecting surface roughness is workpiece thickness

Manufacturer's perspective on inclusive design drivers and barriers - developing countries case

Inclusive Design aims to ensure that the design needs of the largest possible audience are addressed. Developing countries contribute about 41% of the global population and the percentage of older people and people with disabilities is increasing, which further highlights the need for an inclusive design approach. This discusses the demographics and the need to consider the design needs of this large segment of the world population. Exploration of drivers and barriers to inclusive design are identified so that strategies can be devised to promote drivers and remove barriers. This ongoing research will be based on a survey that will be used to collect manufacturer’s perspective on these issues. Data analysis will provide an opportunity to understand the manufacturer’s perspective and how understanding and awareness can be increased. This research will improve the lives of people in developing countries and will highlight business opportunities for local and international manufacturing companies

Autonomous Vehicles in Developing Countries: A Case Study on User’s View Point in Pakistan

Technological advancements are continuously changing the human life. Like many other developments, autonomous vehicle system is attracting public interest and being widely discussed by all the stakeholders. Recent reports show that in future, autonomous vehicles or self-driving cars will be on roads in developed countries such as in UK and US. In this age of information technology, advancements made in developed countries not only move to the developing countries but also impact the opinions and lives of the people living in these countries. Therefore, there is a need to develop more effective strategies which can help the adaption of upcoming technologies in transport systems like autonomous vehicles. In this respect, user’s perception becomes highly significant as this can help designers by providing them the information about real time issues and human observations. Up till now, no significant work has been carried out on exploring the user’s perception about autonomous vehicles in developing countries like Pakistan. This study aims at capturing the user’s view point about the use of autonomous vehicles which can provide relevant information on perceived benefits and challenges in user’s perspective. An underlying objective is also to compare this perspective with developed countries like US, UK, and Australia etc. Findings of the study will help in assessing user’s perceptions in terms of challenges, the level of awareness and understanding about autonomous vehicles. It will lead to shaping up the strategies to address the needs of users so that more viable and equally acceptable technological interventions can be mad