An assessment system for rating scientific journals in the field of ergonomics and human factors

A method for selecting and rating scientific and professional journals representing the discipline of ergonomics and human factors is proposed. The method is based upon the journal list, impact factors and citations provided by the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI), and the journal list published in the Ergonomics Abstracts. Three groups of journals were distinguished. The "ergonomics journals" focus exclusively on ergonomics or human factors. The "related journals" focus on other disciplines than ergonomics or human factors, but regularly publish ergonomics/human factors papers. The "basic journals" focus on other technical, medical or social sciences than ergonomics, but are important for the development of ergonomics/human factors. Journal quality was rated using a maximum of four categories: top quality (A-level), high quality (B-level), good quality (C-level)) and professional (P-level). The above methods were applied to develop journal ratings for the year 2003. A total of 24 'ergonomics journals', 58 'related journals' and 142 'basic journals' were classified.impact factor;rating;scientific journals

Ergonomics Contributions to Company Strategies

Managers usually associate ergonomics with occupational health and safety and related legislation, not with business performance. In many companies, these decision makers seem not to be positively motivated to apply ergonomics for reasons of improving health and safety. In order to strengthen the position of ergonomics and ergonomists in the business and management world, we discuss company strategies and business goals to which ergonomics could contribute. Conceptual models are presented and examples are given to illustrate: 1) the present situation in which ergonomics is not part of regular planning and control cycles in organizations to ensure business performance, and 2) the desired situation in which ergonomics is an integrated part of strategy formulation and implementation. In order to realize the desired situation, considerable changes must take place within the ergonomics research, education and practice community by moving from a health ergonomics paradigm to a business ergonomics paradigm, without losing the health and safety goals.corporate strategy;paradigm shift;system performance

Linking Ergonomics with the Human Resources Management

During the last years, ergonomics became one of the reference domains in the managerial theory and practice. Ergonomics is a major component of the human resources management and also, it is an important factor of performances. Ergonomics is the link between efficiency, effectiveness, security and heath and in this context it is necessary to approach the ergonomics and its impact on the process of the organizational development and on the employees. The links between ergonomics and Human Resources Management are important not just from the methodological perspective; it is necessary to analyze its impact on the organization. So, in this context we could say that ergonomics contributes to the development of Human Resources Management in many ways. Therefore, ergonomics must become one of the major interests of the managers.management; human resources management; ergonomics; performance; quality management.

Visualising ergonomics data for design

Existing ergonomics data are not effectively used by designers; this is mainly because the data are not presented in a designer-friendly format. In order to help designers make better use of ergonomics data, we explored the potential of representing existing ergonomics data in a more dynamic and visual way, and making them look more relevant to design. The Cambridge Engineering Selector (CES) was adopted to turn static ergonomics data into manipulative and comparative data sets. Contextual information in a visual format was added; clearer illustrations and scenarios relevant to design were developed; design case studies were compiled and linked to the relevant ergonomics data sets – the process resulted in a new design support tool: the ErgoCES. The tool was consequently brought to both design students and professionals for evaluation. The results suggested that the ErgoCES had helped making ergonomics data more accessible to designers, and many new features (e.g. scenarios and case studies) were highly valued by the designers. Among the participants, 100% of the design students and 79% of the professionals indicated that they would use the tool when it becomes widely available.The research project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Grant EP/F0 32145/1. The authors would like to thank all the participants for helping evaluating the tool. Hua Dong is currently sponsored by The Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning

Bush Administration Ergonomics Plan Fails to Protect Workers From Crippling Injuries

[Excerpt] On March 20, 2001, President Bush--in his first major legislative action--signed legislation repealing OSHA’s ergonomics standard. This important worker safeguard, issued in November 2000, was ten years in the making and would have prevented hundreds of thousands of workplace injuries a year. But, bowing to Big Business groups who opposed any ergonomics regulation, after the 2000 election, the Republican controlled Congress and the Bush Administration joined together to kill this worker protection measure. Last March, as Congress contemplated the repeal of OSHA’s ergonomics standard, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao stated, “Repetitive stress injuries in the workplace are an important problem.” She promised that if the standard was repealed, the Department would “pursue a comprehensive approach to ergonomics, which may include new rulemaking…This approach will provide employers with achievable measures that protect employees before injuries occur.

The strategic value of ergonomics for companies

The discipline of ergonomics studies the interaction between man and the designed technical and organizational environment. In product ergonomics, this knowledge is used to develop user-friendly products and in production ergonomics to design human-friendly (production) processes. Beside social goals, ergonomics can contribute to economic goals of an organization. With user-friendly products, a company can deliver benefits to its customers, which exceed those of competing products. With human-friendly production processes, a company can increase labor productivity and consequently can reach important cost-reductions. The growing consciousness of the importance of humans (customers and workers) for the success of organizations, implies that ergonomics can have a strategic value for the management of organizations. In this paper a model is presented how ergonomics can be integrated in the decision-making and design processes of organizations, and examples are given to show possible business benefits.Competitive advantage, labor productivity, human centered design, product development, process development

What price ergonomics?

Ergonomists have a say in the design of almost everything in the modern world, but there is little evidence that their methods actually work. Here is an evaluation of those methods and of the worth of ergonomics in design

Combining economic and social goals in the design of production systems by using ergonomics standards

In designing of production systems, economic and social goals can be combined, if ergonomics is integrated into the design process. More than 50 years of ergonomics research and practice have resulted in a large number of ergonomics standards for designing physical and organizational work environments. This paper gives an overview of the 174 international ISO and European CEN standards in this field, and discusses their applicability in design processes. The available standards include general recommendations for integrating ergonomics into the design process, as well as specific requirements for manual handling, mental load, task design, human-computer-interaction, noise, heat, body measurements, and other topics. The standards can be used in different phases of the design process: allocation of system functions between humans and machines, design of the work organization, work tasks and jobs, design of work environment, design of work equipment, hardware and software, and design of workspace and workstation. The paper is meant to inform engineers and managers involved in the design of production systems about the existence of a large number of ISO and CEN standards on ergonomics, which can be used to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.review;standard;standardization;ergonomics;CEN;ISO;human factors;production engineering;production planning

Rewritable routines in human interaction with public technology

In this paper, the cognitive ergonomics of using public technology is investigated. A methodology for predicting human error with technology has been developed. Predictions from the method (combined with observation of user performance) form the foundation of the concept of ‘rewritable routines’. This is in keeping with the tradition of building models of user cognition on the basis of observed and predicted errors. The concept is introduced and illustrated with examples. Implications for cognitive ergonomics are discussed

The ergonomics of command and control

Since its inception, just after the Second World War, ergonomics research has paid special attention to the issues surrounding human control of systems. Command and Control environments continue to represent a challenging domain for Ergonomics research. We take a broad view of Command and Control research, to include C2 (Command and Control), C3 (Command, Control and Communication), and C4 (Command, Control, Communication and Computers) as well as human supervisory control paradigms. This special issue of ERGONOMICS aims to present state-of-the-art research into models of team performance, evaluation of novel interaction technologies, case studies, methodologies and theoretical review papers. We are pleased to present papers that detail research on these topics in domains as diverse as the emergency services (e.g., police, fire, and ambulance), civilian applications (e.g., air traffic control, rail networks, and nuclear power) and military applications (e.g., land, sea and air) of command and control. While the domains of application are very diverse, many of the challenges they face share interesting similarities