You may have heard of the term ‘ergonomics’. This is sometimes referred to as ‘human factors’ in US or bioengineering in Scandinavian (?). Not everyone really understands what ergonomics is, what it does, or how it affects people. Survey in UK in 1992 showed that only 5% of the UK population could give an accurate definitionand 45% of thought it was the design of chairs !! (I haven’t update the data yet). And this is much worse if done in Asia particularly in Indonesia (psttt..my supervisor even had not much idea what is ergonomics whereas I’d be doing my study pertaining such subject)

According to the International Ergonomics 2000, Ergonomics is defined:

“Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with understanding the interaction among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance”

Objective to achieve in implementing ergonomics are: the most productive use of human capabilities and maintenance of human health and well-being. In other words, ergonomics aims to ensure that human needs for safe and efficient working are met in the design of worksystem.

The benefits of implementing ergonomics in a particular work system are: Higher productivity,  Higher Quality, Reduced operator injury, Increased morale, Greater job satisfaction, Lower medical & insurance costs, Reduced lost time, Lower absenteeism, and Less employee turnover

To achieve the goals, thus the job must ‘fit the person’ (the opposite concept of ergonomics is fitting the man to the task) and should not compromise human capabilities and limitations.

Ergonomics is an integration of many disciplines that is,

I have a degree in industrial engineering, but currently I’ve been facing a lot on medical content rather than engineering issue of ergonomics

A brief historical review of ergonomics is illustrated below:

Interesting explanations of ergonomics concept at the workplace can be found in www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg90.pdf and www.dir.ca.gov/DOSH/dosh_publications/EasErg2.pdf