| 1. |
- Berlin, Cecilia, 1981, et al.
(författare)
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Corporate-internal vs. national standard - A comparison study of two ergonomics evaluation procedures used in automotive manufacturing
- 2009
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Ingår i: International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0169-8141 .- 1872-8219. ; 39:6, s. 940-946
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Manufacturing corporations sometimes use corporate-internal procedures to evaluate and monitor the ergonomic status of the workplace. This article describes an industrial case study in the Swedish automotive sector, where an internally developed evaluation procedure was compared with a procedure based on a Swedish national standard provision. It was found that the national standard procedure tended to give more severe ratings and statistical support shows that the two evaluation procedures are not equivalent. The ability of the methods to identify body segments at risk was also compared. The quantitative comparison was followed up with interviews, where the influence of professional tasks and objectives became evident, as well as the fact that evaluation criteria are quantified differently by the two procedures. The main finding is that unforeseen differences in analysis procedure, criteria of acceptability and levels of detail can cause use-related difficulties for different professional groups when methods are used interchangeably. Relevance to industry: Industrial corporations wishing to monitor ergonomics consistently are advised by the authors to ensure that ratings from internal evaluations are interpreted the same way by all involved personnel, and that they at least have criteria levels equivalent to those of a national standard. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 2. |
- Berlin, Cecilia, 1981, et al.
(författare)
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National Standard vs. Corporate-Internal Ergonomics Evaluation - an Industrial Case Study
- 2008
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Ingår i: The 40th annual Nordic Ergonomic Society Conference, NES 2008, Reykjavík, Iceland, August 11-13.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In Sweden, industrial corporations are required to actively monitor and improve the working environment for their employees according to the provision AFS 1998:1, a document that offers guidelines for maintaining a healthy physical working environment, chiefly by ensuring healthy working postures. This provision was purposely formulated in a very general, nonspecific manner in order to be relevant for a large variety of industries.At certain industrial corporations, corporate-internal procedures for evaluating and monitoring the ergonomic status of the workplace have been developed, usually in order to takeconsideration of the specific conditions of that industrial application. The protocol, method,execution and presentation of the evaluation results may vary. Also, the decision regarding which personnel should carry out the evaluation becomes a poignant question. In this article, which describes a Swedish industrial case study in the automotive sector, a corporate-internal method with a highly specified input protocol was used to evaluate theergonomic status of a production line. At the time, the evaluation was carried out by factory personnel with specific training in using the method. Months later, the same factory segment was re-evaluated by two professional ergonomists from an occupational health service, thistime using the AFS 1998:1 provision as a basis.The article makes an attempt to compare the two methods, finding some similarities and also some interesting differences. However, the main research questions that arise from this work concern the difficulties of choosing the right evaluation method for a large, complex industrialsystem; not only do different evaluation methods tell us different things at different levels of detail, but they also require very different competencies from the persons who perform the evaluation.
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| 3. |
- Berlin, Cecilia, 1981
(författare)
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On the Development of a Time-Sensitive Ergonomics Evaluation Method
- 2007
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Ingår i: 39th annual conference of the Nordic Ergonomics Society NES 2007 Conference CD. ; , s. 119-
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract As part of a research project with focus on ergonomics evaluation, a video-observation study of manual car assembly work was carried out. Rather than presenting the study results as hard data for further development, this paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using 'static' evaluation methods to rate and acknowledge accumulated physical load. In the study, RULA was used at five-second intervals as an unbiased discrete evaluation method with no specifically selected ‘target’ postures. The paper aims to discuss the scope of what a new time-sensitive method needs to accomplish, in order to be ready for the capabilities of dynamic human simulation.
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| 4. |
- Berlin, Cecilia, 1981
(författare)
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PRODUCTION ERGONOMICS EVALUATION - NEEDS, PROCEDURES AND DIGITAL HUMAN MODELING TOOLS
- 2009
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In production systems, human operators may be at risk for developing work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), resulting in pain, inability to work and high costs. An increasingly capable tool for identifying MSD risks early in the production design process are Digital Human Models (DHMs), although their built-in analysis tools are in great need of development regarding how they address time-related aspects of load exposure. Time-related exposure phenomena provoking MSDs are e.g. repetitive work patterns, lack of variation, fatigue effects, work enlargement effects, and distributions of activity/rest. The aim of this thesis is therefore two-fold; to explore pragmatic industrial needs regarding ergonomics evaluation and compare this to the State-of-the-art of scientific evaluation methods that address time-related aspects. The first approach, a case study in an automotive setting, revealed that switching from one evaluation method to another in a factory may be for pragmatic contextual reasons rather than based on educated selection. It was also shown that companies who do this may unintentionally risk producing evaluation results that are not equal regarding criteria levels or degree of analysis detail, rendering results difficult to use for some actors in the process.The second approach, a literature review, categorizes several time-related ergonomics terms and has proposed a ‘process-flow’ framework for the terms, based on an input-throughput-output concept. This framework can give DHM tool developers an overview of which time-related aspects interact and which combinations are suited to different analysis goals. Lastly, the thesis reflects on actor roles and time perspectives.
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| 5. |
- Berlin, Cecilia, 1981
(författare)
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Production Ergonomics Evaluation – Needs, Procedures and Digital Human Modeling Tools
- 2009
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In production systems, human operators may be at risk for developing work-relatedmusculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), resulting in pain, inability to work and high costs. Anincreasingly capable tool for identifying MSD risks early in the production designprocess are Digital Human Models (DHMs), although their built-in analysis tools are ingreat need of development regarding how they address time-related aspects of loadexposure. Some examples of time-related exposure phenomena provoking MSDs arerepetitive work patterns, lack of variation, fatigue effects, work rotation effects, anddistributions of activity/rest. The aim of this thesis is therefore two-fold; to explorepragmatic industrial needs regarding ergonomics evaluation and compare this to theState-of-the-art of scientific evaluation methods that address time-related aspects.The first approach, a case study in an automotive setting, revealed that switching fromone evaluation method to another in a factory may be for pragmatic contextual reasonsrather than based on educated selection. It was also shown that companies who do thismay unintentionally risk producing evaluation results that are not equal regardingcriteria levels or degree of analysis detail, rendering results unsatisfactory to use forsome actors in the process.The second approach, a literature review, categorizes several time-related ergonomicsterms and has proposed a ‘process-flow’ framework for the terms, based on an inputthroughput-output concept. This framework can give DHM tool developers an overviewof which time-related aspects interact and which combinations are suited to differentanalysis goals.Lastly, the thesis reflects on actor roles and time perspectives.
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| 6. |
- Berlin, Cecilia, 1981, et al.
(författare)
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SIMTER: a Multi-Aspect Virtual Production System Evaluation Tool.
- 2009
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the XLth Conference of the Association of Canadian Ergonomists, September 14-17, 2009.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Production systems consist of complex combinations of human-and-machine interactions, material flows, energy transitions and workflows. Additionally, production enterprises are challenged with handling the environmental impacts and societal effects of their processes – including workplace ergonomics. One way of testing different system solutions quickly, early and at low cost (or consequence) is to use computer-based simulation. This paper introduces the production simulation tool SIMTER, which allows users to build a 3D animated model of a human-machine work system and explore the output consequences of different Levels of Automation (ranging from letting tasks be performed by either a human worker, a human worker using a range of tools, or an automated machine). The SIMTER tool facilitates concurrent assessment of Ergonomics, Automation Levels and Environmental Impacts. Development work to date has shown that combining these factors is technically feasible and potentially very useful for integrating ergonomics into design processes.
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| 7. |
- Högberg, Dan, et al.
(författare)
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Towards Dynamic Ergonomics Analysis of Work Sequences in Virtual Environments
- 2007
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (2007 FAIM), Philadelphia, USA, June 2007. - 9781427620927 - 142762092X ; , s. 581-588
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Computer aided visualization and simulation enables early assessment of important design parameters of future products and production systems. Typically, humans affect the system performance, and in order to achieve the expected system efficiency ergonomics needs to be considered in the design process in addition to the more technical or logistical matters. Hence, there is a call for ergonomics to be a natural part of the product and production system design process, also at virtual stages. This paper portrays and discusses two cases where company-specific ergonomics guidelines were implemented into digital human modeling systems for performing static work analyses. Albeit useful, the approach of evaluating static postures gives a reduced picture of the actual situation since the work usually involves a series of movements and tasks. A recently commenced research project aims to enhance knowledge on how to estimate accumulated ergonomic load over time. This knowledge is eventually to be implemented in DHM tools to support objective ergonomics analysis of complete work sequences in virtual environments.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Lind, Salla, et al.
(författare)
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Linking ergonomics simulation to production process development
- 2008
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Ingår i: 2008 Winter Simulation Conference, WSC 2008; Miami, FL; United States; 7 December 2008 through 10 December 2008. - 0891-7736. - 9781424427086 ; , s. 1968-1973
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Production development can conflict with productionergonomics and management of environmental impacts. Inthis paper, we describe how ergonomics can be assessed inproduction system design by means of a joint simulationtool. The tool enables ergonomics and environmentalimpacts assessment in conjunction with production processdevelopment. The ergonomics sub-tool is based on adigital human model, which has been improved byintroducing an updated data measurement system andneural network processing and inference functionality. Theresults will extend the new simulation modellingcapabilities of the existing digital human model byincreasing the motion prediction accuracy and providingfreedom to model a multitude of task-related motions in arealistic way.
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| 10. |
- Lämkull, Dan, 1966, et al.
(författare)
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DHM - Evaluation Tools.
- 2008
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Ingår i: Handbook of Digital Human Modeling: Research for Applied Ergonomics and Human Factors Engineering (Human Factors & Ergonomics). Vincent. G. Duffy (Ed.). Taylor & Francis, CRC Press.. - 0805856463
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This chapter will only briefly describe the most commonly used evaluation tools for physical work loads, body postures, reach abilities and fields of vision integrated in different Digital Human Modelling Software (DHMS). We try to do so in a way that is neither too specific to any particular DHMS nor so generic that all evaluation tools, more or less integrated in DHMS, are covered. The continuation of this chapter is structured according to the different tool sets that are available in the most commercial DHMS. We have chosen to divide the tool sets into three groups: 1) Quantitative evaluation tools, 2) Semi-quantitative tools and 3) Tools for discomfort, anthropometry, human performance and cognition. The main focus of this chapter is addressed to group one (quantitative evaluation tools), whereas group two and three are less extensive.
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