Case Study on "Human Factors Engineering"

Case Study 10 pages (3285 words) Sources: 10

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Human Factors Engineering

There is no doubt that the proposed changes Dr. Bill plans are indeed necessary if the company is to survive in the 21st century business world. There are, however, several human factors engineering concerns that will have to be taken into account before such sweeping changes are made. Indeed, it is possible that some of these changes could lead to potential difficulties and even disasters, which would defeat the purpose of becoming a more profitable company.

The first and most pertinent issue to take into account is the remodeling of the office area and the addition of hi-tech machines. Ergonomic studies have proven that employees who work at computerized work stations for long periods of time can develop certain physical ailments. Such ailments might have the effect of impacting upon the ability of such employees to devote their time and energy to work. In more severe circumstances, these employees may even require time off to recover from their conditions and to more effectively function in the workplace again.

WISHA (2002) suggests that workplace injuries are a severe enough problem to merit close attention, especially in the light of Dr. Bill's plan to create more burden for employees in order to make the company more profitable. This will create a condition in which the remaining workers will be required to adapt to an environment in which they will have more duties than they are used to, which can lead to injury. According to WISHA, statistics have shown that medical and time loss costs for injuries sustained by office workers have amounted to more than $12 million per year to State Fund employers and 70,000 lost work days per year. This is a severe loss and could heavily impact upon the ultimate goal to make the company more profitable.

To prevent this, Dr. Bill should take into account two aspects of the situation: periods of required rest between periods of work and the ergonomic impact of new furniture installed for employees who will spend a large amount of time at their computers. WISHA (2002) suggests that Dr. Bill should start the ergonomics process as soon as possible when refurnishing the office. When new machines are purchased, they should be set up in such a way to create the least physical strain for employees. For employees who will be working at computers or other technical equipment, physical considerations such as eye strain, neck and back strain, as well as wrist strain should be taken into account.

There are three types of analysis that Dr. Bill should perform to prevent the potential pitfalls of the new work environment for employees and by association for the company as a whole: Workstation Analysis, Environmental Analysis, and Organizational Analysis.

Workstation Analysis will focus on the physical components of each individual workstation, taking account of ergonomic factors such as monitor and keyboard position, work surfaces, and chair adjustments. Each worker should be stationed at an adjustable workstation so that these factors can be adjusted for each individual to minimize the possibility of ergonomic injury. Environmental Analysis will reveal factors such as lighting, glare, temperature, humidity and noise, which can influence a worker's experience and ability to function at an optimal level.

Finally, a thorough Organizational Analysis will have to be conducted to reveal how much of staff can be legitimately removed while retaining optimal employee performance. Such an analysis should focus on factors such as employees' ability to adjust to heavier workloads, keeping in mind that most of them are accustomed to a certain level of work. Great care should be exercised not to burden them to an extent where lost work hours and injury claims would in fact result in poorer financial performance for the company rather than the greater profitability being aimed for. Policies should be adjusted to make the work transition for remaining employees as smooth as possible.

3)

Even more than the computer work stations, physically intense tasks such as those required by the tensile tester will have to be fully investigated and redesigned. The main flaw in this system is the unnatural way in which the tester strains the bodies of workers, with tall people required to stretch and bend low, while short people have to stretch up.

In terms of potential injury, this could lead to muscle strain for both short and tall people, all of whom experience some form of strain when working with the machine. This, in turn, can lead to a significant loss of work hours and workplace injury claims. Currently, the system is highly ineffective, since it is neither ergonomically effective for either tall or short people.

According to Advameg, Inc. (2012), a muscle strain is also referred to as a pull, which is generally caused by repetitive motion or an imbalance in a set of muscles. This can be better understood when it is recognized that most joints in the human body operate by means of a muscle pair functioning together. The extensor provides an extension or straightening ability to the joint, while the flexor permits bending. The knee is an example of a joint that functions in this way. When a tall person then has to bend down to load the bottom of the tensile tester, this could cause injuries and strain to the knees, shoulders, and elbows. When stretching up to load the top of the machine, short people's joints can also be overextended in these same areas.

The machine and its placement are not designed for ergonomic optimization. As part of the Dr. Bill's environmental analysis, it would be a good idea to give this some particular attention. The first important factor is that the machine is not optimally placed for any of the workers -- either the short or tall workers. It is mounted on a bench, so that short workers need to stand on a box and stretch up. Tall workers, in turn, need to stretch down to reach the lower parts of the machine. There are several ways to approach this.

In the short-term, one solution is to restructure the work division in such a way that only tall people work to load the top of the machine, while only short people work to load the lower parts of the machine. In this way, less strain will be incurred by both sets of workers. Alternatively, the height of the bench can be adjusted to be more ergonomically reachable for both short and tall workers.

In the long-term, the best solution is probably to purchase a more modernized machine. Most machines and technology that require long-term worker interaction to function today are designed according to ergonomic principles, as a result of new research revealing that such designs result in lower levels of employee injury.

Another alternative is to purchase an automatic machine for this type of testing, where minimal or no effort is required on the part of employees. This would also free the time of those employees to devote to other tasks, further reducing the number of employees to perform tasks and increasing the potential for company profits.

Dr. Bill should therefore carefully consider the pros and cons of both long- and short-term solutions when making decisions that relate to timelines for the appropriate changes. This should carefully coincide with the planned downsizing in the workforce of the company to prevent additional muscle injuries to existing and remaining employees.

6)

Workload is one of the most important components of the workplace that Dr. Bill will have to face when making the changes to his company. An important consideration in this is the different types of load that employees may experience. Those employees who have reported fatigue, for example, are not physically overburdened with work, but might experience their burden keenly in a psychological sense (Overgaard, Gyntelberg, and Heitmann, 2004, p. 35). Psychological job demands, for example, might include job components that affect the psychological experience of work, such as pace of work, time pressure, speed in work, attention and concentration. This is influenced by a person's decision latitude, which means the ability to control or influence work activities. The way in which a person works can have important psychological consequences, for example. While the workers in Dr. Bill's company may therefore not be physically overburdened with work, psychological factors such as a perceived lack of control over their environment and work, could lead to stress factors and a resulting experience of fatigue.

This has an important influence on the concepts of underburden and overburden. Underburdening employees can have consequences that are equally severe to excessive overburden. Underburden could mean that employees feel their talents and abilities are being underutilized, creating a discrepancy between what employees believe they can do and the demands of the tasks that they are assigned. This discrepancy may then lead to a sense of non-fulfillment in the job environment. This could have psychological impacts such as mental and psychological fatigue.

Psychological loading can also result from stress factors that are unrelated to the workload… READ MORE

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