The Impact of Ergonomics

Ergonomists offer services to organizations. The goal of their work is to provide safety and health at work in combination with a sound human performance. However, the impact of ergonomics efforts is not always as good as ergonomists and human factors specialists want. This chapter aims to support these specialists in their work. Starting with the developments in ergonomics from its two basis backgrounds, it focuses on the benefits of ergonomics for companies and workers. An example of an approach, performed at large scale, illustrates how the impact of ergonomics can be illustrated. The chapter continues with a view on education and training of skills and competencies, and with a note on certification. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

[1]  Elwyn Edwards,et al.  The Human Operator in Process Control , 1974 .

[2]  P Macaskill,et al.  Global burden of disease and injury due to occupational factors. , 1999, Epidemiology.

[3]  Maurice Oxenburgh,et al.  Increasing Productivity and Profit through Health and Safety: The Financial Returns from a Safe Working Environment , 2004 .

[4]  Tapas Ray,et al.  Synthesis and recommendations of the economic evaluation of OHS interventions at the company level conference. , 2005, Journal of safety research.

[5]  Michiel de Looze,et al.  Meeting diversity in ergonomics. , 2006, Applied ergonomics.

[6]  Ernst A P Koningsveld Participation for understanding: an interactive method. , 2005, Journal of safety research.

[7]  Glen Gallaway An Operational and Marketing Infrastructure for the Human Factors and Ergonomics Professions – a Call to Action , 2007 .

[8]  W. Patrick Neumann,et al.  The Strategic Business Value of Ergonomics**Parts of this chapter have been previously published in Dul and Neumann [38] and Neumann and Dul [24]. , 2007 .

[9]  Barry Kirwan,et al.  A Guide to Practical Human Reliability Assessment , 1994 .

[10]  L. Groenesteijn,et al.  Changing from batch to flow assembly in the production of emergency lighting devices , 2005 .

[11]  Eileen C. Shapiro Fad surfing in the boardroom : managing in the age of instant answers , 1996 .

[12]  Valentina Forastieri,et al.  IMPROVEMENT OF WORKING CONDITIONS AND ENVIRONMENT IN THE INFORMAL SECTOR THROUGH SAFETY & HEALTH MEASURES , 2000 .

[13]  W. Karwowski An Outline of Ergonomics, or the Science of Work Based upon the Truths Drawn from the Science of Nature* , 2006 .