Kodak's Ergonomic Design for People at Work

It is probably fair to say that the original Kodak textbook has become something of a bible for practitioners in design, engineering and occupational health. Written for a non-specialist audience with the aim of improving human performance on the job, this is one of the closest things to a genuine handbook (by which I mean a practical how-to-do-it guide) offered by the field of ergonomics. The updated edition brings together the two original volumes into one tome and updates the content to reflect the shifting nature of the discipline over the last 20 years. So we see the introduction of more psychological factors, human reliability methods and wider issues of work design, in order to present a more balanced picture of ergonomics than the primarily physical focus of the original. This aim has been achieved with greater and lesser degrees of success. The book comprises eight weighty chapters (for a 700-page volume, these are very detailed chapters!) covering the spread of ergonomics, plus an appendix of case studies. Chapter 1 sets the discipline in context, discussing the development of ergonomics, principles of user-centred design (including tables of anthropometric data) and national and international standards related to ergonomics. Chapter 2, Evaluation of Job Demands, covers methods and analysis for subjective and objective assessment of both physical and mental workload – though with an emphasis on the former, including much information on biomechanics. Workplace design, the topic of chapter 3, gives what might be described as the classical picture of ergonomics, with anthropometric requirements of workstation layout, visual dimensions and wider guidelines for floors, ramps and stairs. This is followed by related material in chapter 4 on equipment design, which is also predominantly physical, but now we begin to see some of the more psychological issues emerge, such as the design of controls and displays, feedback and compatibility. Nevertheless, at this point the discussion is largely restricted to perceptual effects. Chapter 5 more specifically moves away from the physical factors to discuss human reliability analysis (concepts, methods and measures) and the fallibility of information transfer (i.e. communication) between human and machine (with an emphasis on warnings, coding and labels). A further departure from physical ergonomics is presented in chapter 6 on work design, which is an effort to bring in the macroergonomic perspective, including organisational and occupational stress factors, such as fatigue and shift work. Finally, chapters 7 and 8 return to the roots of the original text to cover manual handling and environmental design respectively. Undeniably, it has the potential to be an invaluable text for practitioners, as it sets out to be, and no doubt many such practitioners who pick up the text looking for a ready reference on ergonomic design issues will not be disappointed. From that point of view it very much ‘does what it says on the tin’ and conforms to common stereotypes of ergonomic design. However, therein lies the main drawback with the text for me, it does not deliver a balanced view of the psychological domain of ergonomics, retaining the original focus on physical ergonomics. Perhaps I am biased since my own focus of research is concerned with psychological issues, but it is a stated aim of the second edition to cover the evolution of the field of ergonomics and omitting major developments in cognitive ergonomics is a shortcoming. One need only view the case studies in the appendix to see the bias towards the physical issues. Furthermore, the coverage of macroergonomics, which in chapter 1 is described as having equal weight along a continuum of ergonomic interventions, really only scratches the surface, avoiding any detailed discussion of organisational psychology in favour of an in-depth treatment of shift work and fatigue. Again, this reverts to type and focuses on physical factors such as workrelated musculoskeletal disorders. Where the psychological material is present, it is more about perceptual factors than informationprocessing issues (notwithstanding a very brief treatment of mental workload measures). Moreover, the guidance associated with such factors feels less specific and more qualitative than the parallel material on physical factors, which more often than not presents hard quantitative data – but that probably reflects the nature of the sub-discipline more than any neglect by the authors. My final, minor criticism relates to the organisation of the material. In some areas (both physical and Ergonomics Vol. 52, No. 6, June 2009, 756–757