This panel is composed of researchers from private industry, academia and NIOSH, who are currently involved with ergonomics research in the supermarket industry. Presenters summarize their research efforts and discuss key ergonomics challenges present in the supermarket industry today.
Ergonomics is not a panacea. Ergonomics focuses first on fitting the job to the worker, then on fitting the worker into the job. The appropriate application of ergonomic principles, while keeping in mind the individual differences among workers, will lead to improvement in the health and safety of any occupational setting. Perhaps the real significance of ergonomic programs is best considered in light of the possible alternatives. These words from Weiner (1950), also cited by Christensen (1987), sum up the problem of taking a narrow, short term view of the workplace, and the consequences of failing to actively strive for improved ergonomic working conditions: It is a degradation to a human being to chain him to an oar and use him as a source of power; but it is an almost equal degradation to assign him purely repetitive tasks in a factory, which demand less than a millionth of his brainpower. But it is simpler to organize a factory or galley which uses individual human being for a trivial fraction of their worth than it is to provide a world in which they can grow to their full stature (Weiner, 1950).
This panel is composed of individuals from retail, ergonomic consulting firms, equipment manufacturers and NIOSH, who are currently involved with ergonomics efforts in the retail food industry. Presenters summarize their ergonomics efforts and discuss key challenges in the industry today.
Three individuals on the panel have participated in the formation and functioning of the Food Marketing Institute Ergonomics Task Force; the retailer on the panel has benefitted from the recommendations of the task force. The panelists will discuss lessons learned from the task force activity both for the retail food industry and for individual stores.
This paper describes the role played by Human Factors in providing ergonomic added value to IBM customers in the retail point-of-sale area. Serving primarily in a consulting role, Human Factors assists the retail customer in the areas of cashier workstation analysis and redesign, field evaluation of equipment, employee training, on-line interface design, and education in other ergonomic-related topics. Human Factors expertise in task analysis, anthropometry, experimental design, and data analysis, combined with engineering tools such as computer-aided design, has proved to be much desired among retailers. The added value perceived by the retailer from the services and expertise provided by Human Factors is matched by the benefits perceived by Human Factors from its increased knowledge and experience in the retail area.
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