A tool for early workstation design for small and medium enterprises evaluated in five cases

Abstract

Five case studies on production line design were described to study the effect of an early design support tool. Based on these case studies, the simple, interactive, real-time, medium-fidelity, mixed-reality methodology was not only found to be a good early design stage evaluative tool for ergonomics and workflow, but a teaching tool as well. Despite some drawbacks, such as limited accuracy, mixed-reality simulation appears to be a good compromise between cost and fidelity, especially for small to mediumsized manufacturing enterprises, and gives important information on the layout focused on high efficiency and healthy postures. C 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Participatory ergonomics simulation of hospital work systems: The influence of simulation media on simulation outcome

“…Some studies actually refer to the concept of fidelity as influencing discussions among participants (Persson et al, 2014), being important in different design phases (Watkins et al, 2008) and being 'good enough' (Hallbeck et al, 2010). However, the connection between the fidelity and the actual identified ergonomics conditions has not been analyzed or defined.…”

“…Existing studies on full-scale mock-ups and table-top based models show little consideration in regards to the form of the simulation outcomes, whether being directly applicable in design or challenges to take into account. Few studies define tangible design criteria (Hignett et al, 2010;Villeneuve et al, 2007;Watkins et al, 2008) and assess conditions (Daniellou et al, 2014;Hallbeck et al, 2010;Paquet and Lin, 2003;Ruohomäki, 2003). However, the development of these design criteria and assessment of the conditions are not analyzed in relation to the media fidelity and affordance.…”

“…Physical simulation media such as mock-ups and prototypes are applied for assessing work posture (Sundin et al, 2004), muscular discomfort (Paquet and Lin, 2003), physical layout and spatial conditions (Broberg et al, 2011;Steinfeld, 2004;Watkins et al, 2008). Computer based simulation media such as 3D computer animation and mixed reality have been applied for assessing muscular fatigue (Hallbeck et al, 2010;Perez et al, 2014), repetitive work and critical work sequences (Sundin and Medbo, 2003;Sundin et al, 2004).…”

“…The variation in ergonomics conditions indicates that different media support identification and assessment of different ergonomics conditions, which is a common reflection point in the literature (Hallbeck et al, 2010;Paquet and Lin, 2003;Steinfeld, 2004;Sundin and Medbo, 2003;Watkins et al, 2008). In addition, some studies indicate that the media have certain attributes, but these are not reflected upon in relation to the ergonomics conditions or problems actually possible to identify by applying the media.…”

“…In addition, some studies indicate that the media have certain attributes, but these are not reflected upon in relation to the ergonomics conditions or problems actually possible to identify by applying the media. The media attributes indicated are the ability of the media to represent the reality (Hallbeck et al, 2010;Steinfeld, 2004;Watkins et al, 2008) and the possible actions the media support (Broberg et al, 2011;Steinfeld, 2004). Within the interaction design field, these attributes are recognized as fidelity (Hall, 2001;Lim et al, 2008) and affordance (Norman, 2002;Turner, 2005).…”