Design and Ergonomics. Methods for Integrating Ergonomics at Hand Tool Design Stage

Abstract

As a marked increase in the number of musculoskeletal disorders was noted in many industrialized countries and more specifically in companies that require the use of hand tools, the French National Research and Safety Institute (INRS) launched in 1999 a research project on the topic of integrating ergonomics into hand tool design, and more particularly to a design of a boning knife. After a brief recall of the difficulties of integrating ergonomics at the design stage, the present paper shows how 3 design methodological tools--Functional Analysis, Quality Function Deployment and TRIZ--have been applied to the design of a boning knife. Implementation of these tools enabled us to demonstrate the extent to which they are capable of responding to the difficulties of integrating ergonomics into product design.

Design for human safety in manufacturing systems: applications of design theories, methodologies, tools and techniques

“…The large number of designs for human safety studies covering a wide variety of topics (Duijne et al 2007;Tricot 2009a, 2009b;Hasan et al 2003;Houssin and Coulibaly 2011;Marsot and Claudon 2004;Sadeghi et al 2013aSadeghi et al , 2013b makes it difficult for stakeholders to obtain a comprehensive overview of this field. Hence, a systematic review of previous studies is paramount for facilitating sharing useful research findings and identifying future trends in DfHS research.…”

“…In the following, a brief description of these researches is given. Marsot and Claudon (2004) proposed an approach based on TRIZ, functional analysis (FA) and quality function deployment (QFD) to integrate ergonomics in design. They proposed to use TRIZ to solve house of quality-highlighted compromises between certain functional parameters and ergonomic criteria.…”

“…As explained in Section 3, Marsot and Claudon (2004) proposed an approach based on TRIZ, FA and QFD to integrate ergonomics in design. They believe that FA allows ergonomists to take part in drafting specifications for the product to be designed and to formalise ergonomics-related expectations.…”

“…As mentioned in Section 3.1, Marsot and Claudon (2004) proposed an approach based on TRIZ, i.e. FA and QFD, to integrate ergonomics in design.…”

Hand tool handle design based on hand measurements

“…Tool handle design research has been previously limited to the determination of the diameters of cylindrical handles to increase performance and comfort for reducing the chances of CTD (i.e., blisters, inflamed skin, cramped muscles, etc.) [1][2][3][4]. Many studies have researched the topic of tool handle design to define the optimal size and shape of a tool handle.…”