Ergonomists’ and Engineers’ Views on the Utility of Virtual Human Factors Tools

Pérez, Juan Ignacio Asensio; Neumann, Patrick

doi:10.1002/hfm.20541

Cited by 32 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Previous studies showed that simulation tools are efficient at covering all categories of indicators such as organizational, economic, and technical factors. They allow the maintainability stakeholders to integrate human factors very early in the design process (De Leon et al, 2012;Perez & Neumann, 2010). Our findings showed that the collaborative aspect of simulation tools for HFE is less frequently considered as a way to achieve the compromises between stakeholders and various requests of the design, which suggests that the simulation tools were not sufficiently exploited.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Integration of human factors into the design process of helicopter maintainability

Bernard

Zare

Sagot

et al. 2019

Hum Ftrs & Erg Mfg Svc

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The integration of human factors and ergonomics (HFE) in maintenance activities may improve the working conditions of maintenance operators by reducing errors and accidents. Maintainability takes into account HFE in the aeronautics industry to anticipate the design of the aircrafts, following the CPA regulation FAR/CS-25.1309, for large transport category. For the helicopter field, there are no official recommendations but the rotorcraft industry tries to integrate HFE into its design phases of maintainability to increase flight safety. Without a standard framework, the aviation industries (plane and helicopter) develop their own way of working and requirements. Furthermore, previous studies highlight the lack of compromise between the design and HFE criteria in maintainability. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to investigate how HFE is integrated within all steps of the design process in the maintainability department of helicopter manufacturers in France. The ergonomic skills and knowledge of stakeholders were studied and the associated tools to evaluate the HFE criteria were surveyed. We observed that maintainability stakeholders underutilize powerful simulation tools, which are sufficient for and efficient at performing HFE analysis. Additionally, it was reported that understanding of HFE information weakened over the course of the milestones of the design project progressed. Our conclusion details the need to provide a simple methodology or rather a relevant tool that helps maintainability stakeholders to integrate HFE in a homogenous way along all the design project milestones. K E Y W O R D Saviation, ergonomics, human factors, integration design process, maintainability, maintenance

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Integration of human factors into the design process of helicopter maintainability

Bernard

Zare

Sagot

et al. 2019

Hum Ftrs & Erg Mfg Svc

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show abstract

“…Finally, while DHM platforms have advanced substantially in recent years, the software still lacks an ability to efficiently simulate “the human variability component” inherent to human movement and work (Perez & Neumann, 2015). Many times, requests from the safety committee could not be simulated because of limitations of the underlying capabilities of the computationally intensive, mathematical predictions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Human Modeling in the Occupational Safety and Health Process: An Application in Manufacturing

Schall

Fethke

Roemig

2018

IISE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors

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Occupational Applications Digital human modeling (DHM) and simulation software has been identified as an effective tool for evaluating work tasks and design alternatives without requiring the expense of physical mock-ups and production trials. Despite recent commercial advancements and a broader availability of DHM platforms, the peer-reviewed scientific literature lacks sufficient demonstration of the application of DHM software within an occupational safety and health process for mitigating exposures to physical risk factors in a real work environment. We describe the implementation of a commercially-available DHM platform as a component of an occupational safety and health process in a manufacturing environment over the course of one year. Success stories, challenges, and practical recommendations are discussed.

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“…The virtual human factors (VHF) subset of HF tools, as highlighted by Perez and Neumann (2015), are capable of design level reviews. VHF tools include predetermined motion time systems (PMTS), discrete event simulation (DES), digital human models (DHMs), and virtual reality (VR) (Perez and Neumann, 2015). VR tools require expensive equipment and digital or physical mock-ups of the work environment to interact with.…”

Section: Development Of Worktation Level Metricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing human factors metrics and tools to support design and management of production

Greig¹

2023

Preprint

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This dissertation takes an exploratory look at the role of human factors (HF) metrics within an electronics manufacturing organization by focussing on three objectives: 1) determining company stakeholder views of HF metrics, metrics development and HF application, 2) developing a workstation level HF assessment tool for light assembly work, and 3) creating a tool that reports the level of HF integration and maturity in an organization. Mixed methods were used in an action research framework. Research at the case organization was predominantly qualitative and included field notes, audio recordings, and company documents. Identified gaps between engineering and HF metrics were due to HF metrics focussed more on health and safety measures and activities being completed, gaps in the understanding of HF contributions, and the need for new HF tools to generate reporting measures. Five identified themes affecting HF metrics development included 1) knowledge of engineer processes and of HF principles, 2) connection of metrics to the organization, 3) support of the organization and of the information to the organization, 4) resource availability and limitations, and 5) communication format of metrics information. Collaborative user-centered development of a workstation efficiency evaluator tool helped determine data of interest and effective communication of output variables for users. Design stage inputs create outputs that include HF and system information. The tool performed well in a comparison to an observation-based analysis and also demonstrated tolerance to input errors on workstation outcomes. The developed Human Factors Integration Tool assesses HF maturity across organizational functions. Face and content validity of the tool were tested in field testing and workshops. Participants communicated a need for the tool and its contents. Industry stakeholders found the consensus-based tool helped to establish the status of HF in the organization, plan projects to further develop HF capabilities, and initiate discussions on HF for performance and well-being. The created tools demonstrated approaches to the development of future HF tools. These dissertation findings illustrate the need for more HF metric work, including developing HF measures that contribute to organization metrics, and that the development of HF measures and processes need HF considerations in their development.

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Ergonomists’ and Engineers’ Views on the Utility of Virtual Human Factors Tools

Cited by 32 publications

References 53 publications

Integration of human factors into the design process of helicopter maintainability

Integration of human factors into the design process of helicopter maintainability

Digital Human Modeling in the Occupational Safety and Health Process: An Application in Manufacturing

Developing human factors metrics and tools to support design and management of production

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