Ergonomics Notes

Chapters 1 & 2:

Defining Ergonomics:

Ergonomics: the design of the work, workplace, work environment and tools
to match the physical, physiological, and mental capabilities of the worker to
provide a safe and productive workplace
o A discipline that studies human capabilities and performance
capacities and applies this information in designing products, tools and
equipment
The central focus is the consideration of human beings in the design of
objects, machinery and environments
The objectives are to increase the effectiveness of the resulting human-
system while maintaining human well-being
The central approach is the systematic application of available data on
human characteristics to the design of such systems or procedures
Applications of HF&E
o Aerospace: cockpit design
o Aging: Designing cell phones for different age groups
o Health care: patient handling
o Usability: user-friendly interface design
o Product design: conventional vs ergonomic valve wrench
o Surface transportation: road signs
o Office designs: office ergonomics

Injuries:
Direct Cost:
o Medical Costs
o Physical therapy
o Continuation of pay
Indirect Cost (multiple of direct cost)
o Lost time by injured employee
o Lost time by fellow workers and supervisors
o Loss of efficiency of system
o Overtime/Overhead
o Economic loss to injured workers family
o Cost of advertising for new worker
o Cost of training new worker
o Loss of efficiency in new worker
o Damage to tools/equipment
o Increase in worker compensation and insurance
 o Legal fees and settlements
o OSHA and civil fines
Revenue Required to offset injury cost
o Total Cost = Direct Cost + Indirect Cost
RevenueExpenditure
o Profit Margin = Expenditure
Total Cost
o Increase in revenue required = Profit margin

Reasons for implementing an ergonomic project

Its the right thing to do

OSHA
Improve productivity
Improve quality
Improve labor relationships
Attract quality workers
Retain quality workers
Improve safety and health
Reduce medical and compensation costs
Improves companys image
Improved marketing
Sett program to other companies

Selling the idea to Management:

For any ergonomic program to be successful, management must be involved

Justifying Ergonomics Projects:
o Productivity increase: should be limited to cost reduction or
increase in output/profit
o Social Responsibility: This could span from a range from appeals to
the social consciousness of the firm to their legal responsibilities
Presentation to management must consider both the human and business
side
o Background: ergonomics, current conditions in the organization
associated risks for injury
o Define business objectives and ergonomic objectives; explaining
how they are tied together.
o Propose applications/interviews
o Results of applications in other facilities
o Results of similar applications in current organization
o Pilot studies
 Chapters 3:
Muscles
Skeletal muscles are of most concern to an ergonomist
Muscle contract to generate forces and cause movement
Muscles are composed of bundled muscle fibers
o The larger the muscle (cross-section), the larger the forces that can be
applied with it
o Muscle are composed of tubular muscle cells (myofibers)
o Muscle cells are composed of repeating sections of sarcomeres
o Sarcomeres are composed of long chains of proteins called filaments:
Thick filaments (myosin)
Thin filaments (actin)
Muscles generates mechanical work by converting chemical energy into
mechanical energy

Length-Force Relationship:
At 1, the sarcomere is overly contracted at rest.
There is a high degree of overlap between the
Myosin and actin. Muscle contraction causes the
actin filaments to slide over one another and the
ends of the myosin filamesnts against the 2 disks

At 2, as the resting muscle length increases more

cross-bridges cycling occurs when muscles are to
contract. The resulting tension increases, max
tension is produced at 100-120% of the resting
length of the muscle

By increasing length beyond the optimum, the actin filaments

become pulled away from the myosin filaments and from each other. At 3, there is
little interaction between the filaments, very few cross-bridges can form. Less
tension is found when the filaments are pulled too far from one another as seen in
4, they no longer interact and no tension results

Metabolism:
Metabolism: the chemical process of conversion of food into mechanical work and
heat

ATP Formation:

1. The initial source of energy (3-5s) for muscle contraction is ATP (adenoise
triphosphate)

ATP ADP+ P+ Free energy
2. More ATP is regenerated by creatine phosphate (lasts 5 seconds)

Creatine Phosphate + ADP Creatine + ATP
3. After depletion of creatin phosphate, blood glucose or glycogen is mobilized
and then converted through various stages into pyruvic acid
4. Further breakdown of pyruvic acid may take 2 possible routes
a. Anaerobic work: if sufficient O2 is supplied to the muscle, the pyruvic
acid is broken down into water and CO 2 releasing large amounts of ATP

C6 H 12 O6 +38 P+38 ADP +6 O2 6 CO 2+ 44 H 2 O+38 ATP

b. Aerobic Work: under insufficient O2 supply, pyruvic acid is converyed

into lactic acid when ATP is regenerated

C6 H 12 O 6 +2 P+2 ADP 2lactate +2 ATP

Metabolism Calculations:
Kcal: measure of energy requirements for physical activity

Basal Metabolism: the minimum steady energy considered to maintain

involuntary avtion

1700 Kcal/day for men

1400 kcal/day for women

Digestive Metabolism = 0.10(Basal + Activity)

Total Metabolism = Basal + Activity + Digestive

Energy Cost of Work:

With increasing physical work:
o Energy demands increase
o O2 consumption increases
o Breathing rate increases
o Heart rate increases
o Vascular activity increases
o Blood pressure increases
o Increased heat production causing sweat to dissipate
O2 Consumption and Heart Rate
o O2 consumption and heart rate are the indices most often used to
measure physical strain on the body
o Resting heart rate is averaged between 60 and 85
o With increasing physical work, HR rises to meet O 2 demand
o Estimated max HR = 220 Age
 o The linear relationship between O2 consumption and HR has been
demonstrated in laboratory and field studies
Therefore, O2 uptake can be estimated from recorded HR with +-
15% error
Maximal Aerobic Power (MAP)
o Highest O2 uptake an individual can attain during exercise (L/min)
Good measure of physical fitness
Young untrained male: 3.5L.min
Male rowers: 6 L/min
o Its a function of the energy available to the person in the form of food,
O2, and the sum of energy provided by the aerobic and anaerobic
process
o Working at more than 30-40% of ones MAP in an 8 hours shift causes
notable fatigue
o For every liter of O2 consumed, there is an average of 4.8 kcal of
energy used
o Daily energy expenditure due to a specific activities is the sum of the
product of the energy spent on each activity and the energy costs of
work for that activity, summed across all all activities
o For men the max time weighted average of
5 kcal/min for energy consumtion
100 beats/min for HR
1.04 L/min of O2
o For women,
4 kcal/min
90 beats/min
0.83 L/min for O2 consumption

Describing Body Positions/Locations

Body Planes
o Sagittal (left and right halves XZ plane)
o Frontal (Front and back halves YZ plane)
o Transverse (Upper and Lower halves XY plane)
Anatomical Directions
o Superior (toward the top)
o Inferior (towards the bottom)
o Anterior (towards to front)
o Posterior (towards the rear)
o Medial (toward the medium)
o Lateral (towards the outside)
o Proximal (close to the body)
o Distal (further from the body)
Other terms used
o Flexion (decreasing the angle between two bones)
o Extension (increasing angle between two bones)
o Abduction (moving laterally away from the mid-body)
o Adduction (moving laterally towards the mid-body)
 o Rotation
o Pronation (face down)
o Supination (face-up)

Manual Material Handling

MMH refers to a variety of techniques related to manually moving objects

Factors affecting MMH capacity

o Worker Characteristics
Age
Sex
Motivation
Physique
o Task Characteristics
Reach requirements
Frequency of holding
Duration
o Material Characteristics
Weight
Bulkiness
Load distribution
Handles
o Work Organization
Work-rest cycle
Training
Jon rotation
NIOSH Lifting Equation
o Lifting index (LI) is a ratio of Recommended weight limit (RWL) and
weight actually lifted (L)
LI = L/RWL
Under ideal conditions RWL = 23 kg
An LI that is:
<=1 is good
1<LI<=3 shows potential issues
L>3 eliminate or revise the task
RWL = LC x HM x VM x DM x AM x FM x CM
LC = Load constant
o 23 kg or 51 lbs
HC= horizontal constant
o HM = 25/H if in cm or 10/H in inches
H is the distance between center of the load
and midpoint between ankles
25<= H < 63 (acceptable limites)
VM = vertical constant
o VM = 1-(.003 |V-75|) in cm or 1 (.0075 |V-
30|)
 o V distance between first knuckle of middle finger
when holding the load and the floor
o 0<V<175 cm
DM = distance multiplier
o D = vertical travel distance of the load
o DM = 0.82 + 4.5/D (cm) or .82 + 1.8/D
(inches)
o 25<D<175
AM = asymmetric multiplier
o AM = 1-0.0032A
o A = angle between the location of the load and the
mid-sagittal plane
o 0<A<135 degrees
FM = frequency multiplier
o Frequency is the average # of lifts in a 15-minute
interval
o 0<FM<1
o 0<F<15
CM = coupling multiplier
o Coupling is the effectiveness of the hand-
container interface
Described as good id the object allows
hands to wrap around it
Fair if object has less than optimal handles;
allows lift and bend fingers at 90 degrees
Poor if it cannot be grasped
There are situations where NIOSH cannot be used
o One handed lift
o Duration > 8 hours
o Lifting while seated
o Lifting unstable objects
o Lifting whill carrying
o High speed work >75 m/s
o Unreasonable floor/foot coupling
o Unfavorable environment
 Chapter 4:
Internal factors affecting vision

Visual acuity: sharpness of vision; ability to see details

Depth perception: ability to see depth
Near point accommodation: closest point an object can be brought in front of
the eyes without losing detail
Phorias: 2 images fused into one
Color discrimination: ability to see colors
Dark adaptation: eye adaptation for going to dark to light setting
Age: eye muscles weaken as we age
Blind spot: only an issue for people with one eye
Peripheral vision: humans have a 208 degree visual horizontal field; vertical
field of 160 degrees; color is perceived well within +- 62 degrees of the NLS
horizontally; +- 35 degrees vertically
Normal line of Sight (NLS)
o NLS is 10-15 degrees the true horizontal when standing
o When seated, NLS is 20-25 degrees lower than the horizontal

Time-weighted average (TWA)

Takes the average level of sound and the time spent in each area
 D
TWA =
16.61 log 10( )+ 90
100
ci
o D (noise exposure) = 1= 100 ( T )
i

o Ci = exposure time
8
o Ti = reference duration = 2 (( Li90)/5)

o Li = sound level of noise i

Mental workload

Psycho physiological indexrs

o Heart rate variability: related to emotional arousal, high frequency
activity has been found to decrease under conditions of acute time
pressure and emotional strain
o Electroencephalogram (EEG): measures brain electrical activity
o Critical flicker fusion: ability to react to visual stimuli
Behaivoral time sharing methods
o Dual-task performance: compare response rate and task completion of
two tasks done separately and at the same time
Subjective rating
o Nasa-TLX

Chapter 5:
Anthropometry
Design Applications
o Designers should accommodate body dimensions of the population
that will be using the equipment
Measurement devices and techniques
o Spread caliper
o Anthropometer
o Sliding caliper
o Tape
o Weight scale
Human variability
o Variability exists due to ethnic groups, gender and personnel
characteristics
o It is variability within and between groups that forces designers to
consider adjustability
Factors that affect anthropometric data
 o Age
Body size increases from birth to early/late 20s
Stature reached at a median age of 21.2 for males and 17.3 for
women
o Body Posture
Posture affects body size
Slumping is one of the major reasons for variability in height
o Clothing
o Ethnic Background
Two categories of anthropometric data
o Structural dimensions
Taken with the body in various standard and still positions
o Functional Dimensions
Taken during physical activity
Anthropometric Measures
o Stature
o Eye Height
o Knuckle Height
o Acromial height (to the top of the shoulder)
o Sitting Height (ass to the top of the head)
o Knee height sitting
o Popliteal height (sitting) : floor to the bottom of the thigh
o Elbow Rest (sitting) Ass to the bottom of the elbow
o Hip breadth (sitting)
o Elbow to elbow breadth
o Thigh Clearance (sitting)
o Arm Reach
o Chest Depth
o Head and Foot Length

Chapter 8:

Work methods design considerations:

1. Work methods that require repetitive head/arm movements must be
evaluated for work-related musculoskeletal disorders
2. Hand-operated tools and other devices must be used with the hand in the
neutral position; designed for either hand; avoid single-finger repetitive
action
3. Minimize static loading on the musculoskeletal system
4. Should not require the head and trunk to be inclined excessively either
backwards of forwards
5. Eliminate the need of using arms in an outstretched or raised position
6. Keep the arm movements within the maximum, preferably the normal work
area
 7. Arms should move along continuous and curved paths
8. Avoid having simultaneous foot and arm motions when the task requires
considerable attention
9. Arm motions are quicker and more accurate than foot motions
10.For seated posture
The hand is more powerful pronated than supinated
Pull-down forces exceed push-up forces for the hand
Push power is maximal when the 50cm in front of the body
Greatest push power with the legs is obtained when the knee angle
ranges between 140 and 160 degrees
Max bending strength is obtained at an elbow angle between 80 and
120
11.For standing posture
Pulling and pushing power are greater in the sagittal plane than in the
transverse plane
Pushing power is greater than pulling power
12.Avoid a bent or any other unnatural posture
13.Grasping force can be increased four times by changing from a fingertip
grasp to a whole-hand grasp.
14.Work requiring use of the eyes should be cariied out within the field of normal
vision
15.Momentum should be utilized to aid motions. It should be minimized if
muscular effort is required to overcome it

Job Analysis Methods:

Different methods for assessing physical stress in a job that could be harmful
to the musculoskeletal system:
o GULHEMP: Rates job applicants and jobs based on seven-categories
1. General Physique
2. Upper Extremities
3. Lower Extremities
4. Hearing
5. Eyesight
6. Mentality
7. Personality type
In each category, both the job and the applicants capacity
is rated with a number ranging between 1 (highest
demand/full capacity) and 7 (lowest demand/low capacity)
An applicant is deemed acceptable for hire if he/she is
assigned levels equal to or better than job demands
o NIOSH Lifting Equation
o Static Strength Prediction Model:
Compares the load moments produced at various body joints
during manual exertion tasks with static strength moments
obtained from tests
Predicts % of the population capable of performing the task
o OWAS
Ovako Working Posture Analysis System (OWAS) is a method for
identifying/evaluating unsuitable working postures
OWAS identifies the most common work postures for the back (4
postures), arms (3 postures), legs (7 postures), and the weight
of the load handled (3 categories)
Trunk Positions
1. Straight/Upright (neutral)
2. Bent forward (pure flexion)
3. Straight and twisted (pure axial twisting)
4. Bent and twisted
Arm Posture
1. Both arms below shoulder height
2. One arm above shoulder height
3. Both arms above shoulder height
Lower Body Posture
1. Sitting
2. Standing on 2 legs knee straight
3. Standing weight on 1 leg knees straight
4. Standing weight on 2 legs knees bent
5. Standing weight on 1 leg knee bent
6. Kneeling 1 or 2 knees touching the floor
7. Walking or moving
Load Handling:
1. LH <= 10 KG
2. 10<LH<=20 kg
3. LH > 20 kg
Observations are made as snapshots and sampling has usually
been with constant time intervals or through random
observations during the day
The degree of harmfulness of a posture-load combination is
grouped into one of four action categories:
1. Category 1 (Normal Posture): no intervention needed
2. Category 2 (Slightly Harmful): corrective action should
be taken during next regular review of work methods
3. Category 3 (Distinctly Harmful): Corrective action
should be taken ASAP
4. Category 4 (Extremely Harmful): corrective action
should be taken immediately


OWAS can be used to:
Determine if current postural demands are acceptable
Identify specific job attributes associated with awkward
postures
To compare the before and after scores at each body part
to evaluate intervention effectiveness
OWAS Weaknesses
Posture categories are rather broad for the trunk and
arms
No information on duration of postures
Method gives no information for the elbow, wrist or neck
o RULA: Rapid Upper Limb Assesment (RULA)
RULA was developed to evaluate the exposure to ergonomic
risk factors associated with upper extremity MSD
 Considers the biomechanical and postural load
requirements of the job tasks on the neck, trunk, and upper
extremities
RULA Score Interpretation:
1-2 negligible risk, no action required
3-4 low risk, change may be needed
5-6 medium risk
6+ very high
RULA procedure
Interview the worker to understand job tasks and
demands, and observed the workers movements and
posture during several working cycles
Selection of the posture is based on
1. Most difficult postures and work tasks
2. The posture sustained for the longest period of time
3. Posture where the highest force loads occur
RULA can be conducted quickly
Only one side of the body is assessed at a time
STEPS:

o REBA: Rapid Entire Body Assesment (REBA)
REBA evaluates whole body postural MSD and risk associated
with job tasks
Very similar to RULA


o WRBPD: Work-Related-Body-part discomfort Scale

Used to rate perceived discomfort at differnet areas of the
body on a body map

For each body section, the worker indicates:
The severity of discomfort from 0 to 5
Frequency of discomfort from 0 to 4
Duration of discomfort from 0 to 4
o Goniometer: uses computer-linked electrogoniometer to see
forces on the joints
o Motion Capture Analysis Systems