MALVIN ROIX M.

ORENSE IE 415
IE – 4101 ERGONOMICS

What is ergonomics?

Ergonomics is the science of designing jobs, products, work tasks, and work environments
suitable for involved users based on their physical capabilities and energy limitations. According
to the International Ergonomics Association, this discipline evaluates and analyzes the interactions
between people and other elements involved in a system through a combination of either study,
research, and experimentation. It then incorporates various theories, principles, and approaches in
order to come up with solutions designed to optimize the well-being of users as well as the overall
efficiency and productivity of the entire system. Moreover, ergonomics can also minimize or
reduce costs associated with risk factors that can produce work-related injuries or illnesses. It
covers a wide range of scientific disciplines, including physiology, biomechanics, psychology,
anthropometry, industrial hygiene, and kinesiology.

What are the different domains of ergonomics? Briefly discuss each.

The International Ergonomics Association enumerates three broad domains of ergonomics,

namely, physical ergonomics, cognitive ergonomics, and organizational ergonomics.

Physical ergonomics studies the anatomical, anthropometric, physiological and

biomechanical characteristics of work demands and how each of these characteristics have a
potential effect on the performance of the human body. This has the most dominant public view
on ergonomics and tackles on issues relating to working postures, materials handling, repetitive
movements, work related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), workplace layout, safety and health.

Cognitive ergonomics is the ergonomics of mental processes. This domain is concerned

with perception, memory, reasoning, and motor response, and tries to balance these human
cognitive abilities with machines, tasks, and working environments. Cognitive ergonomics
analyzes the entire system in terms of mental workload, skilled performance, human-computer
interaction, human reliability, work stress, and training.

Organizational ergonomics is ergonomics on a larger scale that focuses on optimizing

socio-technical systems and organizing structures, policies and processes in order to maximize
efficiency. It also includes the study of technology’s consequences on human relationships,
processes, and institutions. It aims to attain a fully harmonized work system that ensures employee
job satisfaction and commitment. This domain addresses more subjective areas of the workplace
such as crew resources and management, work schedule design, teamwork, and participatory
design.

Discuss the development of ergonomics.

Ergonomics started its roots since the beginning of human evolution. Early humans began
to make simple tools from selected pieces of stone, pebbles, bones, and wood that are of “good-
to-fit” to make their primitive tasks such as hunting and gathering food easier. Archaeological
findings have soon revealed tools, household equipment, and other manmade devices manifesting
sophisticated ergonomic principles that date as far back as the ancient civilizations in Egypt and
Greece.
The discipline began to be understood and studied around the 16th century when Bernardino
Ramazzini, an Italian physician, wrote about work related complaints that he saw in his medical
practice. His medical journal “De Morbis Artificum” (Diseases of Workers) portrayed various
injuries incurred by his patients which resulted from unfavorable conditions in their occupations
and workspaces.
The term “ergonomics” was first used in 1857 by Wojciech Jastrzebowski of Poland in his
philosophical narrative “The Outline of Ergonomics, or the Science of Work, based on the Truths
Taken from the Natural Science.”
In the early 18th century, the production of industry was still largely dependent on human
power/motion. Frederick W. Taylor pioneered the process of ergonomics with the help of scientific
management by evaluating the best and easier ways of accomplishing a task and eventually
succeeded in improving worker productivity. The Gilbreths standardized materials, work
processes and tools and began motion and time study to make jobs more efficient and less tiring.
Ergonomics soon became involved during World War II in the design of military systems
like naval ships, aircraft and weaponry. Highly sophisticated controls in airplane cockpits were
redesigned into more easily differential controls with more logical control placement so that best-
trained pilots were able to fully operate complex aircrafts with precision.
The broad study of ergonomics continues up to modern time and is included in the works
of industrial engineers, industrial psychologists, occupational medicine physicians, industrial
hygienists, and safety engineers.
Ergonomics is about designing for people.
Defined as the science of fitting a workplace to the user’s needs, ergonomics aims to increase
efficiency and productivity and reduce discomfort.
“Ergonomics is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among
humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data
and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance.”
International Ergonomics Association
Practitioners of ergonomics and ergonomists contribute to the design and evaluation of tasks,
jobs, products, environments and systems in order to make them compatible with the needs,
abilities and limitations of people.
Designing jobs, equipment, and work tasks to fit human physical characteristics and energy
limitations
It considers body dimensions, mobility, and the body’s stress behavior
More specifically, ergonomics is the science of designing the job to fit the worker, rather than
physically forcing the worker’s body to fit the job.

Physical ergonomics deals with the physical load on the human body when performing activities like work,
sports, jobs at home or dealing with products
Physical Ergonomics
Physical ergonomics is concerned with human anatomical, anthropometric, physiological and
biomechanical characteristics as they relate to physical activity. (Relevant topics include
working postures, materials handling, repetitive movements, work related musculoskeletal
disorders, workplace layout, safety and health.)
Cognitive ergonomics is the ergonomics of mental processes. This domain is concerned
with perception, memory, reasoning, and motor response, and tries to balance these human
cognitive abilities with machines, tasks, and working environments. Cognitive ergonomics
analyzes the entire system in terms of mental workload, skilled performance, human-computer
interaction, human reliability, work stress, and training.
Cognitive ergonomics is concerned with mental processes, such as perception, memory,
reasoning, and motor response, as they affect interactions among humans and other elements of a
system. (Relevant topics include mental workload, decision-making, skilled performance,
human-computer interaction, human reliability, work stress and training as these may relate to
human-system design.)
Cognitive ergonomics is essentially ergonomics of mental processes. The focus is creating a
balance between human cognitive abilities and limitations, and the machine, task, and
environment. Thus cognitive ergonomics addresses issues like perception, reasoning, memory,
and motor response, as they relate to interacting with a given system. The cognitive ergonomist
analyzes the work environment in the following domains:

• Mental workload
• Skilled performance
• Human-computer interaction
• Human reliability
• Work stress
 • Training
Organizational ergonomics is ergonomics on a larger scale that focuses on optimizing socio-
technical systems and organizing structures, policies and processes in order to maximize
efficiency. It also includes the study of technology’s consequences on human relationships,
processes, and institutions. It aims to attain a fully harmonized work system that ensures employee
job satisfaction and commitment. This domain addresses more subjective areas of the workplace
such as crew resources and management, work schedule design, teamwork, and participatory
design.

Organizational Ergonomics
Organizational ergonomics is concerned with the optimization of sociotechnical systems,
including their organizational structures, policies, and processes. (Relevant topics include
communication, crew resource management, work design, design of working times, teamwork,
participatory design, community ergonomics, cooperative work, new work paradigms, virtual
organizations, telework, and quality management.)

organizational ergonomics focuses on optimizing socio-technical systems and organizing

structures, policies and processes in order to maximize efficiency.