Ergonomics for beginners : a quick reference guide

1 Introduction 1 What is ergonomics? 1 What is an ergonomist? 2 Social significance of ergonomics 3 General and individual ergonomics 4 2 Posture and movement 5 Biomechanical, physiological and anthropometric background 5 Biomechanical background 6 Physiological background 9 Anthropometric background 11 Posture 12 Sitting 13 Standing 20 Change of posture 22 Hand and arm postures 24 Movement 28 Lifting 29 Carrying 36 Pulling and pushing 38 Summary checklist 41 3 Information and operation 44 The user 45 Information 46 Visual information 46 Characters 46 Diagrams 50 Perception of visual information 51 Hearing 52 Other senses 53 Controls 54 Distinguishing between controls 55 Types of controls 57 Relationship between information and operation 61 Expectation 62 User-friendliness 64 Different forms of dialogue 68 Help 71 Summary checklist 72 4 Environmental factors 74 Noise 74 Guidelines on noise 75 Noise reduction at source 76 Noise reduction through workplace design, and work organization 77 Hearing conservation 79 Vibration 80 Guidelines on vibration 81 Preventing vibration 82 Illumination 83 Guidelines on light intensity 84 Guidelines on brightness differences 85 Improved lighting 85 Climate 88 Guidelines on thermal comfort 88 Guidelines on heat and cold 90 Climate control 90 Chemical substances 91 Guidelines on chemical substances 92 Measures taken at source 93 Ventilation 95 vi Contents Measures at the individual level 97 Summary checklist 99 5 Work organization, jobs and tasks 102 Tasks 102 Jobs 103 Work organization 106 Flexible forms of organizations 106 Autonomous groups 107 Coaching management styles 108 Summary checklist 110 6 The ergonomic approach 111 Project management 112 Initiative phase 114 Problem identification phase 116 Selection of solutions phase 118 Implementation phase 120 Evaluation phase 122 Checklist 123 Summary checklist 124 7 Sources of additional information 133 Bibliography 133 General references 133 References on posture and movement 134 References on information and operation 134 References on environmental factors 135 References on work organization 135 References on the ergonomic approach 136 Scientific and professional journals 136 Useful websites 137