SPONSORED RESEARCH
The Center is also the vehicle through which knowledge transfer can occur. Knowledge transfer occurs between the many stakeholders in the ergonomics community and the Center. For example, when partnering with the scientific community, the Center will assimilate, support, and generate new methods for data collection and analysis. With industry, trade associations, and employee advocates, the Center will provide a conduit through which answers may be obtained to technically difficult questions.
The Center's ability to assimilate new data collection techniques, equipment, and processes into the research lab to meet the needs of our clients is an asset. Our purpose is to provide answers to the technically difficult questions that are asked about the manner in which people interact and react to products and processes.
The research component of the Center is continuously assessing the current problems facing our stakeholders. As the Center meets the needs of our members in other areas, this flow of information is continuously streaming through our Ergonomic Services and Membership outreaches.
Case Study: Office Ergonomics Literature Review
Background
A client requested that the Center review the ergonomics literature pertaining to five specific areas in the office environment and generate a "white paper" to document current research and standards. Ergonomic recommendations regarding these components of the office environment are not found in any one study or current book making assimilation of data and recommendations difficult for the layman.
The purpose of this project was to review and summarize available ergonomics literature, specific to five key areas in office ergonomics and produce a document highlighting current research and outlining standards for these areas in the office environment:
- Video Display Terminals (VDTs)
- Input Devices (including keyboards and mice)
- Chairs
- Lighting
- Breaks
Approach
The scope of the project involved the following activities:
- Strategy development, keyword brainstorming, search design and planning
- Primary searching of databases, list reduction, identification of central articles
- Collection of central articles
- Review of central articles
- Secondary searches and collection of additional literature
- Research synthesis
- Development of the white paper
- Internal white paper review
The literature search made use of research databases and searching capabilities of the Center. It was expected that the search list would be reduced to approximately 20 central articles in each of the five areas. A maximum of approximately 40 central articles in each of the five areas would be reviewed for the development of the white paper.
The white paper would include a summarization of the findings of the literature such that recommendations for office environment layouts and setups could be made including, but not limited to, ranges of adjustability and positions of individuals relative to their environment and office equipment.
Summary of Findings
These five target areas constitute the foundation of the physical office environment. The prevalence of ergonomics research concerning these target areas emphasizes the importance of these office components. However, simple ergonomic recommendations regarding these components are not found in any one study. Just as it is difficult to identify an object from a series of detailed photographs, it is difficult to identify ergonomic solutions from a series of specialized research studies. The large quantities of ergonomics literature taken individually generate a confusing and sometimes contradictory view of office ergonomics solutions. When considered together, certain trends and solutions emerge in the literature. The paper has been crafted to alleviate confusion by presenting a unified view of current office ergonomics literature.
It was noted in the white paper that the work of researchers is far from complete. The trends and solutions presented were only preliminary resolutions of current office ergonomic issues. It was also noted that future research must be continually synthesized and the important findings added to the models presented in the paper for the work to remain viable. An explanation of scientific terms and methodologies was included to help readers assess the quality of future research and interpret future research results.
Case Study: Aging and Hand Tool Design
Background
The American population is undergoing a profound change; within the next ten years the first of the baby boomers will turn 65. It is expected that number of Americans age 65 and older will more than double to over 70 million by 2030. At that point, the entire country will have the concentration of older people now found in the State of Florida. Baby boomers are expected to push off retirement or start second careers maintaining active and meaningful lives into their later years.
The research, which is the basis for many workplace design principles and concepts, has often been conducted with students or workers in the traditional range of 20-50 years of age. Some research even limits subjects to a young or middle age bracket, because researchers do not want their results confounded by age. As a result, it has become important to study and understand the work-related capabilities and limitations of people in their 50's, 60's, and 70's, so that work can be designed in a way that promotes the health, well-being, and productivity of this important and growing segment of the workforce.
Understanding the ability of the older individual to meet physical task demands requires an understanding of age-related physiological changes associated with the anatomical structures that perform the work. Age-related changes occur in bony structures (affecting range of motion and stiffness) and soft tissues (ligaments and tendons undergo changes in elasticity, residual deformation, and energy dissipation (Ashton-Miller & Schultz, 1997)).
A client (whose workforce's average age will exceed 50 years old next year) posed the specific question: are there commercially available tools or approaches that we can use to benefit our aging workforce?
Approach
An experiment is underway to test commercially available hand tool benefits for older workers. Subjects will perform three simple tasks using the hand tools. Subject recruitment is designed to target individuals aged 18 to 70 years old. Subjective assessment of use preference will be collected along with objective measures including muscle activity data from five muscles (in the upper back, arm, forearm and hand) using surface electromyography and wrist kinematics using electrogoniometers.
|
