6  Work Design, Methods, and Human Factors

Week 6 Planned, awaiting draft

ImportantLearning objectives (tentative)

By the end of this week you should be able to:

1. Analyze a manual task and propose an improved method.
2. Identify ergonomic risk factors in a workstation.

NoteComing soon

These lecture notes will be written from the instructor’s Week 6 draft. The topics below are a working outline.

6.1 Planned topics

• Methods engineering and standard time
• Ergonomics and workplace safety
• Human factors and error-proof design

NoteKey terms in this chapter

• Ergonomics — The science of designing jobs, tools, and workplaces to fit human capabilities and limitations; also called human factors engineering.
• Human factors — The study of how people interact with systems, used to design work that is safe, comfortable, and resistant to error.
• Standard time — The time a qualified worker needs to complete a task at a normal pace, including allowances for personal needs, fatigue, and delays.