Brian M. Kleiner

Toward Developing an Approach for Alerting Drivers to the Direction of a Crash Threat

Objective: This study explored the potential for auditory and haptic spatial cuing approaches to alert drivers to the direction of a crash threat. Background: For an automobile equipped with multiple crash avoidance systems, effective cuing of the crash threat direction may help the driver avoid the crash. Because the driver may not be looking in the direction of a visual crash alert, nonvisual crash alerts were explored as an additional means of directing attention to a potential crash situation. Methods: In this in-traffic study, 32 drivers were asked to verbally report alert direction in the absence of any crash threats. Driver localization accuracy and response time were examined as a function of eight alert locations surrounding the vehicle and four directional alert approaches (auditory, haptic, haptic and auditory, and haptic and nondirectional auditory). The auditory directional alert approach used four speakers and broadband alert sounds, and the haptic directional alert approach used vibrations generated at various locations on the bottom of the drivers seat. Results: Overall, relative to the auditory alert approach, the three approaches that included the haptic seat alert component reduced correct localization response times by 257 ms and increased percentage correct localization from 32% to 84%. Conclusion: These results suggest that seat vibration alerts are a promising candidate for alerting drivers to the direction of a crash threat. Application: These findings should facilitate developing a multimodality integrated crash alert approach for vehicles equipped with multiple crash avoidance systems.

Macroergonomics: Work System Analysis and Design

Objective: Our goal was to briefly describe how macroergonomics was developed to fill a void in human factors and ergonomics. Background: A study commissioned by the Human Factors Society in 1978 resulted in the formalization of a new subdiscipline of human factors, called organizational design and management, which eventually was coined macroergonomics. Method: Differentiators of macroergonomics are presented along with methods adapted from other domains as well as unique methods. Results: Based on laboratory and field studies conducted at multiple universities, government facilities, and industries, work system factors can be manipulated in the laboratory and studied in the field successfully. Also, case studies in academia, industry, and government demonstrate 60% to 90% performance impact and positive qualitative changes such as culture change. Conclusion: Macroergonomics offers a perspective as well as methods and tools for more successful human factors and ergonomics design, development, intervention, and implementation. Application: Human factors engineers or psychologists and ergonomists can use the perspective of macroergonomics to achieve better results or can expand their involvement of macroergonomics through the use of methods and tools.

Design and evaluation of an inspection training programme

As a follow-up to a study of human and machine inspection of precision metal components, a training programme was designed to improve the performance of the inspectors. The methodology for task description, task analysis (including experiments), training programme design and final evaluation are presented as a case study. Improvements due to training were measured both on an individual basis and from plant-wide statistics to show the success of the programme.

Ergonomic Concerns in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems and Its Implementations

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems promise to improve the overall effectiveness of organizations through integration of all the functionalities within the organizations. Further, within the context of “managing the supply chain”, ERP systems promise to include even more coverage, in essence automating the entire Chain. This is achieved through all encompassing software. Over the last four years, success stories of ERP implementations have been few and far in between. Besides high initial start-up costs and high implementation costs, the implementation process have been problematic due to lack of due consideration to the `human’ component. Consequently, many companies have minimized their losses by abandoning their projects mid-course. This paper takes the perspective that ERP is in desperate need of ergonomic research, design and implementation to minimize the financial and human costs currently being experienced.Following your need to always fulfil the inspiration to obtain everybody is now simple. Connecting to the internet is one of the short cuts to do. There are so many sources that offer and connect us to other world condition. As one of the products to see in internet, this website becomes a very available place to look for countless global engineering manufacturing and enterprise networks sources. Yeah, sources about the books from countries in the world are provided.

An integrative framework for measuring and evaluating information management performance

Abstract With the proliferation of information technologies has come a dire need to measure and evaluate system performance comprehensively. Often, there is a delay in the technology providing an expected “return” on investment. This is due in part because setting expectations based on sensible performance criteria was never done. What is missing is a standardized hierarchy of performance criteria and measures. In this paper, a generalizable framework for understanding, measuring, and evaluating performance within an information-based management system is proposed. This framework provides the researcher with a menu of dependent variables from which to choose for scientific investigation, including developing a deeper understanding of the relationships among performance variables. For the practitioner, measures to evaluate the performance of information-based management systems are made available.

Experimental field testing of a real-time construction hazard identification and transmission technique

Hazard identification and communication are integral to most construction methods, and every construction safety management activity. Unfortunately, in practice, significant hazards are often not recognized and communicated leading to sub-optimal hazard awareness at the crew level. To bridge this gap in performance, we conducted a two-year intensive research project focused on developing a strategy that increases the proportion of hazards identified, communicated, and managed. Specifically, we designed a hazard identification and transmission (HIT) board that is used in conjunction with energy-based retrieval mnemonics and facilitates identifying and communicating hazards during both the planning and the execution phases. The strength of this strategy lies in the fact that workers are able to detect and communicate hazards in real time using energy-source mnemonic cues, which significantly reduces cognitive demand. Following development, we conducted immersive field studies to evaluate the impact of the devised strategy on two projects in the United States. Data from six crews were gathered using the rigorous multiple baseline testing experimental approach and analysis was conducted using interrupted time-series regression models. The results indicate that the crews were able to recognize and communicate only an average of 54% of hazards in the baseline phase, but were able to recognize and communicate 77% during the planning phase after using the intervention. An additional 6% of hazards were identified and communicated in the execution phase. This represents the first known formal effort to evaluate a real-time hazard identification and communication strategy for the construction industry.

Empirical evaluation of training and a work analysis tool for participatory ergonomics

Abstract A controlled laboratory experiment was performed to test the effects of ergonomics training and the NIOSH lifting equation on the participatory redesign of a simulated manual material handling job. Before performing the job, 16 subjects were given ergonomics training and 16 were instructed on how to use the NIOSH lifting equation for manual lifting tasks. Compared to a control group, subjects who received the ergonomics instruction identified and eliminated more risk factors in the simulated job. While subjects who used the NIOSH lifting equation also identified more risk factors, they did not eliminate any more risk factors than the control group. No additive benefit was found using both the training and the lifting equation over either method alone. Ergonomics training led to better improvements than use of the lifting equation in terms of risk factors identified and eliminated. Implications for use of training and tools in participatory ergonomics approaches are discussed. Relevance to industry This study supports that ergonomics training should be a requisite for any participatory ergonomics approach. Given a fundamental level of ergonomics training, subjects demonstrated that they were better capable of identifying and eliminating risk factors in the job.

Sociotechnical attributes of safe and unsafe work systems

Theoretical and practical approaches to safety based on sociotechnical systems principles place heavy emphasis on the intersections between social–organisational and technical–work process factors. Within this perspective, work system design emphasises factors such as the joint optimisation of social and technical processes, a focus on reliable human–system performance and safety metrics as design and analysis criteria, the maintenance of a realistic and consistent set of safety objectives and policies, and regular access to the expertise and input of workers. We discuss three current approaches to the analysis and design of complex sociotechnical systems: human–systems integration, macroergonomics and safety climate. Each approach emphasises key sociotechnical systems themes, and each prescribes a more holistic perspective on work systems than do traditional theories and methods. We contrast these perspectives with historical precedents such as system safety and traditional human factors and ergonomics, and describe potential future directions for their application in research and practice. Practitioner Summary: The identification of factors that can reliably distinguish between safe and unsafe work systems is an important concern for ergonomists and other safety professionals. This paper presents a variety of sociotechnical systems perspectives on intersections between social–organisational and technology–work process factors as they impact work system analysis, design and operation.

Work-Health and Safety-Risk Perceptions of Construction-Industry Stakeholders Using Photograph-Based Q Methodology

AbstractWork health and safety (WHS) on construction sites can be influenced by decisions made upstream from the construction stage. The effectiveness of WHS risk management relies on decision makers’ ability to decide appropriate strategies to mitigate/control risks. However, it is unclear whether upstream decision makers share similar WHS risk perceptions with those who undertake the construction work. This study used Q methodology to explore WHS risk perceptions of architects, engineers, construction managers, and WHS professionals. Photographs depicting different technologies/methods were used to capture professionals’ WHS risk judgments. Data were analyzed to identify the within-group and between-group similarity/difference in professionals’ WHS risk perceptions. The data-analysis result indicates the coexistence of within-group difference and similarity, as well as between-group difference and similarity in WHS risk perceptions. The research contributes to the body of knowledge by showing that WHS r...

Exploring the link between early constructor involvement in project decision-making and the efficacy of health and safety risk control

The position of the constructor in communication networks, including those before the commencement of construction, is likely related to the quality of work health and safety (WHS) outcomes realized. In order to examine the extent of this relationship, 23 cases were drawn from 10 participating construction projects in Australia and New Zealand. Social network analysis was used to mathematically and graphically model information exchanges in 13 of these cases. For each case, the quality of WHS risk control outcomes was measured. This measurement was based on an established ‘hierarchy of control’ in which risk controls are classified in descending order of effectiveness from the elimination of a hazard (the most effective) to the reliance on personal protective equipment (the least effective). Social network metrics were calculated reflecting: (1) the ratio of actual links among parties in the project network relative to the maximum number of links possible (network density); and (2) the extent to which the constructor communicated with other parties in pre-project planning and design stages (the constructors’ degree centrality). Network metrics were compared for cases in which the risk control scores were higher and lower than average. The results showed a significant difference in constructors’ pre-construction degree centrality for cases with high and low risk control scores. The results provide preliminary evidence as to the potential WHS benefits of ensuring that constructors’ knowledge about construction methods, materials, WHS risks and means of risk control, are integrated into pre-construction decision-making.