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European Journal of Social Sciences * Volume 5, Number I (2007)
Productivity and Ergonomics: A Strong Relationship Leading to
Best \Morking Results
George Generalis
Meliora Consulting, I A. Frantzi st., Athens 11745, Greece
E-mail: drgg@vivodinet. gr
John Mylonakis
10 Nikiforou str., Glyfada, 166 75 Athens, Greece
E-mail : imylonakis@panafonet. gr
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to research the concepts of productivity and ergonomics and
to analyze the effecVimpact of ergonomics on human productivity and moreover on total
productivity. Increase in productivity should be one of the primary goals of a business
today. Without a high level of productivity, an organization cannot be successful today.
Therefore, it is appropiate, that increased attention should be given to productivity
improvement. In a comprehensive literature survey more than 50 different techniques of
productivity improvement were cataloged. These are classified as a) technology-based, b)
employee-based, c) product-based, d) task-based and e) material-based techniques.
Ergonomics is a part of the task-based techniques.
Keywords: Productivity, Ergonomics, Human Factors, Work-place Design
JEL Classification No: L220, L250
1. Literature Review
Ergonomics and Productivity have been considered as buzz words the past few years. Most of the
companies have been trying to get a higher productivity level in order for them to stand tall in today's
competitive market. However, the term "productivity" and 'oergonomics" are not always used in the
right context. In this part the literature about the concepts of productivity, ergonomics and their
relationship is presented.
Producfivity .;
A number of researchers have worked on the area of productivity and tried to give an adequate
definition to the term. The first time the word "productivity" was mentioned was in an article by
Quesney in the year 1766.In 1950, the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC)
gave a formal definition of productivity. " Productivity is the quotient by dividing output by one of the
factors of production." According to Sumanth (1984), productivity is concerned with the effective and
efficient utilization of resources (inputs) in producing goods andlor services (output). Sumanth
presented three basic types of productivity:
o PartialProductivity:
The ratio of output to one class of
output to capital input.
o Total Factor Productivity:
input. For example: capital productivity is the ration of
The ratio of net ou@ut to the sum of associated labor and capital inputs.
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European Journal of Social Sciences - Volume 5, Number I (2007)
Total Productivity:
The ratio of total tangible output to the total tangible input factors.
Total tangible output : value of finished units produced + value of partial units produced +
dividends from securities * interest from bonds * other income.
Total tangible input: value of (human * material + fixed + capital * working capital + energy
* other expenses) inputs used.
Total tangible output
Total Productivity : ------------
Total tangible input
Ergonomics
Webster's dictionary defines ergonomics as "an applied science concerned with designing and
arranging things people use so that that the people and things interact most efficiently and safely."
Meister (1976) defined ergonomics as the study of how humans accomplish work-related tasks
in the context of human-machine system operation and behavioral variables affect that accomplished.
Ergonomics is also the application of behavioral principles to the design, development, testing, and
operation of equipment and systems.
Stephen Pheasant (1986) presented the following definition of ergonomics. Ergonomics is the
application of scientific information about human beings (and scientific methods of acquiring such
information) to the problems of design, and Ergonomics is the scientific foundation, both in terms of
data and methodology, for a user-centered approach to design.
Ergonomics endeavors to understand and explain which variables affect human performance at
work, and how.
2. Ergonomic Factors Affecting Productivity
As companies place greater demands on employees to remain competitive in the market, they are
going to put much more emphasis on people who work for them and give employees an environment
to make them more productive.
It is obvious that ergonomics provide the base of support for total productivity and contributes
to all aspects of design of the working environment including work-place design, organizational
factors, equipment design, and environmental conditions such as noise, light, vibration, and humidity.
All these factors have to be analyzed and optimized without neglecting any of them to achieve
maximum total productivity. If one of these factors is out of harmony in a place, the result is usually
increased employee stress, high turnover rates, absenteeism, human error, and decreased total
productivity.
Ergonomic factors affecting total productivity:
(1) Work-place design
(3) Man-MachineTotalProductivity
(4) Equipment & Hand Tool Design
(5) Organizational Factors
The main ergonomic factors that affect productivity are presented below. Some examples from
studies will be given to show their direct impact on total productivity.
Work-Place Design
Without a person, the output value of a system is zero.
must be designed to fit the capabilities, preferences, Since it depends upon the human, work place
and physical limitations of workers. Human
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European Journal of Social Sciences - Volume 5, Numberl (2007)
anthropometric dimensions, kinesiological mobility, and human capabilities are very important factors
in work-place design.
According to David J. Oborne (1982), two factors need to be assessed. The first concerns
communication requirements, communication with colleagues and machines (mobility of the person,
and visual and auditory needs). The second relates to the person's feeling of ease and comfort with
respect to position of other people in the immediate environment. Also, Tarek Khalil (1976) pointed
out that design of individualized work-stations results in reductions in work stress and enhances
human productivity.
Ayoub (1993) gave the general principles for work-place design:
(1) Avoid static work.
(2) Avoid extreme position ofjoints.
(3) Avoid overloading of the muscular system.
(4) Aim at best mechanical advantage.
(5) Avoid unnatural postures.
(6) Maintaining a proper sitting posture.
(7) Permit change of posture.
(8) Allow the small operator to reach and the large operator to fit.
(9) Train the operator to use the physical facility.
(10) Match job demands and operator capacity.
Teel conducted an ergonomic study to show how work-place design affects worker's
productivity. In his study, the work place of electronic assemblers was designed based on ergonomic
principles. Using a redesigned console, the time taken by each operator to complete a task was reduced
by 64% with 75 fewer erors.
Communication between the employer and his colleagues or machine has been considered as a
part of physical requirements in the work place. Selection of display and control types and their
affangement can directly affect system productivity. Movement, visibility, and auditory considerations
have to be taken into account in comrirunication system design. Guidelines can be used to determine
the best control or display type and their location in work place.
Poor work-place design can lead to non-physiological postures. As a result, common health
problems such as fatigue, eyestrain, and backache occur, and create non-productive timekeeping by
workers. Of course, output level will be diminished because of these problems. According to
Sweetland {1982),low back injuries annually cost United States approximately $4.6 billion in lost
wages and worker's compensation payments.
Sometimes, satisfactory productivity levels can be achieved by simple changes. It has been
noticed that an ergonomically correct chair can help the workers to increase their output levels,
because much of worker's time is spent sitting doing work.
Environmental Factor
Since environmental conditions can cause physical and physiological problems and affect workers'
performance, they must be audited to improve total productivity. It is evident that workers can face
many potential hazards while performing their work. In many cases, the body attempts to adjust in
hazardous conditions. If exposure limits are exceeded, workers' output level will be diminished and
their health & safety will be jeopardized. Exposure limits for environmental factors such as heat,
noise, dust, fumes, gases, toxic substances etc. are set and enforced. Standards will be useful to
evaluate how existing conditions can be harmful to workers and system. Training of workers,
monitoring the work area or the worker, biological monitoring of workers, and using personal
protective equipment can give good results as administrative control methods. The best method is to
eliminate all hazardous environmental factors in work places.
Several researchers have shown that environmental conditions can affect workers'
productivity, efficiency, and safety. The studies that show a decrease in performance in noise use one
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European Journal of Social Sciences - Volume 5, Number I (2007)
of two types of task - either a vigilance task or memory task. Broadbent (1954) asked the subjects to
monitor twenty gauges for 1.5 hours. If they saw any of the pointers reading above the danger mark,
they were required to turn a knob below the gauge to bring the pointer back to the mark. This was
carried out under 100 dB and 70 dB noise levels, and the results indicated that the subjects'
performance was impaired in the noisy relative to the quiet conditions.
According to Fox (1971), under the right conditions background music was beneficial. Thus
subjects increased their perforrnance in the laboratory while different industrial studies showed
reductions in errors, poor timekeeping, stuff turnover & accidents, and increases in output and
production quality.
Illumination levels for many different types of work are suggested. Contrast and glare levels
are important in a lighting system. The ten-person Operations Group at Control Data's Sunnyvale,
California facility was experiencing screen glare caused by inadequate lighting. E. A. Wareham (1990)
mentioned an example to show the importance of a lighting system on productivity. In many places,
the lighting system has been designed for Pre-VDT activities, i.e. traditional "white paper tasks".
Whenever the conditions changed in work places, the lighting system affects workers' performance.
The company saved $7,300 a year by using a new lighting system which drastically reduced screen
glare. Also, the value of output increased S28,000 ayear, meaning that the operating and maintenance
costs, savings, plus increase in output level, resulted in a simple payback on investment in five
months. Also, a new lighting system leads to a variety of benefits, including enhanced employee
morale, fewer absences and improved safety & security. Given error reduction associated with the
beffer lighting, more that three hours of downtime were eliminated, saving the company an additional
$200,000 annually, for an overall benefit of more than $235,000.
Equipment & Hand Tool Design
The operator & hand tool system has three major components: (a) the worker, (b) the tool, (c) and the
task. The interactions between task, equipment & hand tool, and worker which include displays,
controls, work surfaces, and body supports, are also very important.
Selection of a control or a display depends on the type of job, operation, task, work layout, and
the worker. This selection becomes very important for productivity, safety and the reduction of human
errors. Guidelines and recommendations for controls and displays are widely available. As an example
of the need to design a control system effectively to fit the user, Sumanth (1984) discuses a study in
which he compared the efficiency of an old and redesigned speed control for an industrial sewing
machine. The new design incorporated relatively simple changes in the machine - control dlmamics.
Efficiency and productivity were increased and the capital cost of the new control was recovered in
less than three years.
The overall goal of ergonomists should be to optimize the relationship between the worker the
equipment and hand tool. The design and usage of ergonomically correct hand tool & equipment can
alleviate common health problems. The findings.of surveys conducted by Mital (1984) showed that in
the U.S., hand tool injuries account for 9 per cerit of all industrial injuries and cost approximately $10
billion annually. Especially, anthropometric measures of human body are reference points to start the
design of equipment & hand tool.
Organizational Factors
Organizational factors that can affect total productivity are the following: (a) number of working days
per week, (b) number of shifts per day and (c) work rest schedules within each shift. Management's
approach to the personnel's problem, and the relationship between the management and employee can
be given as additional organizational factor. It has been noticed that some modifications in
organizational factors can affect the total productivity from ergonomics' viewpoint.
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European Journal of Social Sciences - Volume 5, Numberl (2007)
Work shift is a tool to utilize expensive plant and equipment. But researchers Shipley (1980)
and Dunham (1978) have noted that work shift can have an effect on physical health, on social
relationship, and on productivity. Dunham, for example, pointed out that shift workers make more
effors and produce less. He also noticed that error rates are reduced after they adapted in 4-14 days.
When organizational factors related to work shift are considered, ergonomic information has to be
taken into account such as physical and physiological adaptation periods to different situations, heart
rate and oxygen consumption. Determination of rest periods can be very important, because it will
affect workers' safety and moral. Job variety, job autonomy, job enrichment, and job enlargement can
be effective tools in increasing total productivity as long as managers think about ergonomic factors in
decision making.
3. The Relationship Between Ergonomics and Productivity
There is an increasing interest to apply ergonomic principles in productivity improvement programs.
Basic principle of ergonomics "Fit the job to the man" has been accepted as the best approach to solve
all kinds of problems in the industry. It has been noticed that productivity improvement can be
achieved by using principles of ergonomics. This chapter deals with the importance of ergonomics in
productivity improvement. Some examples will be given to describe the relationship between
ergonomics and productivity.
Ergonomics Aspect of Productivity
Ergonomics have been applied in a wide variety of areas, including the following: (a) job design, (b)
work-station design, (c) product design, (d) environmental factors, (e) ergonomics equipment and (f)
software. Also, researchers and practitioners cover all aspects of ergonomics. Even though there are
some paradoxical findings of studies about the direct relationship between ergonomics and
productivity, it can be claimed that satisfactory productivity improvement is possible when principles
of ergonomics have been applied in design and production phase of a product and during the service
time. Even though ergonomics has clear effects on labor partial productivity, proposed ergonomics
activities may be disregarded because of some disadvantages which come from ergonomics' nature.
For example, if somebody wants to determine the change in total productivity, he/she will calculate
total productivity values by plugging tangible output and input values in the formula presented in
chapter 2 of this study. According to the calculation, the benefits of ergonomics would not be noticed
well enough. Some benefits of ergonomics are in intangible forms. According to Leo Smith and James
Smith (1982), increased productivity can be a good justification to convince managers to apply
ergonomics principles. Also, they give reduced cost of non-productive time and improved quality of
work life as other justification bases. It can be noticed that the reduction in non-productive time could
be achieved by using ergonomic principles and this will lead to increased productivity levels.
Non-productive times occur because of poor design of work place or equipment provided,
incompatible communication systems between "machine and man) inadequate environmental
conditions such as illumination, vibration, temperature etc. Design based on ergonomic principles is
the key factor to eliminate these difficulties, and it will lead to reduce non-productive time.
Ergonomics: Costs and Rewards
Chapanis (1965) point out that a full cost-benefit equation is extremely difficult to device. Since many
factors, some of them "invisible" are involved when assessing the value of a system as: the cost of
pollution, selection, accidents etc. According to Chapanis, the value of all goods and services
produced by the system, and the values which accrue from any incidental or 'spin-off products should
be included on the benefit side of the equation. Chapanis includes equipment costs, cost replacement
or the maintenance of parts, operating costs, the cost ofjob aids, auxiliary equipment and manuals, of
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European Journal of Social Sciences - Volume 5, Number I (2007)
personnel selection, of training, of salaries and wages, of accidents, erors and breakages or wastage,
and social costs of implementing the system (for example, the long term costs of pollution) should be
included on the cost side of the equation. Chapanis' cost-benefit equation could be useful; to
determine the value of total productivity.
According to Sumanth's Total Productivity equation which was presented before, the value of
finished units produced, of partial units produced, of dividends from securities, of interest from bonds,
and other income should be added in total tangible output equation. On the other hand, all cost factors
which Chapanis determined should be added in total tangible input equation.
All calculations should be made for the systems which are designed with ergonomic, and
without ergonomic principles. The difference between the two total productivity values could be
helpful for making a decision.
Another important point in calculation phase is the time period which is used to evaluate total
productivity change or total productivity in that given period. There is generally a time lag between
the implementation of the new technique and the actual realization of the gain in total productivity.
For ergonomic projects, this time lag could be very long.
Accident Costs
It must be recognized that accidents occur because of interaction between the environment and the
individual. in the fast changing world that we live in, ergonomic principles in the design phase are
very important tools to prevent everybody from possible accidents. There is a couple examples that
can be given to show the importance of accident prevention system based on ergonomic principles
such us Chemobyl and Three Mile island. As the systems become more complex, the designers should
be careful about human capabilities.
The effect of accident prevention systems on total productivity management can be calculated
by using the equations given below:
let,
ATPir : Actual change of total productivity of product r between two successive time
periods, t-l andt.
AOit-: Actual change of tangible ou@ut of product r between two successive time
periods, t-1 and t.
AI1:4.*ul change of tangible input of product r. between two successive time
periods, t-l andt.
ATPit: TPit - TPtt-r
ATPit: Ott / Iit - Oit-r / Iit-r
AOit-: Oit - Oit-r
AI1:11-I1-1
If ATPit > 0, the company should decide to implement the new system based on a projected increase in
totalproductivity. ..
4. Conclusions
With this paper it was shown that there is a strong relationship between Ergonomics and Total
Productivity. In many cases, the usage of ergonomic principles appears to have a positive effect (i.e.
increase) in total productivity value. Moreover, design based on ergonomic principles can lead to
increase in total tangible output level and decrease in total tangible input by giving comfort and
increasing the moral of the workers.
The purpose of this paper was to provide detailed knowledge about the cost benefit of
ergonomic projects. The examples discussed show clearly an increase in total productivity and
decrease of cost.
59
E"r`フθα刀及″“α′
″'Sθ θJα′Sbjθ κc“ ―ンbル“ι,Aり“bθr′ ρθθ
η
One ofthe linlitations ofthis research paper is that it is based on experilnental studies that took
place approximately 20 years ago.■ is clear that more research needs to be done in order to veritt the
effect of crgonomics on total product市 ity.Maybe a control expe五 ment can bc perf01..led in ordcr to
mcasure the effect of noise,or maybe the effect of■ o■―
ergonomic chair to the partial or even total
productivities. By perfoHning a controlled experiinent a modei nlight be developed calculating the
`loss'of Total Producti宙 ty duc to a speciic ictor and maybe guide the company/organization to the
corrcct direction in order to makc solne changes and improve the i「 otal Productivity.
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