Over the last twenty years, there has been a host of literature and several studies on participatory ergonomics. In our view, this situation stems from at least three reasons. There was a change in society and in organizations promoting participation. On the other hand, as was proven ergonomically, we realized that the experts were too few to overcome the problems encountered in the workplace.
Finally, we realized through experience that in order to implement ergonomics, the solutions should be suitable for a technical perspective but also be compatible with corporate culture. Hence, the idea of developing solutions with the participation of actors in the business took root.
Ergonomics is "the scientific study of the relationship between man and the means, methods and work environments" and applying this knowledge to the design of systems "that can be used with maximum comfort, safety and efficacy by the greatest number"
For Pierre Cazamian, ergonomics is" the multidisciplinary study of human work that attempts to discover the laws to enforce the rules "It is therefore for the ergonomist to contribute to changing work situations not only in terms of material conditions but also taking into account all the socio-organizational aspects.
The policy areas of ergonomics:-
The workstation: The ergonomist will pay particular attention to the configuration and size of the workstation, the relationship or interdependence between the workstations to the media and elements of information, means of communication, etc.
The physical environment: These deal with physical elements of the environment such as lighting, noise, heating, as well as the design and organization of work areas.
The physical exertion: We can cite as examples the posture, the weight of objects, frequency, etc.
The temporal organization: A study of the organization of time, types of hours and cycles, the rates are increasingly taken into account to predict the reliability of the Man/Machine system.Ergonomics is intended to focus on the structural design of working time to research the best possible compromise in relation to biological rhythm timed operators.
Mental workload: It's about understanding the constraints of time, assembly line work, catching up to do to take into account the complexity of the work activity, the level of attention required, the importance of risk, etc.
The content of the work: For the ergonomist, this domain includes study of differences and implications of work required to perform (task) compared to how operators actually meet the requirements of this limitation (real activity). This is a central point: understanding the actual work activity is at the heart of the ergonomic action.
Work organization: The different forms of work organization correspond to certain concepts of man, instead it is determined, the content and conditions of employment. On all these issues, ergonomics is to understand the work to help transform it.
Ergonomics is a tool for decision support to make available specific knowledge and operational reality of work, to develop recommendations to make the choices necessary for the technical, organizational, human and social aspects of work.
Tags: Participatory Ergonomics, Forms of Labor Organization, Content and Conditions of Labor
[...] has been associated in participative management. The quality circle became a way to improve employee satisfaction. Workers' participation in the creation of small groups in the course of human factors has been encouraged both by the development of automation and the emergence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). In the case of automation, participation is a means of dealing with the dissatisfaction of workers by involving them in changes to redesign their work "job redesign" (Imada, 1991b). In the case of TMS, participation has also proved to be a strategy to promote the implementation of faster technological and organizational changes, and more training in "ergonomic" diagnosis and problem solving (Gardell, 1997; Lawler, 1986; Noro and Imada, 1991). [...]
[...] - Page 597 by Peter Vink, Ernst A. P. [...]
[...] The article presented by Anneli Leppänen reported action research conducted in two Finnish plants of the paper industry. For fifteen years this industry has undergone major changes to automate the production process. Therefore it became essential that all operators who work on a machine and monitor the process using computer devices are able to recognize signs of dysfunction (and functioning), speculate about the state of the process and introduce appropriate actions. They must also communicate their observations and decisions to group members who ensure the smooth running of the production process continuously. [...]
[...] A participatory ergonomics approach necessarily involves relations between the ergonomics committees established as a part of the process and various other actors in the wider workplace, such as the school management and the union if any, supervisors workshops, groups of workers, targeted units and even other units, etc . Without being directly integrated into the entire process, these actors are sometimes arrested, solicited or affected by the implementation of the approach and the changes it proposes or brings to the conditions and work organization. It is in this context that the questions of the indirect impacts of participatory ergonomics intervene. Indicative Bibliography by Oboulo: - Human factors in organizational design and management-VI: . [...]
[...] During the intervention, the population of workers will also be kept informed of the sequences of work. Communication patterns vary across interventions, and include posters, information booths, information submitted at regular meetings of the health and safety committee and so on. In addition, during the intervention, a major role is given to the postal workers studied. The elements of the process are aimed at involving the postal workers analyzed. The job analysis is usually initiated by interviews with workers in the targeted position. [...]
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