Macroergonomics, also known as organizational ergonomics, concerns itself with the interplay between sociotechnical systems and humans (IEA, 2017). This encompasses organization design, communication, resource management, work design, and quality management. Meanwhile, Kleiner argues that “Macroergonomics was institutionalized as a means to address the shortcomings of system design in the interest of achieving greater performance improvements from ergonomic interventions, including gains in safety and quality” (1999).
General Work Design
One key aspect of macroergonomics is organization design, which analyzes workflow and addresses interactions of components within the work system (Wickens et al, 2004). If the analysis indicates that any area is …show more content…
Define unit operations and work process in terms of a process flow that details all the workstations materials go through in order to become the final product.
4. Identify deviations from standard operating conditions at both the task and process levels.
5. Create a variance matrix using the deviations from step 4 that most impact performance criteria. These should be about 10-20% of the total variances and are called key variances.
6. Create the key variance control table and role network by determining if any job directly influences the variances.
7. Perform function allocation and implement the variance control table after determining any constraints that might prohibit allocation.
8. Reconcile any discrepancies between a worker’s understanding of his/her job and management’s understanding. Participatory ergonomics is a very efficient solution to this step.
9. Evaluating the effects of the current proposed solution either through a simulation or by using a trial run in order to decide if a redesign is necessary.
10. Convince management to implement the solution long-term, iterate the solution if needed through regular evaluations, and improve on the solution if needed. (Kleiner, B.M,