Ergonomics and Automation: A Marriage that Works in Industry

Abstract

Frequently, the ergonomic specialist is called in to evaluate and improve jobs that people find physically difficult to perform. Many of these jobs involve manual material handling. Standard solutions to these problems may involve selection of employees, reductions in work rate, modification of equipment, or modifications of packages and package sizes. Generally, these solutions require on-going administrative controls or reduced productivity or both. One solution commonly overlooked is the use of automation to replace human muscle. This presentation will highlight two case studies where automation was introduced to replace human labor. One case involves the use of industrial robots, the second case involves the use of an automatic palletizer. Justification of the equipment will be discussed including the safety and health aspects as well as economics aspects. One underlying point is that while the ergonomic specialist must be familiar with the capabilities and limitations of people, that same specialist must also be familiar with ways of performing the task if the job is too difficult for people to safely perform. A second point is that a natural function of the ergonomic specialist is the upgrading of the human toward more skilled tasks.