ME 5211 / IE 5511 Human Factors and Work Analysis

1. ME 5211 / IE 5511 Human Factors and Work Analysis Instructor: Prof. Caroline C. Hayes

2. Goals of Human Factors • To increase humans’: • Effectiveness • Health • Safety • Well-being

3. What are “Human Factors”? • Human Factors (ergonomics) is the study of helping people to work more efficiently through design of their: • Tools (products) • Work process • Work environment • Organizational structure Where ? Work environment Tools (Products) Work Process How ? What ?

4. Work Laws Ergonomics (European term for Human Factors) • Ergonomics comes from the Greek words: ergo + nomos • Companies like Human Factors not only because it increases: • Safety/ health/ well-being of workers But also: • Profitability

5. Human Factors is Interdisciplinary • A collection of disciplines concerned with creating effective interactions between people and technological systems. • Those systems could be: • products, • Processes • Policies • a combination. • Examples of disciplines concerned with human factors: • Engineering, • Computer Science • Psychology • Business • Psychology • Kinesiology, sports • Medicine,

6. Disciplines represented in our 2010 Human Factors class:

7. Human Factors: Body and Mind • Most products today involve both: • Physical components  Physical Ergonomics • Computer component  Cognitive Ergonomics • HF involves the design to make human interaction in both physical and cognitive aspects effective(Such as cell phones, cameras, car (dashboard displays))

8. Designers of things and processes need to understand: • HF may impact all parts of the design • Need to communicate with HF experts • Big need: Designers should be able to span disciplines/work with other disciplines

9. Goals of the course: IE 5511 • To identify: • Human constraints and needs (physical and cognitive) • Methodsfor understandinghuman needs in a situation, or when using a product • Methodsfor assessingeffectivenessof aproduct or system, (such as time studies) • Approaches for improving productivity, health and safety, • The value of standards.

10. Instructor: Prof. Hayes Email: hayes@me.umn.edu Phone: 612- 626-8391 Office: ME 2110 Office Hours: Right after class Who will be teaching you? Course Website:(www.me.umn.edu\education\courses\ie5511) • Teaching Assistant: Jacques Dolan

11. My Background • Position: Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota. • Education: PhD, Carnegie Mellon University, 1990; Robotics • Appointments: Director of Graduate studies for Human Factors graduate minor program: http://www.education.umn.edu/kin/kinesiology/HFminor.html Faculty Legislative Liaison • Research: computer supported decision making • Consulting for local and international firms: make human/technology systems more efficient and effective.

12. Expectations • Homework most weeks, usually due Wed. • One quiz, two tests, final exam. • A semester-long project on a human factors topic, in teams.

13. Grade Breakdowns • Quiz 10 %  • Exams 1& 2 40 % • Homework 5 % • Project 15 % • Final Exam 30 %

14. Policies • Students may discuss homework problems, but they are expected to solve problems on their own. • Make up quizzes and exams will not be given except in the case of documented medical emergencies. • Homework is considered late after the end of class. • Late homework will be accepted for 24 hr after due date for 50% credit.

15. Human Factors:Re-engineering Systems forEfficiency and Safety Motivation: Incentives/rewards Organizational structure, roles Work Process Tools (Products) Work environment

16. Why do Companies Care about Human Factors? • To make products more competitive and appealing to consumers: • Easier to use • Easier tounderstand • Safer • Higher quality at same or lower cost, • For a customer, there is always someone else who can make • A more acceptable product • Better, faster, cheaper

17. Why do designers and managers need to know about Human Factors? • Because all products are used by people at some point in their lifecycle • Designers must design these products and process by which they are made. Manufacturing Engineering Packaging Marketing Product Life Cycle Delivery Recycle Use Service

18. We must design products and processes that • Fulfill their functions, But also: • Can easily be used and understood by people, • Can be manufactured, assembled, handled by people, in all part of their life cycle. • Are enjoyable to use (Don Norman),

19. Examples of Human Factors Needs • Space Mission planners should be able to control the Mars Rover in terms that make sense to them • Medical Tools: Doctors should be able to comfortably hold surgical tools without risk of dropping it or excessive hand fatigue • Nuclear power plants:operators should be able to easily read warnings + power plant indicators • Aviation: Pilots should be able to quickly find the information they need and intuitively understand it Human Factors are important any time people and technology interact!

20. Human Factors in Transportation A Prius Cockpit An airplane cockpit

21. Health Care Robot Remote doctor checks on patient www.cbc.ca/.../tech/robotics/robot-doctor.html

22. Surgical Robot

23. Examples of HF and Safety • Nuclear reactor meltdowns (Chernobyl, 3 mile Island) Melted down largely because: • Although displays showed much of the right information, • Displays were too complex to be understood easily by the operator, • Hundreds of warning bells went off but it was hard to know to which to attend. • Airplane and train accidents • Farm machinery accidents • Car accidents – cars and cell phones.

24. Historical Development • HF is concerned with the effective interaction of people and machines • Before the industrial revolution people did not explicitly worry that much about HF • Less interaction with machines • Machines’ designs were evolved over long time periods • Engineered systems were not as big and complicated • Competition was strictly local

25. Historical Development (continued) • The roots of HF as a science begin in the late 19th century • Industrialization increased, and • Markets expanded from local to national and global levels aided by inventions: • Telegraph, telephone, train, steam ships • Suddenly, businesses needed to be more efficient to compete.

26. Efficiency Experts • Fredrick Taylor (start 1881) • Frank Gilbreth (early 1900) • Lillian Gilbreth (early 1900)

27. Fredrik Taylor, 1881, Midvale Steel, Philadelphia • Founder of modern time study • Came up with system of managing work to make it more efficient: • Managers plan work 1 day in advance • Workers get written instructions on tasks and how to accomplish them • Each job has a “standard time” determined by a time study made by experts • Advocated breaking tasks into “elements”

28. Taylor's Studies • Pig Iron Study (1898) • At Bethlehem Steel Company • Established methods for carrying 92 lb. “pigs” of iron up ramp to freight car, • Provided financial incentives, • Greatly increased productivity from 12.5 tons/day/worker to 48 tons (4 fold increase)

29. Taylor's Studies (cont.) • Shoveling Experiment • Redesigned shovels (were same size for all jobs): • Short handle for heavy iron • Long handled scoop for light rice coal • Results: • Productivity increased • Material handling costs decreased

30. Taylor's Studies (cont.) • But no one took much notice until 1903 published in ASME : ‘Shop Management’ • Then “efficiency madness” swept the nation and the world.

31. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth(early 20th century) • Founders of modern motion study techniques • Study of body motions used in performing tasks • Aimed at: • Simplifying motions • Establishing most favorable motion sequences • As he was in brick-laying trade, Increased performance from 120 bricks/hr to 350

32. Gilbreths’ Techniques • Photographed and Filmed motions to study them • Cyclographic analysis: • put light on workers’ finger, and photograph the path. • Chrono-cyclographic analysis: • Put strobe on finger – get dotted lines on photo • Spacing indicates speed • Devide motion into elements “therbligs”

33. Cyclograph Analysis • Attach light to finger or part of body, • Photograph the motion using a long exposure, • Motion pattern recorded as a line on film.

34. Motion photographed in a strobe light Golfer

35. Motion studies using strobe lights Acrobat pole vaulting

36. Motion Study using motion pictures

37. Broader Impacts of Effects the “Efficiency” Movement • Efficiency principles were applied in many areas outside the factory (turn of the century): • Architecture: Homes were made smaller and layouts more efficient with less steps • Interior design: Kitchen workspaces were made more efficient (less steps, less reaching, less cleaning) Origin of the “modern” kitchen design. • Art: incorporated motion studies into images (Duchamp 1912).

38. Nude Decending the Stair, Duchamp 1912 Duchamp (the artist) descending the stair

39. Cheaper by the Dozen • By Gilbreth and Gilbreth, 1948 (children of Frank and Lilian) • Lilian and Frank Gilbreth had 12 children • They viewed home as “efficiency lab” • “What will work at home will work in the factory” • Gilbreth shaved with 2 razors (one in each hand) • Filmed all their children getting their tonsils removed.

40. Exercise • Figure out how to fit all the objects in the box • Decide what actions constitute “therbligs” or “elements” • Develop and record a procedure (in terms of therbligs) • Figure out how to do it fast • Time your procedure (minutes, seconds) • Did your “Therblig” description change? • Did your procedure description change?

41. Backlash Against the “Efficiency” Movement • Workers some times felt like a cogs in the industrial machine, • When miss-applied, efficiency techniques simply squeezed more work out of workers to their detrement. • Workers sometimes refused to cooperate with efficiency “experts” • Arts and crafts movement in art and architecture: return to natural forms (hard to make by machine) and hand craft methods. Tiffany Lamp Chair Hector Guimard, 1904-7

42. Charles Chaplin in "Modern Times" 1939

43. Exercise • Figure out how to fit all the objects in the box • Decide what actions constitute “therbligs” or “elements” • Develop and record a procedure (in terms of therbligs) • Figure out how to do it fast • Time your procedure (minutes, seconds) • Did your “therblig” descriptions change? • Did your procedure descriptions change? • Did other things change?

44. Rules of Exercise • Take all objects out and set them separately on desk. • Fit all objects in the box so that you can close the lid all the way. • No squashing or damaging objects. • You may wish to assign different roles to the people on your team: packer, time keeper, process recorder, observer, etc. • You will get several minutes to practice, then we will have a competition.

45. Exercise (continued) • Each group please report: • Your best time to complete the task • Your therbligs • Your procedure (sequence of therbligs) • What you did to improve your time? (did you develop new therbligs? New sequence? Other?)

46. Insight • There is a tight relationship between: The way people actually use a product Product effectiveness The features a product ought to have Customer Satisfaction • Time and motion studies can help designers clarify the relation between products use, and the features it ought to have.