NEW TRENDS OF ERGONOMICS AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN

MODERN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Cheng Changxian

School of Information and Mechatronic Engineering, Beijing Institute of Graphic Communications

Xinghua Beilu No. 25, Daxing, Beijing 102600, P.R. China

Keywords: Ergonomics, Industrial design, Green design.

Abstract: Today’s industrial design has gone beyond the traditional product design. China is in the transfer process

from the world's manufacturing plant to the world's manufacturing center. Chinese manufacturing industry

is transiting from mass production and mass marketing to brand competition and design competition;

China’s industrial design is moving from design for products and design for industrial enterprises to design

for the market and users, and from basic industries- and technology-oriented model to sales- and marketing-

oriented and brand- and user-oriented model. The importance of implementing user-friendly design

principles and applying ergonomic principles to sustainable design in industrial design is increasingly

becoming the consensus of the industries. And it’s vitally important to understand fully the importance of

ergonomics to the development of modern industrial design, the characteristics of modern ergonomics and

its research targets, and the green design concept as one of the development trends of ergonomics.

1 FULLY UNDERSTAND THE

IMPORTANCE OF

ERGONOMICS TO THE

DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Today’s industrial design has gone beyond the

traditional product design. China is in the transfer

process from the world's manufacturing plant to the

world's manufacturing center. Chinese

manufacturing industry is transiting from mass

production and mass marketing to brand competition

and design competition; China’s industrial design is

moving from design for products and design for

industrial enterprises to design for the market and

users, and from basic industries- and technology-

oriented model to sales- and marketing-oriented and

brand- and user-oriented model. Digitalized life,

economic globalization, infrastructure management,

climate change, consumer factors will influence the

worldwide trends in industrial design.

The situation of industrial enterprises’ success by

relying solely on technology, human resources and

cost has become in the past. People have begun to

emphasis more on the design management model

which integrates together brand, technology,

marketing, strategy and innovativeness, which is the

development model of design needed to promote

Chinese enterprises to transfer from the world’s

processing base to the world’s manufacturing center.

The innovative design as an important strategy for

enterprises’ innovation development has become the

consensus of the academia and the industry.

We see more and more manufacturers take

"people oriented", "ergonomic design" as the

characteristics of their products to be advertised,

especially those products that require direct contact

with the body or the direct manual operation are

more prominent. In fact, letting the design of the

machine equipment and working and living

environment suit to people's physiological and

psychological characteristics, so one can work and

live in a comfortable and convenient conditions, is

the issue to be addressed by ergonomics. In other

words, ergonomics is such an engineering science

arising from solving the problems.

The scope of ergonomics is of very broad range,

which is based on the studying of human physiology

and psychology. It is to apply directly the practical

science, and the technical sciences to the actual

operation, and is the origin of the human body

engineering. Ergonomics studies human as the most

fundamental and direct research and service object,

543

Changxian C..

NEW TRENDS OF ERGONOMICS AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN MODERN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN.

DOI: 10.5220/0003584305430547

In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (PMSS-2011), pages 543-547

ISBN: 978-989-8425-56-0

 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

so all the information must get from the people and

hence the judgments would be made based on the

integrated information. Ergonomics is the

application of human-related science information to

the design of objects, systems and environment,

which involves every aspects of human life. Ideal

designs should be reflect fully the principles of

ergonomics in working system, sports, leisure, health

and safety and other aspects.

The characteristic of ergonomics is based on a

careful study of their own characteristics of the three

elements, i.e. human, machine and environment. It

does not simply focus on whether the individual

elements are good or not, but studies as a whole the

system which includes human that employees the

"objects", the "objects" designed by the designer and

the coexistence environment of the "objects" and

human. The so called system in the ergonomics is

referred to as "human - machine - environment"

system. In this system, the relationship of interacting

and interdependence of the three elements of human,

machine and environment determines the

performance of overall system. Ergonomics makes

scientific use of the organic links between the three

elements to seek the best parameters of the system.

A good design must be the product in which the

factors of human, environment, technology,

economy and culture etc., are cleverly balanced. To

this end, it is required that the designers have the

ability to find an optimal balance in a variety of

constraints. To evaluate and determine the standard

of the optimal balance point based on the common

goal of both ergonomics and industrial design, the

"human-oriented" dominant ideology should be

adhere to as the core of design.

The "human-oriented" dominant ideology is

represented in every design activity to put “people”

as the main line and implement the main line of

ergonomic theory throughout the entire design

process. And the social development, technological

advances, product updates, intense pace of life ..., all

these will inevitably lead to the changing view of

quality towards "object". People will pay more

attention to the evaluation of the weighing of

"convenience", "comfortable", "reliable", "value",

"security" and "efficiency". The rapid development

and wide application of ergonomics and other

emerging interdisciplinary will surely push the

standard of industrial design to the new heights

sought by people.

With full development of mechanization,

automation, and information technology, the

influence of human factors in product design and

production is increasing; the issue of harmonious

development of man-machine will be more and more

important; the status and role of ergonomics in

industrial design will show more increasingly its

importance.

2 FULLY UNDERSTAND THE

CHARACTERISTICS OF

MODERN ERGONOMICS AND

ITS RESEARCH TARGETS

Modern ergonomics began its development stage

from the beginning of 1960s. During this period,

Europe and the United States entered into the large-

scale economic development period. At the same

time, ergonomics have undergone more

opportunities of advancement because of scientific

and technological progress. As the research and

application fields in which ergonomics involves are

expanding, the number of professions and disciplines

in which the ergonomics experts undertake their

research are also increasing, which include anatomy,

physiology, psychology, industrial hygiene science,

industrial and engineering design, work study,

construction and lighting engineering, management

engineering and other professional fields.

International Ergonomics Association (IEA)

accounts that the engineering development of

modern ergonomics has the following three

characteristics:

1) Different from the traditional ergonomics which

had its studies focused on the selecting and training a

specific person to adapt the work requirements,

modern ergonomics focuses on the design of the

mechanical equipment, so that the operation of

machine does not exceed beyond the limits of human

ability.

2) Combine closely with the practical application.

The specific machinery and equipment are designed

through a wide range of carefully planned

experimental research and by utilizing as much as

possible the known basic principles.

3) Strive to make the experts and the scientific

research staff in various related engineering and

science areas work together closely, such as the

experts in experimental psychology, physiology,

functional anatomy and other disciplines, and the

research staff in physics, mathematics, engineering

etc.

For industrial designers, the main research areas of

ergonomics can be summarized as follows:

ICEIS 2011 - 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems

544

2.1 Human Characteristics

The main object of research is human-related issues

in industrial design, for example, the characteristic

facts of human body shape, transmission of human

perception, human response characteristics, and the

psychological characteristics during working. The

goal of study is solving how the design of

mechanical equipment, tools, and a variety of

workplaces and other facilities and articles can adapt

human physiological and psychological

characteristics such that it would be possible to

create a safe, comfortable, healthy and efficient

working conditions for the users.

2.2 Overall Design of Man-machine

System

The performance of man-machine system depends

primarily on the overall design. That is, to adapt the

"machine" with the human body as a whole. What

the basic reasons of successfully coordination of

human and machine? The answer is: either man or

machine has their own characteristics, and the

deficiencies of both man and machine in the system

can be complemented by each other. “Machine” has

big power, fast speed, and no fatigue, etc., but

“human” has the wisdom, multiple skills and a very

strong adaptability. If you can do your best to make

up for each other's deficiencies, then the

combination of man and machine will be effective.

Obviously, the basic design problem of the system to

be disposed is the division of work between human

and machine and the effective exchange of

information between the two.

2.3 Design of Workplace and

Information Transmission Devices

Whether workplace design is reasonable will have a

direct impact on human’s productivity. Workplace

design generally including: work space design,

seating design, operating table or console design and

the overall arrangement of the workplace. All these

designs require the application of knowledge and

data from anthropometry and biomechanics. The

purpose of workplace design studies is to ensure that

the physical environment could suit for the

characteristics of the human body and the human

body could work in a healthier position and posture,

so that not only to complete the work efficiently, but

also to feel comfortable and not to fatigue too early.

2.4 Design of Environmental Control

and Safety Protection

Broadly speaking, efficiency studied in ergonomics,

not only refers to the work undertaken to be

completed in the short period, but is not present

harmful health effects in the long term work and to

reduce the risk of accidents to a minimum limits. In

terms of the environmental control requirement, it

should ensure that the common operating

environment such as lighting, microclimate, noise

and vibration conditions suit to the operator’s

demands.

It is the basic task of the designers to protect the

operator from the "pain, illness, injury, or casualty”

caused by work. Thus in the design phase, safety

guards devices are designed as parts of the machine

and the protective devices should directly link into

the machine. In addition, the operator's safety

training before using the machines should be

considered and the individual protection for the

operator during the use needs to be researched.

3 FULLY UNDERSTAND THE

GREEN DESIGN CONCEPT AS

ONE OF THE DEVELOPMENT

TRENDS OF ERGONOMICS

Green Design (GD), is also known as eco-design,

environmental design, life cycle design, or

environmental awareness design. Although the

names are different, but the basic idea is that: the

environmental factors and pollution prevention

measures should be incorporated into products in the

design phase, to take the environmental performance

as product design objectives and the starting point;

and striving to minimize the impact of products to

environment.

What is the so-called green design? That is,

under the guidance of ecological philosophy, and

using ecological thinking, to incorporate the design

of objects into "human, machine, environment"

system, which both considers to meet the needs of

people, and pays attention to the principles of the

ecological environment protection and sustainable

development, and not only realizes social values, but

also protects the natural environment and promotes

the common prosperity of people and the

environment. It is consistent with the requirements

of sustainable development of human society, in line

with the ultimate goal of comprehensive

development of mankind.

Green design is the basis of access to green

products, and has become one of the hot researches

in design areas. The results show that the design

phase determines the 70% to 80% of manufacturing

cost, while the design itself accounts for only 10% of

NEW TRENDS OF ERGONOMICS AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN MODERN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

545

the total cost. The importance of the roll of design to

product is still increasing if considering the

environmental factors. Because the level of

ecological damage caused by the product design is

far greater than the level of ecological damage

caused by the design process itself, only in the

design stage should the "green level" of products be

taken as a design target, the desired design result

could be achieved, which is one of the goal of

ergonomics.

Green design and traditional design are very

different in the design basis, the designer, design

techniques and technologies and the design targets,

See Table 1 on green design compared with

traditional designs.

In sum, the main features of green design include

the following:

1) Slow down the consumption of resource wealth

on the planet. With green design, the materials for

making components of the product are fully and

effectively utilized, and in the product life cycle, the

energy consumption is minimized, thus reducing the

needs for material and energy resources, so that it

can be consumed in a reasonable and sustainable

way.

2) Reduce waste generation from the source. It’s a

basic requirement for green designer to reduce

energy consumption in the structure and process of

product making and use. There will be no toxin and

side effects and the dismantling and recycling of the

old used products can be convenient. The recycled

materials can be used for reproduction. The products

of non-recovery value can be innoxiously disposed

so that the atmosphere, water, etc., cannot be

polluted and the generated waste can be minimized.

3) Reduce the disposal problem of large amount of

waste. Green design will nip the waste generation in

the bud, so the amount of waste can be reduced to a

minimum, which can greatly ease the pressure of

waste disposal. help protect the environment,

maintain ecosystem balance and achieve sustainable

development.

4) Green design is the design of parallel closed-

loop. The life cycle of traditional parallel design is

all the stages from design, manufacture up to

disposal of the product. All the post stages after the

product disposal are not considered. Hence it is an

open-loop process. Whereas the life cycle of green

design, in addition to the traditional life cycle, also

includes the disassembly, recycling, treatment after

product disposal, so that the closed-loop cycle of

product life cycle can be achieved.

4 CONCLUSIONS

China is in the transfer process from the world's

manufacturing plant to the world's manufacturing

center. Chinese manufacturing industry is transiting

from mass production and mass marketing to brand

competition and design competition; China’s

industrial design is moving from design for products

and design for industrial enterprises to design for the

market and users, and from basic industries- and

technology-oriented model to sales- and marketing-

oriented and brand- and user-oriented model. The

importance of implementing user-friendly design

principles and applying ergonomics principles to

sustainable design in industrial design is increasingly

becoming the consensus of the industries. So, it’s

vitally important to understand fully the importance

of ergonomics to the development of modern

industrial design, the characteristics of modern

ergonomics and its research targets, and the green

Table 1: Comparison of green design with traditional design.

Comparison elements Traditional design Green design

Design basis Design based on the product’s requirements on

function, performance, quality and cost

proposed by users

Design based on environmental benefits and ecological

indicators plus the requirements of product on features,

performance, quality and cost

Designers With little or no consideration of using

effectively renewable resources and the impact

on ecological environment

The designer must consider to reduce energy

consumption, to recycle resource and to protect the

environment in the product concept and design stage

Design technology and

process

Product recycling is rarely considered in the

stages of making and use. Only a limited

recovery of precious metals.

Removable, easy recovery, non-toxic side effects during

manufacture and use of product, ensuring minimum

waste generation

Design purpose Demands are considered as the main design

purpose

Design based on the needs and environment to meet the

requirements of sustainable development

Products General products Green products or products with green sign

ICEIS 2011 - 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems

546

design concept as one of the development trends of

ergonomics.

REFERENCES

Ding Yulan, 2005. Ergonomics, Beijing Institute of

Technology Press. Beijing, 3

edition.

You Wanlai, 1986. Industrial Design and Human Factor

Engineering, Taiwan Liuhe Press. Taipei.

Sanders, M. S., et al., 1985. Human Factors in

Engineering and Design, McGraw-Hill, New York

Wang Jicheng, 2006. Ergonomics in Product Design,

Chemical Industry Press, Beijing.

Liu Chunrong, 2004. Application of Ergonomics,

Shanghai People’s Art Press, Shanghai.

He Canqun, 2006. Ergonomics of Product Design,

Chemical Industry Press, Beijing.

NEW TRENDS OF ERGONOMICS AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN MODERN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

547