Examining human factors and ergonomics aspects in a manufacturing organisation's metrics system: measuring up to stakeholder needs.

This research examines the status of human factors and ergonomics (HF/E) metrics in the case context of product realisation in an electronics manufacturing company. Interactions with 100+ stakeholders over a five year period were thematically analysed for metrics-related views and content. A disconnect between engineering metrics and HF/E metrics was evident. Engineers and HF/E specialists expressed different understandings of the gap between the disciplines and how to generate HF/E metrics that would fit the organisation. Other emerging themes provided insight for metrics development including improving indicator relatability, considerations for communication of information, and barriers to implementation of metrics. The results led to seven recommendations to help guide practitioners in developing and refining HF/E metrics as part of an organisation's metrics system. This macroergonomic case study provides key points for consideration when developing HF/E focussed metrics to support organisations being more proactive with HF/E in work system design. Practitioner summary: Metrics' presence, stakeholder views on metrics, and metrics-related content in a case organisation were thematically analysed with a macroergonomics focus. Human factors and ergonomics metrics (HF/E) were disconnected from engineering metrics thus limiting the design team's ability to handle human factors in design. Factors influencing HF/E metrics creation and integration were identified, resulting in seven recommendations for developing HF/E metrics.

Developing a simulation tool to quantify biomechanical load and quality of care in nursing.

Nursing is a high musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) risk job with high workload demands. This study combines Digital Human Modelling (DHM) and Discrete Event Simulation (DES) to address the need for tools to better manage MSD risk. This novel approach quantifies physical-workload, work-performance, and quality-of-care, in response to varying geographical patient-bed assignments, patient-acuity levels, and nurse-patient ratios. Lumbar loads for 86 care-delivery tasks in an acute care hospital unit were used as inputs in a DES model of the care-delivery process, creating a shift-long time trace of the biomechanical load. Peak L4/L5 compression and moment were 3574 N and 111.58 Nm, respectively. This study reports trade-offs in all three experiments: (i) increasing geographical patient-bed assignment distance decreased L4/L5 compression (8.8%); (ii) increased patient-acuity decreased L4/L5 moment (4%); (iii) Increased nurse-patient ratio decreased L4/L5 compression (10%) and moment (17%). However, in all experiments, Quality of care indicators deteriorated (20, 19, and 29%, respectively).Practitioner Summary: This research has the potential to support decision-makers by developing a simulation tool that quantifies the impact of varying operational and design-policies in terms of biomechanical-load and quality of care. The demonstrator-model reports: as geographical patient-bed distance, patient-acuity levels, and nurse-patient ratios increase, biomechanical-load reduces, and quality of care deteriorates.

Modelling the impacts of COVID-19 on nurse workload and quality of care using process simulation.

Higher acuity levels in COVID-19 patients and increased infection prevention and control routines have increased the work demands on nurses. To understand and quantify these changes, discrete event simulation (DES) was used to quantify the effects of varying the number of COVID-19 patient assignments on nurse workload and quality of care. Model testing was based on the usual nurse-patient ratio of 1:5 while varying the number of COVID-19 positive patients from 0 to 5. The model was validated by comparing outcomes to a step counter field study test with eight nurses. The DES model showed that nurse workload increased, and the quality of care deteriorated as nurses were assigned more COVID-19 positive patients. With five COVID-19 positive patients, the most demanding condition, the simulant-nurse donned and doffed personal protective equipment (PPE) 106 times a shift, totaling 6.1 hours. Direct care time was reduced to 3.4 hours (-64% change from baseline pre-pandemic case). In addition, nurses walked 10.5km (+46% increase from base pre-pandemic conditions) per shift while 75 care tasks (+242%), on average, were in the task queue. This contributed to 143 missed care tasks (+353% increase from base pre-pandemic conditions), equivalent to 9.6 hours (+311%) of missed care time and care task waiting time increased to 1.2 hours (+70%), in comparison to baseline (pre-pandemic) conditions. This process simulation approach may be used as potential decision support tools in the design and management of hospitals in-patient care settings, including pandemic planning scenarios.

Assessing human factors and ergonomics capability in organisations - the Human Factors Integration Toolset.

This paper presents the development of a tool that allows an organisation to assess its level of human factors (HF) and ergonomics integration and maturity within the organisation. The Human Factors Integration Toolset (available at: https://www.researchgate.net/project/Human-Factors-Integration-Toolset ) has been developed and validated through a series of workshops with 45 participants from industry and academia and through industry partnered field-testing. HF maturity is assessed across five levels in 16 organisational functions based on any of 31 discrete elements contributing to HF. Summing element scores in a function determines a percent of ideal HF for the function. Industry stakeholders engaged in field-testing found the tool helped to establish the status of HF in the organisation, plan projects to further develop HF capabilities, and initiate discussions on HF for performance and well-being. Improvement suggestions included adding an IT function, refining the language for non-HF specialists, including knowledge work and creating a digital version to improve usability. Practitioner summary: A tool scoring HF capability in 16 organisation functions has been developed collaboratively. Industry stakeholders expressed a need for the tool and provided validation of tool design decisions. Field-testing improved tool usability and showed that beyond scoring HF capability, the tool created opportunities for discussions of HF-related improvement possibilities. Abbreviations: HF: human factors; HFIT: Human Factors Integration Toolset.

Locomotion through apertures when wider space for locomotion is necessary: adaptation to artificially altered bodily states.

The objective of this study is to describe the adaptability of the central nervous system to safely cross a narrow aperture when the space required for passage is transiently extended with external objects under different locomotor constraints. In one of four locomotion forms (normal walking, walking while holding a 63-cm horizontal bar with or without rotating the shoulders to cross a door opening, and wheelchair use), nine participants were asked to pass through an aperture created by two doors (the relative aperture widths were 1.02, 1.10, and 1.20 times their maximum horizontal dimension under each form of locomotion) without a collision. The kinematic analyses showed that, when the participants rotated their shoulders while walking and holding a bar, virtually the same locomotor patterns as those during normal walking were observed: shoulder rotation was regulated well in response to the width of an aperture, and no collisions occurred. When shoulder rotations were restricted while walking and holding a bar or using a wheelchair, a large reduction in the speed of movement was observed as the participants approached the door, and, furthermore, the modulation in speed was dependent on the width of the aperture. In addition, the participants crossed at the center of aperture more accurately; nevertheless, collision sometimes occurred (more frequently, during wheelchair use). These findings reveal that movement constraints on shoulder rotation are likely to be a critical factor in determining whether quick and successful adaptation takes place.