Integrated workstations for the instruction of job design and evaluation

There are pressing needs to enhance the quality of undergraduate engineering instruction, including human factors engineering. Specific curricular and philosophical issues include: 1) Integration of Work Measurement and Human Factors, 2) Applications driven laboratories, 3) Open-ended problems, 4) Compartmentalization of knowledge, 5) White-collar work. In summary, the end goals of this laboratory development are innovative job design and evaluation workstations, which can provide students with real-world, open-ended problems. Two different workstations are proposed: a workstation appropriate for typical blue-collar assembly work and a workstation appropriate for white-collar computer driven work. The white-collar workstation will simulate modern-computer driven office jobs, and the common factors influencing their productivity, such as speed, accuracy, noise, illumination, etc. The blue-collar workstation would be centered around a typical assembly process found in the U.S. automotive industry. Specifically, carburetor assembly will be utilized because of the large number of fairly intricate parts, the highly repetitive and rapid assembly process, and the need for power driven tools. These also happen to be the prime factors that are thought to increase the incidence of cumulative trauma disorders in U.S. industry. The students will examine tool parameters, and be able to adjust the support of the tool with tool balancers, cut the deterimental impact of power tools on the hand, using the reaction torque bars and implement novel approaches, such as arm rests or arm slings as used in Sweden.