Ergonomics in manufacturing

Data collection in a manufacturing setting is an opportunity to provide clients with user needs and actively contribute to the design of the next generation of interfaces/equipment. The main goal of this service is to assess the user experience of different types of users (e.g. operators, technicians, supervisors,…) when working with innovative manufacturing interfaces and production lines, identifying issues and benefits of automation support, including main usability and cognitive/physical ergonomics. The data collection activities aim at investigating a series of aspects: - Working environment: The workspace, the general equipment and furniture, and the physical environment - Organisation and staffing: Organisational management, people management, and personal factors - Training: The systematic development of competencies required by individuals to adequately perform their work - Procedures, roles, and responsibilities: Actual/prescribed working methods, positions/functions in the organization, and expected tasks - Teams and communication: How people work and communicate with each other on shared goals and tasks - Human in the system: The actions, reactions, and interactions between humans and other system components. The service is currently implemented in a format that allows for data collection also from remote. In order to adapt the service to remote conduction, it is currently developed on a data collection platform, featuring methods and techniques to ensure equally rich data collections as those resulting from field visits. The service platform allows interactivity (via a dedicated and secured platform) during remote synchronous interactions (for example interviews) to make the experience a bit more user-friendly. Moreover, it allows experiments with nonintrusive tools (e.g. wearing an activity tracker), i.e. by the use of remote sensors in the working environment to collect the relevant data from the user's movements. Data collected can be analyzed providing a model of the typical activities and movements, thus helping the user experience along with the different production floors. Outcomes of this type of service are requirements, guidelines, and recommendations for innovative re-design, including quick wins, for mitigating the impact of issues and replicating/adapting the success cases on the basis of an in-depth analysis of contributing factors: -prioritization of the areas of intervention -definition of strategy and plans for transferring recommendations into practical mitigating actions for specific target users. -preparation of dedicated time schedule (including in-depth recommendations as well as quick wins) Finally, a strategy and the tools for monitoring the impact of each action is the relevant result. The company is looking for a commercial agreement with technical assistance to assess new potential markets in Europe and extra-Europe