March 2020 | ISE Magazine 33

Blending technology with people

in the ergonomics of tomorrow

Collaboration, not competition, with machines will boost safety, productivity

By Bobbie Watts

34 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

Blending technology with people in the ergonomics of tomorrow

It has always been in our DNA

to strive for a balanced human/

system equation. Whether it’s the

design of the primitive ax tai-

lored to the shape of the hand or

Hippocrates’ surgical tool layout

for ease of use, the principles of ergo-

nomics are woven through time, even

before the Industrial Revolution. In

more recent history, we have witnessed

changes in industry and society that

have challenged this equation’s balance.

From the Industrial Revolution

through the Information Age, how

workers and consumers interact with

their work and products has provided

unique challenges to the ergonomics

ﬁeld and done much to shape it into

the discipline we see today. Now with

industrial and societal changes well

underway with Industry 4.0, Factories

of the Future (www.effra.eu/factories-

future) and general shifts in society, we

are primed for even more changes that

will alter the work and cultural scene,

impact human/system interactions and

change the way we approach ergonom-

ics, and at a faster rate than before.

What do ergonomics practitioners,

teachers, students, leaders and other in-

ﬂuencers need to be prepared for? What

is in store for ergonomics in 2020 and

beyond?

Industry 4.0 is already changing the

view of the factory ﬂoor with cur-

rent workspaces being reconﬁgured

into cyber-physical spaces. Enabled by

digitalization and connectivity through

smart technology like industrial inter-

net of things (IIoT), this new industrial

world is shifting us toward increasing

automation, changing the deﬁnition

of many traditional work roles. How-

ever, as opposed to an emphasis on

systems designed to completely replace

workers, we expect to see a focus on

human-machine collaborations in the

near future. These collaborations al-

ready are emerging on the work ﬂoor

used as tools to mitigate physical and

mental risks and improve productivity

and quality for speciﬁc tasks.

As examples, collaborative robots

(cobots) are sharing workspace with

workers and taking on their highly

repetitive task duties; virtual and aug-

mented reality tools are being used to

enhance training and process informa-

tion sharing, reducing cognitive loads;

and passive exoskeletons are being de-

ployed on assembly lines to support

workers, literally, who perform static,

awkward work.

Ofﬁce workspaces are seeing the

propagation of collaborative tools as

well, such as wearables to inﬂuence

worker posture and smart glasses to re-

place traditional computer screens. In-

dustries’ investment in these tools is on

the rise and is predicted to grow. We

can expect to see continuous progres-

sion in the advancements of their ca-

pabilities and their proliferation in the

workplace. And as the general public

becomes more aware of these techno-

logical advancements through news

stories, entertainment and advance-

ments in consumer products, it can

lead to an expectation of which that

industry and ergonomists will need to

be mindful.

Whether using full automation or

collaborative systems, workers still

need to be central to the design and

implementation of these tools for effec-

tiveness and sustainability. Of course,

designing for and around the human is

nothing new for ergonomics. But how

do we do it effectively in this rapidly

changing new industrial world where

the worker and machine are becoming

more as one?

Besides being prepared to use our

expertise to guide decision-makers on

which tasks to automate to achieve the

optimal return on investment, ergono-

mists will need to be prepared to pro-

vide guidance on the design of these

complex collaborative systems. We

need to ensure that sound ergonomics

principles are considered in IIoT-con-

nected systems where communication

and awareness between the worker and

machine in shared spaces will be critical

for safety and efﬁciency. That includes

principles such as understanding mul-

tiple user expectations and capabilities

in human-in-the-loop (HitL) scenarios

where the cognitive load will increas-

ingly outweigh the physical load.

In this new industrial world, our goal

should not be just to enhance worker

performance and safety in these shift-

ing factory landscapes; it should be to

take advantage of it as well. With the

connectivity of IIoT, we will have tons

of data at our ﬁngertips. We need to be

prepared to use emerging innovative

solutions, such as wearables, advance-

ments in electromyography (EMG), ar-

tiﬁcial intelligence (AI) and other smart

devices, to capture this data – physical,

environmental and psychosocial – in

real-time. We then can harness that in-

formation for faster and more accurate

More ergonomic

ideas on IISE

podcast

Hear Bobbie Watts discuss “The Allure

of Ergonomics” in a recent episode of

Problem Solved: The IISE Podcast at

podcast.iise.org.

March 2020 | ISE Magazine 35

risk analyses and potentially custom-

izable mitigations based on individual

worker or machine data via feedback

dashboards.

Big data analytics should be consid-

ered to further analyze the collective

data for trends and insights to guide us

into making quicker big-picture deci-

sions. Automating both the data col-

lection and analysis duties will free us

to focus more of our efforts on solution

development, where our ergonomics

expertise is most needed.

Technology is not the only factor

altering the future of human/system

interactions in the workplace. Separate

from automation and digitalization, we

see dramatic changes in the workforce

itself. The demographics of the work-

ing population and the jobs being per-

formed are becoming more diverse.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor

Statistics (bls.gov), the labor force par-

ticipation rate for the oldest segment of

the population (55 and older) is rising.

This adds to the challenge of multiple

generations – each with their own style

of work and motivation – working

alongside each other.

Additionally, as populations become

more ethnically diverse, dependent

on geographical location, so does the

workforce. And with ﬂex work, hot de-

sking, telecommuting and the myriad

possible workspaces that come with the

gig economy, where a worker works is

all but standard. Ergonomists will be

challenged even more to recognize and

mitigate risks with these variables in

play. As such, we need to be prepared

to manage the balance between the

physical and cognitive capabilities of

an aging population with the needs of

increasing automation. We should be

prepared to manage even more non-

standard work activities and to enable

knowledge-sharing through a variety

of media to reach and engage a variety

of workers, such as using social-media

based tools, microlearning techniques,

geofencing or gamiﬁcation.

Beyond the technical and cultural

changes to the work, workers and

workspaces, evolving strategies reshap-

ing business initiatives can mean fur-

ther paradigm shifts for ergonomics

in the future. Ergonomists will need

to focus their efforts on having a seat

at the table with corporate initiatives

driven by changes in business and lead-

ership strategies, such as sustainability,

digitalization, employee experience,

diversity and inclusion, and well-being.

All have far-reaching impacts on ergo-

nomics and vice versa.

As these initiatives shift to meet busi-

ness needs and societal expectations,

ergonomists need to be on board. For

us to proactively shape business struc-

ture, plans and goals for the support

of our ergonomics purpose, becom-

ing more embedded in these business

initiatives will be more than a “nice to

have” in the future; it will be a neces-

sity, especially as businesses transition

into cyber-physical spaces.

The future will bring about many

changes to the world and consequently

our ﬁeld, aspects of which we are cur-

rently managing today. But throughout

those changes, we need to hold onto

what has brought us success: standard

approaches we have used to meet the

challenges of the past, such as preven-

tion in design, participatory ergonom-

ics and a proactive systems approach to

ergonomics programs. By keeping our

ﬁnger on the pulse of what’s coming,

heeding lessons learned and staying

true to our ergo DNA, we will be well

prepared for future success.

As an African proverb says: “For

tomorrow belongs to the people who

prepare for it today.” 

Bobbie Watts, Ph.D., CPE, has more than

20 years of experience in industrial engineer-

ing, ergonomics and human factors. She is

currently director of ergonomics for Michelin

Americas, where she manages the ergonomics

program and network for activities including

tire manufacturing, logistics and tire servic-

ing. She received her bachelor’s degree in

industrial engineering from Clemson Uni-

versity and both her master’s and Ph.D.

in industrial and systems engineering from

Auburn University. Her work experience

includes roles as corporate human factors

engineer for UPS, consultant for the U.S.

Postal Service and American Express, and

corporate ergonomics manager for Coca-Cola

Refreshments. She is a member of IISE and

the Applied Ergonomics Society. Watts was

featured in ISE magazine’s “What’s Your

Story,” Page 66, March 2019.

As opposed to an emphasis

on systems designed to

completely replace workers,

we expect to see a focus

on human-machine

collaborations in the

near future.