Importance Of ERGONOMICS & AESTHETICS - SKengineers

 

IMPORTANCE OF ERGONOMICS AND AESTHETICS

Ø  ERGONOMICS –

1.      Ergonomics is concerned with optimizing the overall and detailed design of controls, operations, and maintenance interfaces between machines and men, in both working conditions, normal and emergency.

2.      Men and machines interact simultaneously with environment, surrounding work place etc. in terms of efficiency, reliability, safety on low cost-effective basis.

3.      This involves a knowledge of human characteristics such as ;

a)      Anatomy and physiology – structure and function of human body, senses, mental processes.

b)     Anthropometry – information on body size, filed of movement, field of view, speed of response, forces exerted.

c)      Psychology – knowledge of brain, nervous system and human behaviour.

d)     Conditions, which improve efficiency and comfort, by minimizing fatigue.

4.      Therefore, ERGONOMICS is defined as ‘the relationship between man and machines and the application of anatomical, physiological and psychological principles to solve the problems arising from man-machine relationship.

5.      The word ‘ERGONOMICS’ is derived from two Greek words – ‘ergon’ = work and ‘nomos’ = natural laws. Ergonomics means the natural laws of work.

6.      From design considerations, the topics included in ergonomic studies are,

a)      Anatomical factors in design of driver’s seat.

b)     Layout of instrument dials and display panels for accurate perception by the operators.

c)      Design of hard levers and hand wheels.

d)     Energy expenditure in hand and foot operations.

e)     Lighting, noise and climatic conditions in machine environment (i.e. surrounding work place conditions).

7.      Ergonomic information applied to design ensures comfort, safety etc. to human beings, due to best possible environments and designs prepared.

8.      While designing Equipment for human use, it is important to realize that man has limited power. Hence, the designer should design the most suitable equipment considering human health and efficiency.

9.      ERGONOMICS can also be defined as ‘a systematic study of relationship between people and their occupation, equipment and work environment for the purpose of increasing human efficiency and removing those features of design, which tend to cause inefficiency or physical disability’.

Ø  IMPORTANCE OF ERGONOMICS IN DESIGN –

                           i.          It reduces physical and mental stresses.

                          ii.          It helps to study the mam-machine relationship.

                         iii.          Working environment can be improved to increase human efficiency.

                         iv.          Reliability, safety etc. can be improved on low cost-effective basis.

Ø  AESTHETICS –

·        Aesthetics is defined as ‘a set of principles of appreciating a beauty’. It deals with external appearance of product.

·        Appearance is an outward expression of quality of any product, which makes first communication of product with the customer.

·        Although function, cost, safety and physical aspects of ergonomics may be important in the initial stages of design process, appearance of a product plays a major role in sale-ability of product in market.

·        An engineering design with good aesthetics will be pleasing to the eye and gives a visual impression of functioning efficiently.

Ø  IMPORTANCE OF AESTHETICS IN DESIGN –

1.      Each product is to be perform a specific function or a set of functions for satisfying needs of customers.

2.      Parameters considered by a customer, while selecting a product are :

·        Functional performance,

·        Durability,

·        Initial and running cost,

·        Ability to withstand in adverse conditions,

·        Service support available,

·        Comfort to the user, and

·        Appearance.

3.      In a present days of buyer’s market, a number of products available in the market are having most of the parameters identical. Thus, the appearance of the product becomes a major factor in attracting the customer.

4.      This is particularly true for automobiles, daily needs and home appliances like domestic refrigerators, television sets, music systems.

5.      At any stage in the product life, the aesthetic quality cannot be separated from the product quality.

6.      Growing importance of aesthetic considerations on product design has given rise to a separate discipline, known as industrial design.

7.      Now-a-days job of an industrial designer is to create new shapes and forms for any product, which are aesthetically appealing to consumers.

Ø  RELATION BETWEEN AESTHETIC AND ERGONOMICS –

·        Ergonomics is the scientific study of relationship between men and their working environment. Since the appearance of a design

                                               i.          Directly affects relationship between product and user and

                                              ii.          Improves the efficiency of an operation, aesthetic engineering may be considered as an important part of ergonomics.

                                             iii.          Knowing the terms ‘aesthetics’ and ‘interrelation’, we are able to understand more details about ergonomic factors influencing product design as well as man-machine relationship.

Ø  MAN-MACHINE RELATIONSHIP –

·        Machine has separate identity in itself in machine design. However, it cannot perform well without man.

·        Ergonomists consider man-machine as a joint system, to combination of activities to obtain desired output from the given input.

·        From display instruments, operator gets information about the operations of machine.

·        If he feels that, a correction is necessary, he will operate the levers or controls manually. After doing corrections, he can observe the change in performance of machine, which will be indicated on display panels.

·        Contact between man and machine in this closed loop system arises at two places display instruments; which give information to the operator, and control; with which, the operator adjust the machine.