Ergonomics: How to Design for Ease and Efficiency

Ergonomics

How to Design for Ease and Efficiency

Third Edition

Katrin E. Kroemer Elbert

Henrike B. Kroemer

Anne D. Kroemer Hoffman

Table of Contents

Cover

Title page

Copyright

Preface to the Third Edition

Using This Book

Introducing Ergonomics and Human Factors Engineering

Section I: The Ergonomic Knowledge Base

Chapter 1: Size and Mobility of the Human Body

Abstract

Overview

1.1. Humans Spreading Over the Earth

1.2. ANthropology and Anthropometry

1.3. Available Anthropometric Information

1.4. Anthropometric Statistics

1.5. Using Anthropometric Data

1.6. Body Proportions

1.7. Dealing with Statistics

1.8. How to Obtain Missing Data

1.9. Fitting Design Procedures

1.10. Design Steps

1.11. Chapter Summary

1.12. Challenges

Notes

Chapter 2: Bones, Muscles, and Strength of the Human Body

Abstract

Overview

2.1. Understanding The Human Body

2.2. The Skeletal System

2.3. Muscle

2.4. Voluntary Strength

2.5. Designing For Body Strength

2.6. Chapter Summary

2.7. Challenges

Notes

Chapter 3: How the Body Does Its Work

Abstract

Overview

3.1. Introduction1

3.2. The Respiratory System

3.3. The Circulatory System

3.4. The Metabolic System

3.5. Energy Requirements at Rest and at Work

3.6. Chapter Summary

3.7. Challenges

Notes

Chapter 4: How the Mind Works

Abstract

Overview

4.1. Introduction

4.2. The Traditional and the Ecological Concepts

4.3. Organization of the Nervous System

4.4. Stress

4.5. Enhancing Performance

4.6. When Our Mind Plays Tricks on Us

4.7. Chapter Summary

4.8. Challenges

Notes

Chapter 5: Human Senses

Abstract

Overview

5.1. Introduction

5.2. Body Sensors

5.3. Seeing—The Vision Sense

5.4. Hearing—The Auditory Sense

5.5. Smelling—The Olfactory Sense

5.6. Tasting—The Gustation Sense

5.7. Touching—The Cutaneous Senses

5.8. Maintaining Balance—The Vestibular Sense

5.9. Engineering use of Sensory Capabilities

5.10. Chapter Summary

5.11. Challenges

Notes

Chapter 6: How the Body Interacts with the Environment

Abstract

Overview

6.1. Climate

6.2. Polluted Air

6.3. High Altitude

6.4. Vibrations and Impacts

6.5. Space

6.6. Under Water

6.7. Chapter Summary

6.8. Challenges

Notes

Chapter 7: Effects of Rhythms, Schedules, Substances

Abstract

Overview

7.1. Biological Rhythms

7.2. Sleep

7.3. Shift Work

7.4. Compressed Work-Weeks, Extended Work-Days

7.5. Flextime

7.6. Body Rhythms and Alternate Work Schedules: Summary

7.7. Effects of Alcohol, Marijuana, and Other Drugs on Performance

7.8. Chapter Summary

7.9. Challenges

Notes

Section II: Design Applications

Chapter 8: Ergonomic Models, Methods, Measurements

Abstract

Overview

8.1. Introduction

8.2. Models

8.3. Methods

8.4. Measurements

8.5. Examples of Models, Methods, Measurements

8.6. Chapter Summary

8.7. Challenges

Notes

Chapter 9: Designing to Fit the Moving Body

Abstract

Overview

9.1. Moving, Not Staying Still

9.2. Recording and Evaluating Postures at Work

9.3. Designing for the Standing Operator

9.4. Designing for the Sitting Operator

9.5. Designing for Working Positions Other than Sitting or Standing

9.6. Designing for Foot Operation

9.7. Designing for Hand Use

9.8. Designing for Human Strength

9.9. Designing for Vision

9.10. Designing to Avoid Overuse Disorders in Shop and Office

9.11. Chapter Summary

9.12. Challenges

Notes

Chapter 10: The Computer Workplace

Abstract

Overview

10.1. Introduction

10.2. Theories of Posture and Comfort

10.3. Designing for Vision, Manipulation, and Body Support

10.4. The Office Environment

10.5. Chapter Summary

10.6. Challenges

Notes

Chapter 11: The Individual Within an Organization

Abstract

Overview

11.1. Introduction

11.2. Elements of an Organization

11.3. The Individual

11.4. Job Satisfaction

11.5. Job Design

11.6. Power at Work

11.7. Communicating at Work

11.8. Stress within Organizations

11.9. Work–Life Balance

11.10. Chapter Summary

11.11. Challenges

Notes

Chapter 12: Selection, Design, and Arrangement of Controls and Displays

Abstract

Overview

12.1. Controls

12.2. Keyboards and Computer Input Devices

12.3. Displays

12.4. Labels and Warnings

12.5. Autonomous Systems

12.6. Chapter Summary

12.7. Challenges

Notes

Chapter 13: Handling Loads

Abstract

Overview

13.1. Strains Associated with Load Handling

13.2. Assessing Body Capabilities for Material Handling

13.3. Current Guidelines for Material Handling

13.4. Training Individuals

13.5. Selecting Workers by Physical Testing

13.6. Ergonomic Design for Load Handling

13.7. Carrying Techniques

13.8. Moving Patients

13.9. Chapter Summary

13.10. Challenges

Notes

Chapter 14: Designing for Special Populations

Abstract

Overview

14.1. Background

14.2. Designing for Women or Men

14.3. Designing for Pregnant Women

14.4. Designing for Children

14.5. Designing for the Aging

14.6. Designing for Disabled Individuals

14.7. Designing for Overweight/Obese Workers

14.8. Designing for Patients and Healthcare Providers

14.9. Chapter Summary

14.10. Challenges

Notes

Chapter 15: Why and How to Do Ergonomics

Abstract

Overview

15.1. Evolution of the Quest for Ease and Efficiency

15.2. Reasons to Apply Ergonomics

15.3. Micro- and Macro-Ergonomics

15.4. How to Do Ergonomics

15.5. Judging the Efficacy of Ergonomic Interventions

15.6. Improving Human and System Performance, Health, Safety, Comfort, and Quality of Life

Notes

Section III: Further Information

References

Glossary

Index

Copyright

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Preface to the Third Edition

What do we know about the human body and mind at work? Given what we know, how then should we design the work task, tools, the interface with the machine, and work procedures so that the human can perform safely, efficiently, and with satisfaction--perhaps even enjoy working?

These challenges are the main themes of this book. The solutions are the WHY and HOW of ergonomics/human engineering.

These first lines in the 1994 first edition of Ergonomics–How To Design For Ease And Efficiency appeared again in the second edition of 2001, amended 2003. They remain the motto of this third edition of our book.

We have updated and refreshed content to reflect and/or clarify current approaches to mind and body, including more recent findings, research, applications, and equipment. In particular, we’ve substantially updated the chapters on the computer workplace (Chapter 10) and designing for special populations (Chapter 14) and added a chapter on the individual within an organization (Chapter 11). Further, we have made improvements to the organization and flow of the information in the chapters. For ease of reading, we avoided interrupting the text with names and dates of other authors but have used a small marker to refer to further Notes at the end of each chapter for the interested reader.

We have left out some older references which, in the earlier editions, supported ergonomic findings and recommendations that are now well established and generally accepted. Of course, we continue to provide the complete references for all previously and newly included material, so the third part of the book remains a substantive source of past and present ergonomic information.

We remain grateful to all who gave suggestions for improvements. Our principal influence is our father, Professor Emeritus Karl Heinrich Eberhard Kroemer, who is the original primary author of this text and remains our inspiration for all things ergonomic. His passion for relevant and practical research, rigorous engineering, and dissemination of information is reflected in this book. He has provided significant updates, insight, and guidance, and is our role model for methodical technical work with an eye for improving the human work condition.

We would like to hear from you! Please, tell us what we did well, what we should do better in the next edition, and remind us of any past knowledge not to be forgotten. We can be reached at katrin.ergonomics@gmail.com.

Katrin E. Kroemer Elbert, PhD

Henrike B. Kroemer, PhD, LP

Anne D. Kroemer Hoffman, MBA

Using This Book

In this book, we discuss interactions of the human with work tasks, task equipment and the work environment.

Our intent in exploring the interactions is to build a knowledge-based understanding so that we can:

• utilize human abilities,

• amplify human capabilities,

• facilitate human efficiency,

• avoid overloading or underloading, and, we hope,

• enjoy doing our tasks.

This book comprises physical, psychological, biomechanical, and social features of the human as they concern individual or group relations to job, equipment, task environment, and organization. The authors include administrative concerns, consider economic constraints, and reflect aspects of today’s ever-evolving technology. This book is comprehensive of all facets of human factors/ergonomics.

The writing and layout of this book rely on the concept of providing basic background knowledge and building from there to detailed information that allows the reader to delve further into special and novel applications. The person new to the field, the undergraduate and the graduate student will all gain a broad and thorough understanding of Human-Technology Systems.

The authors acknowledge that, although the physical aspects of humans are changing only slowly, requirements for design are ever changing as the ergonomic database is ever expanding. To that end, we include general references to international standards and organizations to allow the interested reader to seek the latest information and requirements, which are updating more frequently than this text.

Further, we intend this book to be useful to any interested reader and try to present issues relevant to all humans. We use the pronouns he and she interchangeably when referring to gender non-specific features of human factors. While we understand that gender may be used to describe masculinity/femininity, much of the literature we review assumes gender refers to biological aspects of maleness/femaleness.

Ergonomic understanding will benefit established professionals, both specialists and generalists, concerned with people’s performance and well-being at work. Among these are the designer, engineer, architect, industrial hygienist, industrial physician, industrial psychologist, occupational nurse, and manager. Of course, all of us are interested in humanizing work, making it more safe, efficient, and satisfying.

Easy Reading

To avoid breaking the flow of reading, we have placed small markers in the text: they indicate where references or explanations are in order. These appear in a separate Notes section at the end of each chapter, which the reader may skip or consult.

Three Sections of This Book

Section I: The Ergonomic Knowledge Base consists of Chapters 1–7. Here, we explore the properties of the human body and mind in the task environment. The focus is on human dimensions, capabilities and limitations; that is, the human factors to be considered in designing for ease and efficiency. For everybody’s convenience, we use traditional disciplinary divisions into anatomy, physiology and psychology, whereas, as we all know, the human functions holistically and synergistically. The chapters contain references to overlapping information covered in other chapters.

Section II: Design Applications contains Chapters 8–15. Here, we discuss the design of tasks, equipment and environment based on the knowledge base developed in Section I about human attributes, strengths and limitations.

Section III: Further Information at the end of the book, includes a list of all References mentioned in the text (including previous editions), an extensive Glossary with concise descriptions and definitions, and a detailed Index that refers the reader to specific pages.

Three Ways to Use This Book

1. Read straight through from beginning to the end, as a university course, and work on the Challenges listed at the end of each chapter.

2. Select a chapter of particular interest, absorb the background information, and proceed to design applications that make use of that information.

3. Start with the index, pick a topic of interest, and look up the information in the book section(s) that the index cites.

Introducing Ergonomics and Human Factors Engineering

What Ergonomics Is

Ergonomics is the use of scientific principles, methods, and data drawn from a variety of disciplines for the development of systems in which people play a significant role. The field of applications extends from a single person using a simple tool to a complex multi-person socio-technical organization.

Ergonomic specialists rely on the understanding that systems are meant to benefit people, whether they are consumers, production workers, system operators or maintenance crews. This user-centered design philosophy acknowledges human variability as a design parameter. The resultant design features utilize human capabilities, consider human limitations and have built-in safeguards to avoid or reduce the effects of human error or of system failure.

Ergonomics is neutral: it takes no sides, neither employers’ nor workers’. It is not for or against progress. It is not a philosophy, but a scientific discipline and practical technology.

What Ergonomics Does

Ergonomics focuses on the human as the most important component of our technological systems. This explains the early terms human factors engineering, man-machine systems, and the recent human-systems integration. The aim is to assure that all human-made tools, devices, equipment, machines, environments and their organizations advance, directly or indirectly, the well-being of humans and their performance.

Accordingly, ergonomics has three related tasks:

1. Study, research, and experimentation to determine specific human traits and characteristics that need to be known for engineering design.

2. Apply this knowledge in the design of tools, machines, shelter, environments, work tasks and procedures so that they fit and accommodate the human.

3. Observe the actual performance of humans and their equipment in the real or a simulated environment, assess the suitability of the designed human-machine system and determine whether improvements are possible.

How Ergonomics Came About

Using objects found in the environment as tools is an ancient activity. Pieces of stone, bone, and wood must have been selected for their fit to the hand and their suitability as cutters, scrapers, pounders, and missiles. Purposeful shaping of these tools naturally came next, followed by assembling raw materials to make, for example, protective clothing and shelters. These fundamental ergonomic activities grew into individual and communal skills and then into processes for creating finished products from diverse materials.

As human society grew more complex, organizational and managerial challenges developed. Training workers and soldiers, for example, became necessary, together with forming and controlling their behavior. Major projects, such as building the pyramids of ancient Egypt, assembling armies for warfare, sheltering the inhabitants of cities and supplying them with food and water, required sophisticated knowledge of human needs and desires; careful planning and complex logistics had to be mastered. The aims and means of training became sophisticated as well: Roman soldiers, for example, underwent well-organized exercises and conditioning until they could perform military exercises with ease: drying the legions of the Roman Empire relied on the principle of adapting and improving the physiological capabilities of the recruits to meet challenging physical requirements; when they no longer showed sweat on the skin, they were dry and fit.

Evolution of Disciplines

Artists, military officers, employers and athletes apparently were always interested in body build and physical performance. Specialized medicine men and herb women treated illnesses and injuries. About 400 BC, Hippocrates (often considered the father of western medicine) described a scheme of four body types: the moist type was believed to be dominated by black gall, the dry type by yellow gall, the cold type by slime, and the warm type by blood. These humors had been in some balance to keep an individual healthy. Knowledge of medicine, anatomy and anthropology began to assemble.

Over the centuries, more exact information accumulated into specialized disciplines. In the 15th–17th centuries, gifted people such as Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) and Alfonzo Giovanni Borelli (1608–1679) could still master all existing knowledge of anatomy, physiology and equipment design; these individuals were artist, scientist, and engineer in one. Da Vinci, along with being an exceptional artist, understood nature, mechanics, anatomy, physics, architecture, and weaponry. His designs for machines included a bicycle, helicopter, and an airplane. Borelli’s book de Motu Animalium, published in 1680, applied the modern principle of scientific investigation by continuing Galileo’s custom of testing hypotheses against observation. Borelli extended rigorous analytical methods to biology (he can be called the father of biomechanics); he was the first to understand that the levers of the human musculoskeletal system favor quick motion rather than force.

In the 18th century, the sciences of anatomy and physiology diversified and amassed specific detailed knowledge. Psychology began to develop as a distinct field of study. Well into the 19th century, the sciences tended to be oriented toward theories: the stereotype is the scientist in a white coat who devotes his life to research in the laboratory. But increasing industrialization with its employment of human workers, focused interest on applied aspects of the pure sciences.¹ In the early 1800s, in France, Lavoisier, Duchenne, Amar, and Dunod researched energy capabilities of the human body. Marey developed methods to describe human motions at work. Bedaux made studies to determine work and payment systems before Taylor and the Gilbreths did similar work in the United States in the early 1900s. In England, the Industrial Fatigue Research Board considered theoretical and practical aspects of the human at work. In Italy, Mosso constructed dynamometers and ergometers to research fatigue. In Scandinavia, Johannsson and Tigerstedt developed the scientific disciplines of work physiology. In 1913, Rubner founded a Work Physiology Institute in Germany. In the United States, Benedict and Cathcard described the efficiencies of muscular work in 1913. The Harvard Fatigue Laboratory was established in 1927.

In the first half of the 20th century, applied physiology and psychology were well advanced and widely recognized, both in their theoretical research to study human characteristics and in the application of this knowledge for the appropriate design of the living and work environment. Two distinct approaches to studying human characteristics had developed: one concerned chiefly with physiological and physical properties of the human, the other interested mainly in psychological and social traits. Although there was much overlap between these approaches, the physical and physiological aspects were studied mainly in Europe and the psychological and social aspects and North America.

Directions in Europe

Based on a broad fundament of anatomical, anthropological and physiological research, work physiology assumed great importance in Europe, particularly in the hunger years associated with the First World War. Marginal living conditions stimulated research on such topics as the minimal nutrition required to perform certain activities; the consumption of energy while doing agricultural, industrial, military and household tasks; the relationships between energy consumption and heart rate; the assessment of muscular capabilities; suitable body postures at work; the design of equipment and work stations to fit the human body. Another development in the 1920s was psycho-technology, which involved testing individuals for their ability to perform physical and mental work, their vigilance and attention, their ability to carry mental workload, their behavior as drivers of vehicles, their ability to read road signs, and related topics.

Directions in North America

Most psychologists around 1900 were strictly scientific and deliberately avoided studying problems that strayed outside the boundaries of pure research. Some investigators, however, pursued practical concerns, such as sending and receiving Morse code, measuring perception and attention at work, using psychology in advertising, and promoting industrial efficiency.

A particularly important step was the development of intelligence testing,² used to screen military recruits during the First World War and, later, to select industrial workers for their mental capabilities which certain jobs required. The concept of industrial psychology won acceptance.

Some of the best-known, most puzzling findings in industrial psychology resulted from experiments at the Hawthorne Works near Chicago in the mid-1920s. The experiments were designed to assess relationships between efficiency and lighting in workrooms where electrical equipment was produced. The bizarre finding was that the workers’ productivity increased whenever the illumination was changed, regardless of increase or decrease; apparently, productivity responded to the attention paid to the workers by the researchers. This phenomenon became known as the observer or Hawthorne Effect.³

Industrial psychology⁴ divided into special branches, including personnel psychology, organizational behavior, industrial relations, and engineering psychology. Under the pressures of the Second World War, the human factor as part of a man-machine system became a major concern. Technological development lead to machines and systems that put higher demands on the attention, endurance, and strength of individuals and teams than many could muster. For example: operators had to observe radar screens over periods of many hours, with the intent of detecting and distinguishing some blips from others. In high-performance aircraft, the pilot had to endure forceful accelerations, for instance in tight turns and in steep dives or climbs. In these cases, the pilot might be unable to operate hand controls properly and could even black out. Crew members had to fit into tiny tank and aircraft cockpits, and (from the 1960s on) into spacecraft, which required that small persons be selected from expert aviators. Stressful conditions make it difficult to maintain morale and performance. New tasks and machinery generate new needs to consider human physique and psychology, purposefully, and knowingly, in the design of jobs, equipment, and environments.

Names for the Discipline: Ergonomics and Human Factors

Early on, in Europe and North America, anthropologists, physiologists, psychologists, sociologists, statisticians, and engineers used various terms to describe their activities of studying the human and applying the information obtained in design, selection, and training.

In January of 1950, British researchers met in Cambridge, England, to select a name for the new society to represent their activities. Among others, the term ergonomic was proposed.⁵ In late 1949, KFH Murrell had derived that word from the Greek terms ergon, indicating work and effort, and nomos, meaning law or usage; apparently, he re-invented a word already used by W. Jastrzebowski in Poland nearly a hundred years earlier. That term was neutral; it implied no priority among contributing disciplines; it was easily remembered and recognized and could be used in any language. Ergonomics was formally accepted as the name of the new society at its council meeting in early 1950.⁶

In the United States, a group convened in 1956 to establish a formal society. They selected human factors instead of ergonomics. Often, the word engineering is added or substituted to indicate applications, as in human (factors) engineering. In 1992, the Human Factors Society renamed itself the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society⁷ HFES with (in 2016) about 4500 individual members.⁸

The International Ergonomics Association IEA has 54 member societies (in 2016⁹ ) with 28 in Europe, 13 in Asia, 9 in the Americas and 4 in Africa and the Oceania regions.

There has been some discussion of whether human factors differs from ergonomics—whether one relies more heavily on psychology or on physiology, or is more theoretical or practical than the other. Today, the two terms are usually considered synonymous: the Canadian Society uses human factors in its English name, and ergonomie in its French version.

Today’s Ergonomic Knowledge Base

The development of space travel first forced humans to fold themselves into minuscule capsules; now people live and function in near weightlessness for months. Today, many professional activities involve long hours using computers of one kind or another as the primary work tools. Yet, heavy physical work still persists in many jobs in industry, in commercial fishing, in agriculture and forestry—some hard work is even new, such as in airline baggage handling.

The field of ergonomics/human factors continues to grow and to change, driven by new technologies and by the resulting new tasks for people. Classic sciences still provide fundamental information about human beings (Fig. 1). The anthropological basis consists of Anatomy, describing the build of the human body; Orthopedics, concerned with the skeletal system; Physiology, dealing with the functions and activities of living body, including the physical and chemical processes involved; Medicine, concerned with injuries and illnesses and their prevention and healing; Psychology, the science of mind and behavior; and Sociology, concerned with the development, structure, interaction, and behavior of individuals or groups. Of course, physics, chemistry, statistics, and mathematical modeling supply methodology and knowledge.

Figure 1   Origins, developments, and applications of ergonomics/human factors.

Several applied disciplines developed from these basic sciences; these include primarily Anthropometry, the measuring and description of the physical dimensions of the human body; Biomechanics (Anthromechanics), describing the physical behavior of the body in mechanical terms; Industrial Hygiene, concerned with the control of occupational health hazards; Industrial Psychology, discussing people’s attitudes and behavior at work; Management, dealing with and coordinating the intentions of the employer and the employees; and Work Physiology, applying physical knowledge and measuring techniques to the body at work. Of course, associated disciplines such as Labor Relations have developed which are also part of, or contribute to, or overlap with, ergonomics.

Their topical areas overlap and intertwine; their research produces practical applications in such fields as Industrial Engineering, also called Integrated Engineering, concerned with the interactions among people, machinery, and energies; Bioengineering, working to replace worn or damaged body parts; Systems Engineering, in which the human is an important component of the overall work unit; Safety Engineering and Industrial Hygiene, which focus on the well-being of humans; and Military Engineering, which relies on the human as soldier or operator. As computers have become integrated into all aspects of modern day life, computer-aided design is used in all aspects of engineering. Naturally, other application disciplines also rely on ergonomic knowledge and data, such as oceanographic, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering.

Goals of Ergonomics

The (US) National Research Council asserted in 1983¹⁰ that design begins with an understanding of the user’s role in overall system performance and that systems exist to serve their users, whether they are consumers, system operators, production workers, or maintenance crews. This user-oriented design philosophy acknowledges human variability as a design parameter. The resultant designs incorporate features that take advantage of unique human capabilities as well as built-in safeguards. The human is never indentured to the system but is the beneficiary, the passenger, the participant, the operator, the supervisor, the controller, and the decision maker.

There is a hierarchy of goals in ergonomics. The most essential and basic task is to generate tolerable working conditions that do not pose unavoidable dangers to human life or health. When this basic requirement is assured, the next goal is to generate acceptable conditions to which the people involved can voluntarily agree. The final goal is to generate optimal conditions that are so well adapted to human characteristics, capabilities, and desires that physical, mental, and social well-being is achieved.

Ergonomics Defined

Ergonomics (human factors, human engineering, human factors engineering) is the study of human characteristics for the appropriate design of the living and work environment. Its fundamental aim is that all man-made tools, devices, equipment, machinery, and environments advance, directly or indirectly, well-being and performance of people. As more knowledge about humans becomes available, as novel opportunities develop to apply human capabilities in modern systems, and as new needs arise for protecting the person from outside events, ergonomics changes and expands.

Notes

1 For more details, see McFarland (1946), Chapanis, Garner, and Morgan (1949), Lehmann (1953, 1962), Floyd and Welford (1954), Woodson (1954), Brouha (1960, 1967), Grandjean (1963), and Scherrer (1967).

2 Gould (1981) provides a partly amusing, partly disturbing account of the early years of such testing.

3 Roethlisberger and Dickson (1943), Parsons (1974, 1990), and Jones (1990).

4 The term first appeared as a misprint of individual psychology, as Muchinsky (1983), p. 12.

5 Edholm and Murrell (1974), Monod and Valentin (1979), and Koradecka (2000).

6 The original proposal for the name included two alternative suggestions. One was Ergonomic Society. Note that there is no s following Ergonomic; the final s apparently slipped into the ballot and has made deriving an adjective or adverb difficult. The other alternative was Human Research Society.

7 Christensen, Topmiller and Gill (1988), Kroemer (1993a,b), and Meister (1999).

8 Accessed 7 July 2016 from https://hfes.org.

9 Accessed 21 June 2016 from https://iea.cc/.

10 National Research Council, Committee on Human Factors (1983), Research needs for human factors, pp. 2–3, Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Section I

The Ergonomic Knowledge Base

Chapter 1: Size and Mobility of the Human Body

Chapter 2: Bones, Muscles, and Strength of the Human Body

Chapter 3: How the Body Does Its Work

Chapter 4: How the Mind Works

Chapter 5: Human Senses

Chapter 6: How the Body Interacts with the Environment

Chapter 7: Effects of Rhythms, Schedules, Substances

Chapter 1

Size and Mobility of the Human Body

Abstract

This chapter addresses key aspects of anthropometric data: what data are available, how to use these data, and limitations of these data. Often, suitable data may already exist, but when and how to use these data requires an understanding of the limitations of measurement. When properly used, anthropometric data that considers the size and mobility of the human body allow us to design equipment and tools that utilize and enhance human strengths.

Keywords

Anthropology

anthropometry

body proportions

measurement techniques

statistics

variability in anthropometric data

Outline

1.1 Humans Spreading Over the Earth

1.2 Anthropology and Anthropometry

1.2.1 Measurement Techniques

1.2.2 Body Posture during Measurements

1.2.3 Body Measures

1.2.4 Classical Measuring Techniques

1.2.5 New Measurement Techniques

1.3 Available Anthropometric Information

1.3.1 Variability

1.3.2 Population Samples

1.4 Anthropometric Statistics

1.5 Using Anthropometric Data

1.6 Body Proportions

1.6.1 Body Image

1.6.2 Desirable Body Weight

1.6.3 Body Mass Index

1.7 Dealing With Statistics

1.8 How to Obtain Missing Data

1.9 Fitting Design Procedures

1.9.1 Safe Distances

1.10 Design Steps

1.11 Chapter Summary

1.12 Challenges

Overview

How tall are you? What’s your weight? For us to design things that fit people, we must know the dimensions of their bodies; however, body builds can vary considerably among individuals. Measurements of body sizes are available for some populations, but for many people on Earth only estimates exist. If we have suitable statistical descriptors and know the relationships among various body data, we can calculate probable body dimensions; if not, we must measure. Understanding the properties, capabilities, and limitations of the body allows us to design equipment and tools that utilize and enhance human strengths.

1.1. Humans Spreading Over the Earth

Development of humans

The human species appears to have grown like a big bush: some branches at first develop but then dry up, while others grow more and more twigs, some of which may vanish while others flourish. We can trace the development of the human race by fossils and by reconstructing mitochondrial DNA over several million years in Africa, for hundreds of thousands of years in Europe and Asia, and for some 20,000 years in the Americas.

Homo in Africa

Current paleoanthropology suggests that Australopithecine was a predecessor (or possibly close evolutionary cousin) of the genus Homo about 3 million years ago in Africa, where Homo erectus then developed. One humanoid branch started about 250,000 years ago and remained in Africa. Another branch developed 60,000 or 70,000 years later. Some of its members stayed in Africa, others spread into Eurasia. Eventually, Homo sapiens spread all over the Earth.¹

Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons

Remains of anatomically modern humans who lived 130,000–180,000 years ago have been found in South Africa and in the Levant. About 150,000 years ago, the Neanderthals emerged, primarily in central Europe. They apparently were stocky, heavy-set, and cold-adapted with a brain as big as our current one. For several thousand years, they existed side-by-side with Cro-Magnons but then vanished about 30,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnons grew into Homo sapiens.

Popular notions about the different appearances of Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals are mostly based on conjecture, often in the style of a commercial Hollywood-type movie. For example, there is no indication that the Cro-Magnons were dark skinned, or the Neanderthals light. Furthermore, there is no evidence of violent struggles for superiority between the two races.²

Humans spread from Africa

From Africa, Homo sapiens spread over the Earth. Roughly 50,000 years ago, Australia was settled by early humans who arrived from eastern Indonesia. Their descendants became the Aboriginal population. Most of the current inhabitants of Indonesia, the Philippines, and parts of Southeast Asia may be descendants of a population that emigrated from modern-day Taiwan about 4000–6000 years ago.³

Emigrants from Asia in the Americas

Waves of peoples, the earliest around 20,000 years ago, crossed what was then the Bering land bridge from East Asia to modern-day Alaska. Some moved into the areas of today’s Canada and the United States, others followed the pacific coastal areas into South America. Their descendants populated the entire hemisphere, becoming the ancestors of North, Central, and South American native peoples.

Europe

After its old history of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, the European population was reconstituted twice fairly recently: around 8000 years ago by people from the Near East and then 2000 years later by Indo-Europeans from southern Russia.

Population growth

Thus, the human stock with its many current branches appears African in origin and about a quarter-million years old. Today, the number of people is growing fast; population explosions are occurring in some parts of the Earth. The total number of humans was about 10⁹ (1000 million, or 1 billion) around 1800. In 1900, about 1.7 billion people lived on Earth. The second billion was reached by 1930. The third billion was present in 1960, the fifth in 1987. In 1998, about 5.8 billion people lived on Earth, including 4.6 billion in developing countries. In 2017, the total human population on Earth has been estimated to be 7.5 billion. If current birth and death rates continue, about 10 billion people will live on Earth in 2050; projections beyond this time vary widely.

Local population changes

Emigration from certain areas and immigration to others are on a much smaller scale than population growth but can be locally of great importance. In North America, for example, during the last few centuries, waves of immigrants from certain geographical areas have been changing the composition of the inhabitant population, replacing most native peoples with Europeans. In today’s United States, the influx of Cubans and Haitians is strongly felt in Florida, the arrival of Central and South Americans affects mostly southwestern states, and Asians are very evident along the Pacific coast.

1.2. ANthropology and Anthropometry

Measurement of the human body

Anthropology, the study of mankind, was primarily philosophical and aesthetic in nature until about the middle of the 19th century. Size, proportions, and appearance of the human body have always been of interest to artists, warriors, and physicians. In the mid-1800s, Adolphe Quetelet applied statistics to anthropological data of body measurements. This was the beginning of modern anthropometry, the measurement and description of the human body. By the end of the 19th century, anthropometry was a widely applied scientific discipline, used both in measuring the bones of early people and in assessing the body sizes and proportions of contemporaries. A new offspring, biomechanics (related to structure and movement), emerged. Today, engineers have become highly interested in the application of anthropometric and anthromechanical information.⁴

Standardized measurements

Unification of measuring methods became necessary and was achieved primarily by anthropologists who convened 1906 in Monaco and 1912 in Geneva. They established landmarks on the body, mostly on bones, to and from which to take measurements. In 1914, Rudolf Martin published his Lehrbuch der Anthropologie. The several editions of this authoritative textbook shaped the discipline for decades. Beginning in the 1960s, increasing engineering needs for anthropometric information, newly developing measuring techniques, and advanced statistical considerations stimulated the need for updated standardization. Since the 1980s, the International Standardization Organization (ISO) has established conforming anthropometric techniques worldwide.⁵

1.2.1. Measurement Techniques

Most body measurements are defined by the two endpoints of the distance measured. For example, forearm length is the elbow-to-fingertip distance; stature (height) starts at the floor on which the subject stands and extends to the highest point on the skull.

Reference planes

Fig. 1.1 shows the three standard reference planes: the medial (mid-sagittal), the frontal (or coronal), and the transverse planes, all at 90 degrees to each other and usually set to meet in the center of mass of the whole body. A Cartesian coordinate system is seldom employed in anthropometry but used routinely in anthromechanics (see Chapters 2 and 6)⁶ ; the convention is to set the +x axis pointing forward from the subject, +y to the subject’s left, and +z upward. The origin of the axes may be moved to any point of the body, such as to a hand, if appropriate for modeling.

Figure 1.1   Reference planes in anthropometry.

Note the directions of x, y, and z—see text.

Body length

The classic reference posture of a person standing upright is similar to that shown in Fig. 1.1 but with the heels of the feet kept together, called anatomical position. Fig. 1.2 lists other descriptive terms.

Figure 1.2   Terminology used in anthropometry. Source: Adapted from Kroemer, Kroemer, and Kroemer (2010).

For measurement of stature, the subjects may assume one of four customary positions: standing naturally upright; standing stretched to maximum height; leaning against a wall with the back flattened and buttocks, shoulders, and back of the head touching the wall; or lying on the back. Lying supine results in the largest measure; it is mostly used with infants who are unable to stand. The difference between measures when the standing subject either stretches or just stands upright can easily be 2 cm or more. This demonstrates that standardization is needed to assure uniform postures and comparable results.⁷

1.2.2. Body Posture during Measurements

Body posture

For most measurements, the subject stands upright with body segments in line with each other or at right angles. When measurements are taken on a seated person, the flat and horizontal surfaces of feet and foot support are so arranged that the thighs are horizontal, the lower legs vertical, and the feet flat on their horizontal support. The subject is nude, or nearly so, and does not wear shoes.

Head posture

If measurements include the head, it is positioned upright (erect), with the pupils on the same horizontal level. The traditional term for this posture was head in the Frankfurt Plane, but an easier description is by the Ear–Eye (E–E) Line: it passes through the right ear hole and the outside juncture of the lids of the right eye. When the head is upright, the E–E Line is angled by about 11 degrees above the horizon, as shown in Fig. 1.3.

Figure 1.3   The Ear–Eye Line describes head posture in the lateral view.

The E–E Line is also the reference for the angle of the line of sight, LOSEE, in the medial plane.

1.2.3. Body Measures

Height is a straight-line, point-to-point vertical measurement.

Breadth is a straight-line, point-to-point horizontal measurement running across the body or a segment.

Depth is a straight-line, point-to-point horizontal measurement running fore-aft the body.

Distance is a straight-line, point-to-point measurement between landmarks on the body.

Curvature is a point-to-point measurement following a contour; this measurement is usually neither closed nor circular.

Circumference is a closed measurement that follows a body contour; hence this measurement is usually not circular.

Reach is a point-to-point measurement following the long axis of the arm or leg.

All measurements are taken on people maintaining prescribed erect standing or sitting stances.

Figs. 1.4 and 1.5 illustrate anatomical landmarks on the human body which serve as starting and endpoints for body measures.

Figure 1.4   Anatomical landmarks in the sagittal view.

Figure 1.5   Anatomical landmarks in the frontal view.

1.2.4. Classical Measuring Techniques

Grid technique

The Morant technique used a set of measurement grids, usually attached to the inside corner of two vertical walls meeting at right angles. The subject was placed in front of the grids, and projections of the body onto the grids were used to determine anthropometric values. Related box-like jigs with grids are still in some use for determining foot dimensions.

Hand-held measuring devices

In the classical method, the anthropometrist’s hands guide special measuring instruments to the bony landmarks on the body of the subject. The largest instrument is the anthropometer, a graduated rod with a sliding edge at right angle, used to measure long straight distances. The spreading caliper consists of two curved branches joined in a hinge, used to determine the distance between the tips of the branches. A small sliding caliper serves to take short measurements, such as finger thickness or finger length. Thickness of skinfolds, a measure of body fat, is determined with a skinfold caliper. A cone serves to measure the diameter around which fingers can close. Circumferences and curvatures are measured with a tape.

Simple but clumsy

Measuring body dimensions with these traditional instruments is simple in principle, but requires experience and skill and consumes a great deal of time. Each measurement and tool must be selected in advance, and what was not measured in the test session remains as an unknown. A major shortcoming of the classical technique is that most body measures appear unrelated to each other in space. For example, as one looks at a subject from the side, stature, eye height, and shoulder height are located in different yet undefined frontal planes.

1.2.5. New Measurement Techniques

Photography

Photographs can record all three-dimensional (3D) aspects of the human body. They allow the recording of practically infinite numbers of measurements, taken from the recording at one’s convenience. However, photographs also have drawbacks: the body is depicted in two dimensions; a scale may be difficult to establish; parallax distortions occur; and bony landmarks under the skin cannot be palpated on the photograph. For these and other reasons, two-dimensional photographic and video anthropometry have not been widely used.

Placing a probe

An electromechanical probe⁸ can be placed on body landmarks and their locations can be registered in three dimensions. Computerized data storage and processing allows 3D identification of body points and of their changes by motion.

Body scanning

A laser can be used as a distance-measuring device to determine the shape of irregular bodies. Measurements are taken by either rotating the body to be measured, or by rotating the sending and receiving units of the laser device around the body. Markers may be placed on points of the body surface so that the laser can recognize them, for example to indicate the location of a bone landmark. Scanning⁹ is fast and collects vast amounts of measurements. Computerized data storage and processing allows detailed 3D descriptions of the body and of changes due to motion, training, or aging.

1.3. Available Anthropometric Information

Anthropometric sourcebooks

In the past, interest in the body build of populations other than one’s own group was based mostly on curiosity and general wish to know; however, as industry and marketing began to reach around the globe, body size became a matter of practical interest to designers and engineers. Around 1970, first compilations of worldwide anthropometric information appeared.¹⁰ Since then, an increasing number of publications describe national populations. Modern measuring technology and sophisticated statistics allow anthropometric assessment of populations to be taken rapidly and accurately.

Earth’s population

Table 1.1 shows 1990 estimates of stature of the Earth’s population, divided into regional groups. Table 1.2 contains measured data on specific population samples. These data are included only to demonstrate the variability that may be encountered, and not to reflect current populations: in many cases the surveys were done decades ago and included only small groups.¹¹

Table 1.1

Source: Adapted from Jürgens, Aune, and Pieper (1990).

Table 1.2

Source: Adapted from Kroemer (2017) who listed all sources except Patel et al. (2016) for North-East (Assam) Indian farm workers.

Abbreviation: nda, no data available.

1.3.1. Variability

Anthropometric data show considerable variability stemming from four sources: variability in the measurement itself, variability within the individual, variability between individuals, and secular variability.

1.3.1.1. Measurement Variability

Poor data

Varying degrees of care can be exercised in selecting population samples, using measurement instruments, storing the measured data, and applying statistical treatments. Depending on the care taken during measurements, the resulting information may be quite variable. An exceptionally large standard deviation (see statistics later in this chapter) of a data set can be a warning signal.

1.3.1.2. Intraindividual Variability

Changes over time

An individual’s body size changes from youth to age, and it depends on nutrition, physical exercise, and health as well as genetics. Such changes in the same individual become apparent in longitudinal studies, in which an individual is observed over years and decades. Most (but not all) such changes with age follow the scheme shown in Fig. 1.6. During childhood and adolescence, body dimensions such as stature increase rapidly. From early 20s into the 50s, little change occurs and in general, stature remain almost steady. From the sixth decade on, many dimensions decline, while others—such as weight or bone circumference—often increase.

Figure 1.6   Approximate changes in stature with age.

1.3.1.3. Interindividual Variability

People differ

Individuals differ from each other in body proportions and in specific measurements such as arm length, weight, and height. Data describing a population sample are usually collected in a cross-sectional study, in which every subject is measured at about the same moment in time. This means that people of different ages, nutrition, fitness, etc., are included in the sample set. Most textbooks, including this one, contain data gathered in cross-sectional studies.

1.3.1.4. Secular Variations

Trends taller and fatter

Factual and anecdotal evidence shows that people in present day are larger, on average, than their ancestors; yet, reliable anthropometric information on this development is available only for about the last 100 years. During the latter half of the 20th century, stature increased in North America and in Europe by about 1 cm per decade, on average. The probable reason was that improved nutrition and hygiene have allowed individuals to achieve more of their genetically determined body size potential. If this explanation is correct, then the rate of increase should slowly taper off until a final body size is reached: indeed, for stature¹² in the United States, this seems to happening. Also during the latter half of the 20th century, body weight increased by about 2 kg per decade, but since about 2010, that increase has risen dramatically and has generated concerns about obesity in many countries.

Military surveys

Most reliable data depicting secular trends are from military surveys. However, soldiers constitute a selected sample of the general population: for example, they exclude people older than about 50 years as well as people who are unusual in their body dimensions, such as extremely short or tall. Further, only fairly healthy individuals are included.¹³

1.3.2. Population Samples

Civilians’ body sizes

The Human Biometry Data Bank at the University René Descartes in Paris contains extensive anthropometric information on Europeans. Publications of the World Health Organization (WHO) and ISO standards contain some international body size data. Unfortunately, sufficient information on most populations on Earth is missing. Available anthropometric data, such as listed in Table 1.2, are usually limited to a few dimensions, commonly stature and weight, often measured on small population samples.

Body sizes of soldiers

Body dimensions of soldiers have long been of interest for a variety of reasons, among them to provide uniforms, armor, and equipment. Armies have personnel willing to and capable of performing body measurements on large numbers of soldiers, available on command. Hence, anthropometric information about soldiers has a long history and is rather complete. For example, the US military anthropometric data bank contains the data of about 100 surveys from many nations, though most on US military personnel.

US Army body sizes

Among the US military services, the Army is the largest and anthropometrically least biased sample of the total US adult population. Therefore, the body dimensions of the Army often serve as useful estimates for the general North American adult population. However, the user of this information must realize that the military consists of relatively young and healthy individuals. Thus, civilian data are likely to differ somewhat; only the soldiers’ heads, hands, and feet are considered similar to civilians’ dimensions.¹⁴ It is of some interest to note that even the military data show strong increases in body weight from 1988 to 2012,¹⁵ accompanied by enlarged trunk depth measures and associated larger circumferences especially of the trunk and thighs—apparently, the worldwide obesity trend pertains both to soldiers and civilians.

Body sizes in China, Russia and United States

Table 1.3 provides anthropometric data excerpted from surveys done on Chinese in Taiwan measured between 1996 and 2000; on Russians in Moscow measured between 1984 and 1986; and on US Army soldiers measured between 2010 and 2012. Figs. 1.7–1.9 depict the tabulated body dimensions.

Table 1.3