Ergonomic Design of Industrial Sewing Machines

Summary

This paper reports on a case study where both conventional ergonomic, and computer aided design (CAD) techniques were used to design a workplace housing an industrial sewing machine. The first part of the study was concerned with the assessment of an existing workplace according to ergonomic criteria. The aim of this work was to identify and prioritize elements of the existing design that formed the major issues affecting the comfort and productivity of the operator. A wide variety of standard evaluative tools such as interviews, video analysis and task analysis were used to collect the necessary data. The second part of the study was concerned with translating this information into a specification for a new workplace design. Conventional ergonomic data and guidelines were combined with a CAD facility called SAMMIE (system for aiding man-machine interaction) to generate some computer mock-ups having the recommended characteristics of the redesigned workplace. Some findings from the study are presented.