title: Impact of task design on task performance and injury risk: case study of a simulated drilling task.
abstract: Existing evidence is limited regarding the influence of task design on performance and ergonomic risk, or the association between these two outcomes. In a controlled experiment, we constructed a mock fuselage to simulate a drilling task common in aircraft manufacturing, and examined the effect of three levels of workstation adjustability on performance as measured by productivity (e.g. fuselage completion time) and quality (e.g. fuselage defective holes), and ergonomic risk as quantified using two common methods (rapid upper limb assessment and the strain index). The primary finding was that both productivity and quality significantly improved with increased adjustability, yet this occurred only when that adjustability succeeded in reducing ergonomic risk. Supporting the inverse association between ergonomic risk and performance, the condition with highest adjustability created the lowest ergonomic risk and the best performance while there was not a substantial difference in ergonomic risk between the other two conditions, in which performance was also comparable. Practitioner Summary: Findings of this study supported a causal relationship between task design and both ergonomic risk and performance, and that ergonomic risk and performance are inversely associated. While future work is needed under more realistic conditions and a broader population, these results may be useful for task (re)design and to help cost-justify some ergonomic interventions.
authors.affiliation: a Industrial Engineering Department , College of Engineering, King Saud University , Riyadh , Saudi Arabia.|b Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering , Virginia Tech , Blacksburg , VA , USA.
authors.forename: Saad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Alabdulkarim
authors.affiliation: b Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering , Virginia Tech , Blacksburg , VA , USA.
authors.forename: Maury A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Nussbaum
authors.affiliation: b Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering , Virginia Tech , Blacksburg , VA , USA.
authors.forename: Ehsan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rashedi
authors.affiliation: b Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering , Virginia Tech , Blacksburg , VA , USA.
authors.forename: Sunwook
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: b Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering , Virginia Tech , Blacksburg , VA , USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Agnew
authors.affiliation: c Advanced Ergonomics Technologies, Boeing Research & Technology , Everett , WA , USA.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gardner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004526:Efficiency; D006804:Ergonomics / Q000379:methods*; D019652:Extraction and Processing Industry; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D060051:Occupational Injuries / Q000209:etiology*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D000066477:Work Performance; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Ergonomic risk; adjustability; performance; quality; task design