Monday, May 13, 2013

Research Paper on Ergonomic Design

Introduction
Chair designs involve making chairs that are comfortable for the human person to sit on and have been improving since they were first built and in today’s modern world, designers consider a number of factors some being the intended place of use, the intended users through simulation and how the future will be seeing to it that the world changes rapidly.

Problem Statement
With the ever changing work environment, new jobs have come up and development in these new fields has unearthed new technology to help hasten the various work related processes.

Dentistry, for instance, is a field that has been there since time immemorial but with the various forms of services incorporated into the practice, machines have been brought in to help out with the enormous amount of tasks involved. Among the equipment developed for this field includes the patient’s chair. The chair for this practice is particularly special as it has in-built functionality to stand upright and to incline to a position whereby the dentist will be comfortable to work on the patient. 

The angle of inclination greatly depends on the height of the patient and that of the dentist among other factors. Ergonomics demand that the seat be comfortable enough to redistribute the patient’s weight so that he/she can relax and focus on the problematic tooth/teeth and the dentist be in a position to see the patient’s teeth and work on it accordingly. The seat should be strong enough to support the weight of different patients and also last for a longer period of time.

Literature Review
Independent studies commissioned by employers on the state and health of their employees returned shocking revelations with most companies recording high levels of employee absenteeism occasioned by on-the-job injuries. With respect to the injuries obtained while working, companies as well as other independent employers are losing billions of dollars in compensation claims by employees on grounds that they sustained injuries while working and that their health was in dis-array. 

HealthyComputing.com, for instance, deals with offering services and computer related products to its customers and its employees work for long hours seated in front of a computer and for this reason, the company recons that a chair/seat is perhaps one of the most important tools that are essential for a healthy working environment.

To further stress out the importance of an ergonomic chair, research commissioned in 2003 indicates that employee productivity and output increased substantially (17.7% rise) after they received ergonomic seats. A study carried out earlier (1990) indicates that there was a 17.5% increase in employee performance who worked in an ergonomic environment compared to their counterparts who worked in an environment that paid little attention to ergonomics.

From research, it has become evident that seat/chair makers take into account a lot of aspects.

Ergonomic design starts right from the intended purpose of use to the place where the seat is actually used. Designers and seat makers in most countries work hand in hand to ensure the safety and health of the people who use these seats to perform their daily duties. Office seats and dining table seats, for instance, are made to lean slightly back such that the user of the seat will not be far from his/her desk and most importantly will be comfortably while working. Seats used in movie theaters are made to lean back a little bit more and a softer cushion is used such that weight is distributed to the back and pressure released from the seating area as it is presumed that such people seat for long hours.