Industrial Engineering and Management

Applied Anthropometry

Introduction

ƒ This chapter focuses on the space requirements of people

performing jobs in factories, commercial facilities, and
offices.

ƒ Several space-related issues related to workplace design

are addressed, to varying degrees, pertaining to:
ƒ the design of work and traffic areas,
ƒ workstations, work surfaces, work layout, seating,
ƒ equipment used in workstations, and
ƒ hand tools.
Introduction

ƒ Topics addressed include:

ƒ clearance and reach requirements,
ƒ accessibility,
ƒ visibility,
ƒ accommodation of disabled people, and
ƒ the need for adjustability

Introduction

ƒ A workplace is the place where one works, be it a

workbench, an assembly-line station, or a desk.

ƒ In all cases, tools, parts, equipment, and other devices

must be located in easily accessible locations if people are
to work productively in comfort and good health for
protracted time periods.
Introduction

ƒ Tools and equipment must also be appropriately sized so

that they fit the people using them.

ƒ It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to realize that seating,

desks, hand tools, clothing, and personal protective
equipment all pose potential problems if they don’t fit the
person using them.

ƒ Workplace layout becomes especially important when

workers are repetitively doing the same activity hour after
hour.

Introduction

ƒ Part of the issue is that workers may need to maintain the

same posture or a limited set of postures most of the time
they spend working.

ƒ The layout determines posture, and this determines a

whole host of other factors, such as whether the job will be
pleasant or unpleasant, fatiguing, or potentially harmful.
Introduction

ƒ People must also have enough space to be able to easily

move around work areas while they do their tasks.

ƒ While the provision of adequate space does not guarantee

proper performance, lack of it almost guarantees poor
performance.

ƒ A closely related issue is that traffic areas, such as aisles,

passageways, doors, entrances, ramps, and stairs, must
be properly designed movement around a physical facility.

Introduction

ƒ Inadequate or blocked passageways may slowdown

coming or going from work areas or allow inadequate
clearance for passing vehicles or people

ƒ Visibility is another important issue

ƒ It is important that people of all sizes be able to enjoy
unblocked vision of the things they need to see while
doing their day-to-day tasks or jobs, and especially so
under demanding conditions where the failure to see
things has serious consequences.
Applied Anthropometry

ƒ Anthropometry provides a scientific basis for analyzing

and designing elements of the workplace so that they fit
people of different sizes, as expanded on in the following
section

ƒ The field of applied anthropometry relates basic measures

of human size, strength, and bodily motion to very helpful
design criteria used by designers interested in creating
things that fit or otherwise better match the size or other
aspect of the human body

Applied Anthropometry
Design Anthropometric Designed Design objective or
criteria measure element requirement
Fit Body size and shape Clothing Degree of looseness,

Hand size and shape Glove Tightness, comfort, etc.

Foot size or shape Shoe

Head size and shape Helmet

Nose size and shape Glasses

Ear size and shape Earplug

Finger length Handle Ability to reach fingers

around the handle
Applied Anthropometry
Design Anthropometric Designed element Design objective or
criteria measure requirement
Clearance Body size and shape Door of car or building Egress or ingress
requirements
Aisle or passageway Clearance between
users
Standing height Overhead objects Collision avoidance
(bumping head)
Finger size or shape Button or key on Inadvertent activation
keyboard of keys
Foot size or shape Brake pedal Inadvertent activation
of gas pedal

Applied Anthropometry
Design Anthropometric Designed element Design objective or
criteria measure requirement
Accessibility Height Height of work surface Object within reach

Length of arm Location on work

surface
Length of finger Access hole on engine

Length of foot Location of brake pedal Pedal within reach

Inaccessibility Diameter of finger Guard Prevent finger or hand

or hand from entering guard
openings into hazard zone
Diameter of Distance between bars Prevent head from
child’s head on baby crib entering though opening
between bars
Length of arm or Separation distance Prevent hand or finger
finger from hazard from reaching the hazard
zone
Applied Anthropometry
Design criteria Anthropometric Designed element Design objective or
measure requirement
Posture Standing height Height of work surface Reduce bending

Shoulder rotation Height of shelf Reduce extended

reaches
Wrist deviation Relative height of desk Eliminate excessive
to chair deviation
Visibility Standing eye Location of sign Vision not blocked
height
Sitting eye height Height of seat in car Person can see over
hood of car
Height of screen in
theater
Relative height of Person can see over
auditorium seats head of person sitting in
front of them

Applied Anthropometry
Design criteria Anthropometric Designed element Design objective or
measure requirement
Mechanical Grip strength Handle length of Person able to exert
advantage scissors or shears enough force to cut
object
Finger length Handle diameter Person able to grasp
handle tightly
Adjustability Variability of eye Car seat Adjust height of seat for
height shorter people
Variability of Office seat Adjust height of seat for
length of lower shorter person or higher
leg work surface
Applied Anthropometry

Applied Anthropometry

ƒ As quite apparent from the table, many different design

criteria can be suggested.
ƒ The first criteria, fit, is especially appropriate for
describing more intimate types of items, which are
worn by a person, such as clothing, earplugs, gloves,
or helmets.
ƒ Data collection systems are becoming available that
allow the shape of a person to be scanned. This
information can then be sent to a manufacturer who will
make clothing tailored to a specific person.
Applied Anthropometry

ƒ Clearance requirements are often described in terms of

the height and width of a rectangular opening.

The necessary clearance describes how much of a

safety margin needs to be provided between the latter
measures and particular measures of the body to make
it easy to pass through the opening or prevent
collisions from occurring.

Applied Anthropometry

ƒ Accessibility is a somewhat overlapping criterion that

refers to how easy it is to reach something. This
principle is especially important in deciding where to
locate tools, parts, or items in a work area.

Also it guides decisions on where to locate controls

and input devices. It is especially important, for
example, to be sure that emergency stops can be
reached at the time they are needed.
Applied Anthropometry

ƒ Inaccessibility requirements refer to situations where it

is important to make sure something is far enough
away to make sure it might not be accidentally
contacted.

This principle is applied extensively in the design of

guards and barriers.

Applied Anthropometry

ƒ Postural criteria refer to the way particular

combinations of design elements and human bodily
measures interactively affect objectives such the need
to reduce bending, twisting, or awkward sustained
postures

ƒ Adjustability criteria refer to how variability in particular

bodily dimensions is accommodated by particular
design elements.
Applied Anthropometry

ƒ Visibility criteria are for the most part concerned with

blockages of vision as a function of expected eye
positions and the location of obstacles.

Both of the latter factors can be controlled to some

extent if necessary steps are taken, such as providing
lower seating in the front rows of an auditorium.

ƒ Mechanical advantage criteria describe how

characteristics of a particular design affect the forces
people can exert.

Drafting Templates

ƒ The most traditional ergonomic method for designing

spaces for people to work, play, or live, has been to use
scaled drawings and drafting templates.

ƒ Drafting templates are two-dimensional scaled models of

the human body.
Drafting Templates

ƒ The first step of the process is

to draw design in the same
scale used in the available
templates.

ƒ The templates then are overlaid

onto the locations where people
are expected to work.

Drafting Templates

ƒ Different parts of the template

can be moved in a way that
duplicates how the people are
expected to move.

ƒ These devices show quite

accurately whether operators
can touch particular objects, but
whether operators can grasp
objects or activate control
devices is not always certain.
Computer Modeling Methods

ƒ Several computer graphic models of people are available

that can be used in computer-aided design (CAD).
ƒ These systems were developed to assure that people
can fit into available space comfortably, reach all the
needed features, and perform all tasks effectively.

Computer Modeling Methods

ƒ The ambitious goal of some software is to develop digital

humans that see, move, touch, and grasp like real
humans.

ƒ The model makes movements in its virtual environment

while performing tasks, such as lifting, carrying, climbing,
walking, entering or leaving vehicles, and operating
equipment.
Computer Modeling Methods

ƒ One of the main advantages of models over mannequins

or drafting templates is that they can provide quite realistic
descriptions of human movement and posture.
ƒ Some other important features include:
ƒ dynamic modeling of balance, instability, and collision
avoidance;
ƒ realistic modeling of shape and posture;
ƒ a sophisticated model of the human hand; and
ƒ the modeling of the effect of clothing on shape,
posture, and movement.

Computer Modeling Methods

ƒ These models are useful in workplace applications

because it is important that person-machine interfaces do
not constrain reaches.

ƒ Some systems also contain clash routines that detect

when two solid objects try to occupy the same space at
the same time