ABSTRACT
Production methods are, of course, a primary concern to ergonomics experts, because assembly, materials handling, and inspection tasks are major contributors to industrial ergonomic problems, including productivity, quality, and health and safety issues. With concurrent design, process design viewpoints are integrated into early product and process design stages. In this way, many potential problems can be eliminated or accommodated early in development. is saves time and money and can positively in¢uence productivity and quality as well. Currently, far too many ergonomic recommendations are denied because they are presented or solicited late in the product life cycle when changes are nancially prohibitive. We contend that a proactive ergonomics advocate is crucial in the design synthesis stages.
