ABSTRACT
According to the formal description of ergonomics, approved by the International Ergonomics Association, ergonomics deals with the design of products and processes in order to improve ‘humanwell-being’aswell as ‘total systemperformance’. Improvement of human well-being can be considered as the ‘health, safety and comfort’ goal of ergonomics, which is important for the users of products and processes (consumers and workers). Similarly, improvement of overall total performance -although this term is rather vague-, can be considered as the ‘business’ goal of ergonomics, which is important for the management of an organization that develops, produces or uses products. This paper elaborates on the business dimension of ergonomics. Models and
examples are presented which show how ergonomics can contribute to business goals. First I present a model how ‘product ergonomics’ and ‘production ergonomics’ can be linked to the common ‘value chain’ business model. Next, for production ergonomics, I will discuss to possible business topics for ergonomics: how to design work environments for human productivity, and how to design work environments for human creativity for innovation.
