ABSTRACT

Principles of human factors engineering can be used to redesign a system to make it more productive and safer. Such a redesign will cost money, and in order to justify the expense we must be certain that there will be benefits associated with the improvements. The question is, are improvements worthwhile? Do they pay off? In this chapter two case studies are presented. The first study concerns a manufacturing plant. In manufacturing there can be several types of benefits: improved productivity and quality, reduced injury rate, and improved worker comfort. In this case, the economic benefits from improved productivity were substantial, and much larger than the other benefits.