Journal Article

Case Study – Giving Manufacturing Engineers the tools to catch and fix Ergonomics issues in 3D

Charland, Julie, Dumais, Véronique, Richard, Anaïs, Belcharki, Anass, Bruno, Saint

2024

Overview

This case study paper describes Dassault Systèmes (3DS) Ergonomic Workplace Design (EWD) app usage by a team of process engineers at the Alstom site in Barcelona. The app was tested through two half-day training sessions that included hands-on sessions with Dassault System's generic data and live training sessions with Alstom data on two fitting installations. One of EWD's foundation is Ergo4allTM technology to help process engineers without ergonomics knowledge to anticipate and detect ergonomic risks early in the design phase. This tool was a significant improvement over previous methods, such as ergonomic assessment checklists and VR devices that were difficult to use and required high levels of expertise. However, the challenge for Alstom is to deploy EWD app through process engineers' daily work during the design phase. One of the difficulties is to define clear ROI between EWD cost and the values it brings in conducting ergonomic assessments on working situations that would have been untested otherwise. This situation increase the chance of missing on design problems due to bad ergonomics. Using this app allowed the team to assess ergonomic risks factors in an objective way, determining if there were any potential issues with product and process compatibility. The ability to detect risks and evaluate design acceptability early in the design process greatly reduces project costs and cycle times, while increasing the ability to design safer and more efficient workspaces. EWD Smart Posturing EngineTM technology automatically generates manikin postures and therefore helped process engineers to achieve repeatability, accuracy and objectivity during the ergonomic assessment process. They also had the ability to see 4 anthropometric sizes of workers for each simulated task to cover all the assumptions during the assembly process. In conclusion, this Case Study Paper highlights the benefits of EWD app in designing safer and more efficient workplaces, and the need to address the challenges and limitations associated with deploying the app. The app has immense potential to help organizations optimize their processes, lower costs, and enhance worker safety and comfort.

• Publisher: Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE)
• Subject: Anthropometry / Biomechanics / Case studies / Co-design / Costs / Cycle time / Decision making / Design analysis / Design factors / Employees / Engineers / Ergonomics / Objectivity / Occupational safety / Product design / Productivity / Risk factors / Technology assessment / Training / Virtual reality / Workers / Workplaces