A structural framework for sustainable processes in ergonomics

Abstract

Considering today’s globalised world, new concepts that assist ergonomics are needed to provide human well-being. Accordingly, the sustainability concept is used in this study to satisfy the needs of stakeholders, put environmentally-friendly and cost-effective interventions into practice and provide ergonomically well-designed and easily managed processes that are more flexible, adaptable and human-sensitive. To achieve this, a practical and easily adaptable framework, which integrates ergonomics and sustainability by presenting the relations between fundamental elements of ergonomics and sustainability dimensions (SDs), is proposed. Within this base framework, ergonomic indicators (EIs) and sub-dimensions proposed for the classification of EIs are structured for ergonomics under a sustainability point-of-view. The sub-dimensions proposed in this study, which have direct or indirect relations to humans, are ‘Loss’, ‘Investment’, ‘Conditions’, ‘Contribution’, ‘Self-Development’, and ‘Satisfaction’. This structural framework, which can be easily used by ergonomists or managers, ensures a good starting point for providing sustainable processes in ergonomics.

Practitioner summary: This study proposes a structural framework to present the relations between ergonomics and sustainability. In the context of ergonomics, fundamental elements of ergonomics are chosen, while three dimensions of sustainability and proposed sub-dimensions are used in the context of sustainability. The adapted ergonomic indicators are also classified within these sub-dimensions.

Abbreviations: SDs: sustainability dimensions; SIs: sustainability indicators; EIs: ergonomic indicators

Keywords:

• Sustainability indicators
• ergonomic indicators
• integration
• relation
• framework

Acknowledgements

The first author would like to thank the support of 2211-A National Scholarship Programme for Ph.D. Students of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) [2211-A National Scholarship for Ph.D. Students].