The objectives of the joint conference ACED2023, BRICSplus2023 HFE and HWWE2023 -

  1. reflect fast changing needs and issues of Asian & BRICS academics and industries.
  2. enhance collaboration and relationship among scholars and practitioners.
  3. disseminate ergonomic standards and regulations to the rest of the world.
  4. enhance the contribution of Asian & BRICSplus HFE professionals in the international societies.
  5. share the ergonomic and design knowledge/experience among Asian & BRICS countries.

The vision of the Council is to take the Asian initiative in ergonomics and design. The Council aims to reflect fast changing needs and issues of Asian academics and industries, enhance collaboration and relationship among Asian scholars and practitioners, disseminate Asian ergonomic standards and regulations to the rest of the world and enhance the contribution of Asian professionals in the international societies.

The organization was initiated at the kick-off meeting in April 2013 at South Korea. The first ACED conference was held in Jeju, South Korea in May 2014. The Council decided from then on, that the conference would be held every three years. The second ACED Conference was held in Chiba, Japan in 2017 and the third one in 2020 was scheduled to be in the Philippines. However, due to the Covid 19 pandemic the 2020 conference was held virtually. The fourth ACED conference will be held in 2023 in IIM Mumbai, India.

Ergonomics and HFE

Definition and Applications

The word ergonomics — “the science of work” is derived from the Greek ergon (work) and nomos (laws). Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data, and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance. The terms ergonomics and human factors are often used interchangeably or as a unit (e.g., human factors and ergonomics – HFE or EHF), a practice that is adopted by the IEA.

Although HFE practitioners often work within particular economic sectors, industries, or application fields, the science and practice of HFE is not domain-specific. HFE is a multi-disciplinary, user-centric integrating science. The issues HFE addresses are typically systemic in nature; thus HFE uses a holistic, systems approach to apply theory, principles, and data from many relevant disciplines to the design and evaluation of tasks, jobs, products, environments, and systems. HFE takes intoaccount physical, cognitive, sociotechnical, organizational, environmental, and other relevant factors, as well as the complex interactions between the human and other humans, the environment, tools, products, equipment, and technology.

Ergonomics and HFE

In order to practice effectively, human factors and ergonomics professionals who are specialists in a given domain or discipline must address issues and challenges with sufficient consideration of all of the relevant elements of HFE. This assumes a broad understanding of other HFE areas; however, actual problem solving requires participatory approaches through consultation with HFE specialists in different domains as well as specialists in other relevant fields.

Value of HFE in the world of work

Work systems are made up of humans, the tools, processes, and technologies they use, and the work environment. HFE contributes to the creation of safe and sustainable work systems by considering the interrelatedness of human, technical, and environmental components and the potential effects of work system design changes on all parts of the system. Members of the HFE community recognize the need for participation of all stakeholder in system design groups (i.e., Participatory HFE).

Value of HFE

HFE simultaneously contributes to the economic health of organizations by enhancing worker well-being, capability and sustainability, maximizing performance, and reducing direct costs as well as indirect costs from productivity losses, quality deficiencies, and employee turnover. Workplaces that are designed with HFE principles have better employee performance and produce better business results. HFE design in work systems is simply and unquestionably good business.

Resources cited:

Bridger, R. S. (2018). Introduction to Human Factors and Ergonomics, 4th Edition. Boca Raton, FL, USA. CRC Press.

Read, G.J.M., Salmon, P.M., Goode, N., &Lenné, M.G. (2018). A sociotechnical design toolkit for bridging the gap between systems‐based analyses and system design.Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries,28(6), 327-341.

Principles and Guidelines for HF/E Design and Management of Work Systems. (2019) Joint Document by IEA and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Wilson, J. R. (2014). Fundamentals of systems of ergonomics/human factors. Applied Ergonomics (45), 5-13.

Dul, J., Bruder, R., Buckle, P., Carayon, P., Falzon, P., Marras, W. S., Wilson, J. R., & van der Doelen, B.(2012). A strategy for human factors/ergonomics: Developing the discipline and profession,Ergonomics, 55:4, 377-395, DOI: 10.1080/00140139.2012.661087

Hendrick, H. W. (2003). Determining the cost-benefits of ergonomics projects and factors that lead to their success. Applied Ergonomics, 34, 419-427.

International Ergonomics Association(IEA)

The mission of the IEA is to elaborate and advance ergonomics science and practice, and to expand its scope of application and contribution to society to improve the quality of life, working closely with its constituent societies and related international organizations.

The main goals of the IEA are :

To develop more effective communication and collaboration with federated societies.

To advance the science and practice of ergonomics at an international level.

To enhance the contribution of the ergonomics discipline to global society.

Source: aced.asia