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Human factors/ergonomics concepts and principles are applicable to human performance in any system.
Humans within the system of interest may include the system users, operators, supervisors, managers, maintainers, purchasers, competitors, persons affected or potentially affected by the system, designers, owners, and regulators.
Human performance considerations include the human’s physical, physiological, psychological, and biomechanical capabilities and limitations as they pertain to various aspects of the system performance and the human’s integral to that system performance. Of particular interest is human performance affected by the various system interfaces that are intended to facilitate the human’s interaction with other system components: other humans, various technological components, or various environmental components where the interfaces may be physical, physiological, psychological, and/or biomechanical.
The human performance considerations may be addressed as part of the system design process and/or issues associated with the system design and building, operating, maintaining, and disposing of the system. Human performance issues may be addressed when considering the effect of the system on the human or the environment in which the human resides.
Another practical application is in the area of forensic investigations, situations wherein the human has claimed they have been harmed by the system. In most incidents with claimed undesirable outcomes where human interaction is involved it is essential to evaluate the potential for human causality from a human factors/ergonomics perspective. This is where ASI excels. The links below provide a small representative sample of the diversity ASI has had with regard to incident analysis involving personal injury or property damage incidents. This sample does not represent the entire range of ASI involvement, but it does provide a few interesting examples of ASI’s unique systems approach.
While it may seem sufficient in some cases to simply analyze the more classical details of an incident with a claimed undesirable outcome, it is almost always necessary to understand the human causality effect as well. For example, in a motor vehicle accident with injuries, a simple mathematical reconstruction can give valuable insight into speeds, impact forces and critical timing parameters. However, a classical reconstruction cannot address the underlying human implications such as the effects of fatigue, distraction, preconception, misinterpretation, adverse autonomic response, visual field complexity, degraded illumination and/or complex feedback conditions, to name a few.
ASI has investigated hundreds of incidents involving personal injury and/or property damage to provide its clients with sound, reliable analysis regarding causality as it relates to the human interface with the environment. Select an example for more information . . .
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