Philippine E-Journals

Development Of a Checklist And Its Application For The Evaluation Of Office Furniture And Work-Surface In Compliance To Ergonomics’ Requirements

Jaypy T. Tenerife

 

Abstract:

The study focused on the development of an ergonomics checklist and its validation in agreement to human factor considerations for office furniture such as tables, chairs, computer stand and work surfaces in TIP-QC. In many cases, poor design of a workplace leads to a drop in production efficiency. A lot of times, human beings take for granted the inefficiencies that may exist in such an interface. It is when significant ill effects accrue that a person realizes the problem and take corrective action. It is for this reason that the study has come up with a project design that identifies if the existing work-surface of laboratories, office furniture and other work area has conformed to the principles of ergonomics.

The Delphi method was used in this research to solicit the experts’ opinion on the probability, frequency and intensity of possible outcomes of the conceived project design and project development. The developed checklist fits the ergonomics’ stress, strain, aesthetics and other requirements along with the ten principles of ergonomics. Particular emphasis was linked to the ergonomic requirements of the human body, health issues and common health disorders encountered in ignoring the science of ergonomics.

The results of the study show that while all types of furniture combination used by TIP-QC employees are ergonomically designed with an average conformance of 85.23% in general. The results of this study showed that the higher the type of furniture combination conforms to ergonomics requirements, the more healthy and tolerable the working environment becomes and the more productive an employee matures. The study concludes that the satisfaction index is subject to the person’s height, weight and anthropometrical measurements.