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The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of utilising a holistic ergonomic approach, covering engineering, cognitive and social perspectives, to cultivate beneficial and productive collaborative information seeking (CIS) systems and environments, specifically with regard to three main CIS pillars (control, communication and awareness).

A qualitative research approach, based on a selective corpus of CIS literature, was utilised to perform a content analysis to note if terms and concepts normally associated with engineering, cognitive and social ergonomics can be used to eliminate terms reflecting issues related to three CIS pillars (control, communication and awareness) that can benefit from a holistic ergonomic approach.

The content analysis revealed that a fairly extensive amount of holistic ergonomic terminology is prominent within the CIS literature, therefore establishing a connection between the two disciplines: CIS and ergonomics. This suggests that CIS system issues could benefit from the insights of a holistic ergonomic approach.

Since this is an exploratory study the scope of CIS literature utilised in the content analysis was limited to a selection considered most important by the authors; this should be supplemented by further research.

Intended to instigate interest in further exploration of the beneficial and productive implications and practical application of holistic ergonomics in designing CIS systems and environments.

This is the first research paper in the Library and Information Science literature that explores the potential of utilising holistic ergonomics to cultivate CIS systems and environments.

This chapter asserts that, notwithstanding the forces of globalization, the gap between Industrially Advanced Country (IAC) “haves” and Industrially Developing Country (IDC) “have nots” is increasing. Poverty, deprivation, over-population, illiteracy, and sub-optimal working conditions attend this scenario. This widening chasm, among other things, feeds discontent which, justified or not, exacerbates tensions. To the extent that this view is valid, the challenge for ergonomics is to contribute to a narrowing of the gap by recognizing that the vast majority of the biomass of humanity is engaged in basic IDC, not advanced technical IAC issues. Their needs are best met by culture-compatible, participatory, small-scale, unsophisticated, low-cost improvements that can be easily assimilated. Strategies for assisting in redressing the imbalance between IDCs and IACs are discussed.

There is the need to focus on humans while designing engineering facilities for users. The need to focus on Nigerians when designing for them is presented in this paper. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Relevant literatures were consulted on the history of ergonomics and its importance was stressed. Some instances where ergonomics should be applied in the country were identified.

The paper observed that the application of ergonomics in Nigeria is low and some constraints that are militating against the use of ergonomics in Nigeria are discussed.

The paper suggested ways to fully imbibe the use of human-centered engineering (ergonomics) in Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to present a literature review on human factors in aircraft maintenance and to analyze and synthesize the findings in the literature on human factors engineering in aircraft maintenance.

The review adopts a threefold approach: searching and collecting the scientific literature; sorting them on the basis of relevance and applications; and review of the scientific evidences. Broad areas of aircraft maintenance regulations are identified and each area was explored to study the level of scientific growth and publications. Notable theories, models and concepts are being summarized.

Application of human factor principles in aviation spread beyond the technical arena of man-machine interface. The discipline has created a great impact on aircraft design, operations and maintenance. Its applications have percolated into design of aircraft maintenance facilities, task cards and equipment. Human factor concepts are being used for maintenance resource management. The principles are applied to shape the safety behavior and culture in aviation maintenance workplace. Nevertheless, the review unfolds immense potential for future research.

Research outcomes of non-aviation studies are also reviewed and consolidated to extend the applications to the aviation industry.

This review would be a consolidated source of information confining to the physical aspect of human factors engineering in aircraft maintenance. It is intended to serve as a quick reference guide to the researchers and maintenance practitioners.

It brought out the benefits of adopting the principles of human factor engineering in aircraft maintenance. Application of human factor philosophy ensures enhanced safety in air transport, personal safety and well-being of maintenance personnel.

This is a unique review based on aircraft maintenance regulations that are baseline performance standards made mandatory by regulatory authorities. Therefore, the review has been considered to be made on aircraft maintenance regulatory requirements that surpass corporate or competitive strategies in aviation maintenance organization.

The tightening operations are one of the most critical operations in automotive assembly lines because of its direct impact on customer safety. This study aims to evaluate the major complexity drivers for manual tightening operations, correlate with real tightening failure data and propose mitigations to improve the complexity.

In the first stage, the complexity drivers for manual tightening operations were identified. Then, the relative importance of the risk attributes was defined by using pairwise comparisons questionnaire. Further, failure mode effect analysis–analytic hierarchy process (FMEA–AHP) and AHP ratings methods were applied to 20 manual tightening operations in automotive assembly lines. Finally, the similarities between the revealed results and the real failure rates of a Turkish automotive factory were examined and a sensitivity analysis was conducted.

The correlation between the proposed methods and manual tightening failure data was calculated as 83%–86%. On the other hand, the correlation between FMEA–AHP and AHP ratings was found as 92%. Poor ergonomics, operator competency and training, operator concentration-loose attention fatigue, manual mouthing before the tightening operation, frequent task changes, critical tightening sequence, positioning of the part and/or directional assembly were found relatively critical for the selected 20 tightening operations.

This is a unique study for the evaluation of the attributes for manual tightening complexity in automotive assembly lines. The output of this study can be used to improve manual tightening failures in manual assembly lines and to create low complexity assembly lines in new model launches.

Tactile communication that relies on the human sense of touch replicated using vibration motors is increasingly being explored for seamless communication on construction jobsite. However, the technological efficacy cannot secure the users’ acceptability of the tactile communication devices. This study aims to assess the factors affecting the wearability of such a portable tactile device based on the responses from practicing professionals.

The investigation adapted a three-step phenomenological interviewing approach to seek feedback from construction personnel in Texas, the USA, regarding the viability of wearable tactile communication. The interviewees expressed various opinions about the on-body placement upon exposure to a portable tactile feedback prototype developed for this study, which was used to derive inferences regarding the factors affecting its on-field acceptability.

All the participants of the round-table study (11 out of 11) considered tactile feedback as a viable mode of communication on construction jobsite. Seven professionals supported the integration of a tactile device with the hard hat, whereas the rest preferred tactile eyeglasses. Weatherability, rechargeability, traceability, safety and social receptivity were identified as the major factors affecting the on-body placement of the wearable tactile communication device.

This paper presents a roadmap to gain construction industry opinion on the factors that can affect the on-body placement of a wearable tactile communication device. The five aforementioned factors impacting tactile communication acceptability were used to evaluate 10 potential on-body placements. The findings have implications for research and development of wearable tactile devices and the subsequent acceptability of such a device on the jobsite.

Increasing personnel costs and labour shortages have pushed retailers to give increasing attention to their intralogistics operations. We study hybrid order picking systems, in which humans and robots share work time, workspace and objectives and are in permanent contact. This necessitates a collaboration of humans and their mechanical coworkers (cobots).

Through a longitudinal case study on individual-level technology adaption, we accompanied a pilot testing of an industrial truck that automatically follows order pickers in their travel direction. Grounded on empirical field research and a unique large-scale data set comprising N = 2,086,260 storage location visits, where N = 57,239 storage location visits were performed in a hybrid setting and N = 2,029,021 in a manual setting, we applied a multilevel model to estimate the impact of this cobot settings on task performance.

We show that cobot settings can reduce the time required for picking tasks by as much as 33.57%. Furthermore, practical factors such as product weight, pick density and travel distance mitigate this effect, suggesting that cobots are especially beneficial for short-distance orders.

Given that the literature on hybrid order picking systems has primarily applied simulation approaches, the study is among the first to provide empirical evidence from a real-world setting. The results are discussed from the perspective of Industry 5.0 and can prevent managers from making investment decisions into ineffective robotic technology.

Reports the results of an interview and field survey study on management issues in 25 Sino‐foreign joint‐venture companies. Joint ventures are shown to have three special characteristics: transformation, system and management. Compatibility issues, in terms of values, motives, leadership styles, are cultural, social and structural. Proposes three managerial psychology strategies to improve management of joint ventures further. Suggests some useful predictors and criteria for the assessment and evaluation of joint‐venture effectiveness.

Given the growth of virtual reality (VR)-based tourism experiences in the past five years, this study aims to investigate the impact of VR-based interactions (ergonomics and embodiment) on memorable experiences and revisit intention mediated by cognitive and emotional responses.

This study has used an exploratory sequential mixed methodology research design to operationalise this research. Study 1 uses qualitative in-depth interviews to explore the proposed research questions, and Study 2 uses a 3 × 3 factorial experimental research design to test the proposed hypothetical model with 355 samples.

The results indicate that embodiment plays a more crucial role than VR ergonomics. Also, the cognitive response in the virtual tour indirectly generates a more memorable experience than the emotional response.

This research uses the theory of technological mediation as an overarching framework to conceptualise the research. Also, the research has applied the tenets of cognitive embodiment theory, metacognitive theory and other related theories to develop the arguments. Thus, the results of this research will extend the holistic understanding of these theories.

This research will guide VR tourism developers in understanding the requirements and expectations of tourists. It also serves as a manual to understand how tourists process the VR tour psychologically.

Very minimal focus was given to understanding the tourists’ interaction with technology in VR tours. The concept of ergonomics and embodiment investigated as an experimental variable is a novel approach in technology-based tourism research.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the human factors/ergonomics (HFE) studies for respirator.

This review paper describes and discusses the various factors and methodologies of HFE, for the purpose of better considering human factors, used in respirator studies and further human-centered product development.

Many attempts have been made to study human factors for respirators mainly including fit, human performance, comfort, and mood. Physical, psychological, and physiological indices of people are extremely valuable to HFE studies for respirator. Objective and subjective measures were methodologies widely used. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were adopted to illustrate the human performance and well-being influenced by respirators. A summary table presented with major methods used for indices of respirators in the field of HFE. According to the current researches, this review indicated three particular challenges facing HFE studies of respirators now.

With the ever increasing role of protection from air pollution in society, respirator has become an increasingly important part of our daily lives. HFE intervene in optimizing the relationships between respirators and the human using them. Plenty of efforts have been dedicated for the development of protection capability, but HFE studies for respirators are lacking. In recent years, there has been a tremendous interest in introducing HFE research methods that can evaluate respirators from the perspective of human and translate them into constraints for designing human-centered respirators.

This is a first paper in the field of HFE studies for respirator, which will remain helpful to the scientific community to start further human-centered research work and product development.