Increasing Manufacturing Productivity using Human Factors Principles

Justifying the premium cost of applying human factors principles in the manufacturing workplace has been a major problem. The traditional, objective, cause-and-effect analyses are not applicable due to the lack of data. IBM Boulder developed an alternative – a subjective method of cost justification. Measurement of actual data has verified paybacks of the premium cost due to human factor considerations of less than one year. This paper discusses design highlights from having applied human factors principles to one manufacturing line.