Leveraging Ergonomics and Human Factors (E/HF) for community impact: what have we learned about how to make a difference.

Ergonomics and Human Factors (E/HF) practitioners are increasingly engaged in projects meant to centre underserved communities and reduce inequities. The subdiscipline of E/HF that has emerged to explore the application of E/HF in this way is called community ergonomics. In this qualitative-descriptive study, we reflect on the progress made in the field of community ergonomics since its original conceptualisation in 1994.

Past, present, and future of E/HF for sustainability: A perspective from the HFSD Technical Committee.

Background: Sustainability is a highly important theme worldwide and currently is being tackled by almost all disciplines. Indeed, the future of humanity is dependent on the actions taken now and in the immediate future. The Ergonomics and Human Factors (E/HF) community has not been indifferent to this issue, and one of the concrete actions adopted by the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) was the establishment of the "Human Factors for Sustainable Development" (HFSD) Technical Committee.

Towards a sustainable world through human factors and ergonomics: it is all about values.

In this paper, we analyse two approaches that attempt to address how a human factors and ergonomics (HFE) perspective can contribute to the sustainability of the human race. We outline the principles, purposes and fields of application of ergoecology and green ergonomics, and thereafter deal with their context of emergence, and the overlaps in purpose, and principles. Shared values are deduced and related to socio-technical principles for systems' design.

From 'human being' to 'social subject': "unfreezing" ergonomics and the implications for understanding and intervening health-disease process.

Ergonomics has been successful in increasing productivity and comfort in the work arena. It has also contributed to reducing occupational accidents. Despite this, ergonomics is frequently limited to understanding the health-disease process related to human-technology interactions, as this process is more complex than what can be understood from an ergonomic evaluation.

Work situation operative model MOST: linking diagnosis and intervention to improve work conditions.

This paper presents the model "Work Situation Operative Model" - MOST (after its Spanish acronym). It offers a comprehensive, systemic approach to analysing work stations and/or work processes, serving also as a framework for pursuing various ergonomic and occupational health and safety goals. Originally produced for a food sector company, the model has been extended and successfully applied in several industries in Colombia and Ecuador, including cement, oil, and paper industries.

Macroergonomic study of food sector company distribution centres.

This study focussed on the work system design to be used by a Colombian food sector company for distributing products. It considered the concept of participative ergonomics, where people from the commercial, logistics, operation, occupational health areas worked in conjunction with the industrial designers, ergonomists who methodologically led the project. As a whole, the project was conceived as having five phases: outline, diagnosis, modelling the process, scalability, instrumentation.