• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.65-72
• /
• 1990

The historical development process and the current research trends of ergonmics in Korea are reviewed and organized in this paper. The recommended research directions in the near future are also discussed based upon the analyses of the potential major key industries of Korea in 1990's. Keynords: Human Engineering Society of Korea; Research activities in Ergonomics; Ergonomics educations

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.701-707
• /
• 2010

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the attributing factors influencing major research areas of the papers published in the journal of Ergonomics Society of Korea (JESK). Background: Ergonomics has a wide range of research areas. Diversity of research topic is one of the major strong points of this discipline especially in the era of fusion. Dominant areas among the diversity changed from time to time. It is interesting to know the attributing factors of the dominant areas. Method: During the past three decades JESK has published 649 articles. As an editor of the JESK, I reviewed these papers and sorted them into the detailed research fields of ergonomics; (1) technical group (TG) s of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), (2) editing groups of the journal of Ergonomics Abstracts and (3) TGs of the Ergonomics Society of Korea (ESK). I also listed major events which might affect the publication trend. Results: Anthropometry was the most dominant area all the time. Health and safety area has been steadily increasing publication amount. Conclusion: Government research funding was the main attributing factor determining the publication trend of the JESK. Application: The results of the publishing trend analysis might help to determine the editing policy of the JESK.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.447-454
• /
• 2015

Objective: The purposes of this study are to survey general and ergonomics relevant patents of major foreign countries, to classify the ergonomics patents into some categories frequently found in the patents lists surfed and to compare the results with those of Korea. Background: Under today's severe competitions between countries and between companies, the intellectual property has never been more important. It is needed to investigate Korea's positions and worldwide status of patent applications and grants for general and ergonomics patents. Method: This study was mainly based on relevant websites surfing such as KIPRIS, FPO, EPO, WIPO, etc. Results: The results showed that while Korea placed fourth in patent applications and grants in 2012, following US, Japan and China, Korea ranked seventh in the number of ergonomics patents. Of the overseas ergonomics patents, the proportion of tool/device was the second highest to category of others, followed by chair/desk, grip/handle and keyboard, etc. Compared to the overseas ergonomics patents, Korea showed a slightly different trend that there were less patents for specific fields of ergonomics such as grip/handle, keyboard, tool/device, etc. Conclusion: The number of ergonomics patents of Korea was behind most foreign countries surveyed in the number of patent applications and grants of, and there were many categories of overseas ergonomics patents. Application: This study would be used as a reference or guideline when developing varying ergonomic products or applying to ergonomics patents.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.437-441
• /
• 2011

Objective: The objective this paper is to introduce the agricultural ergonomics and to show the importance of it in improving the agricultural works. Background: Despite of rapid advancement of technologies and adoption of modern mechanical equipments at farms in Korea, most of agricultural works have still remained manual and thus have regarded as one of the hardest works. With aging and feminization in rural areas, the need to improve agricultural works has grown quite much. Agricultural ergonomics have been known as a good tool in improving agricultural works around the world. Recently Korean government initiated a national program of providing assistive equipments to help farmers and a few ergonomists started to apply agricultural ergonomics in our rural villages as a part of this program. Method: This study reviewed how Ergonomics was used for the agricultural work. Results: Methods of Ergonomics which are used for the agricultural ergonomics and the simple procedure of the agricultural ergonomics were presented. Conclusion: It was found that agricultural works can be improved quite much using the agricultural ergonomics principle and the musculoskeletal stress of farmers can be reduced significantly.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.407-411
• /
• 2012

Objective: The objective of this paper is to examine the scope of ergonomics in relation to the discipline of industrial hygiene. Background: There has been increasing recognition of the importance of ergonomics in the practice of industrial hygiene. As a result, quite a number of ergonomics-related research articles have been published in major industrial hygiene journals. And the professional engineers in industrial hygiene have conducted ergonomics-related activities. Method: This paper reports the results from the literature review of the ergonomics papers published in major industrial hygiene journals for the last 5 years, and the certification of industrial hygiene and ergonomics. Results: It was found that 7.7~13% of the total published papers were about ergonomics, and the number of the professional engineers in industrial hygiene is almost double of that of ergonomics. Conclusion: It should be understood that the work of ergonomic is complementary to industrial hygiene and not in competition with it. Application: Some suggestions were proposed hopefully helpful to colleague ergonomists for future research.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.469-471
• /
• 2015

Objective: The objective of this paper is to review the interests and limitations of ergonomics regarding intellectual property. Background: There have been less interests in intellectual property among the ergonomics professionals. However, the importance of intellectual property is increasing as competitions in industry are getting fierce. Method: Literatures on the relations of intellectual property with ergonomics were examined, and the international patent classification system was studied. Results: No profound studies were found in the area of the relations of intellectual property with ergonomics. Ergonomics was not considered in patent classification. Conclusion: It is important to induce more interests regarding intellectual property to the community of ergonomics. Further studies are expected on the relations of intellectual property with ergonomics. Application: The results from this paper would be of help to inducing ergonomists to more interests in intellectual property.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.1-5
• /
• 2010

The purpose of the paper is to review current trends and future issues of automotive ergonomics. The current trends include 1) universal design considering for regional differences, elderly drivers, female drivers, 2) quantification of driver's discomfort 3) trade-off between design trends and comfort, 4) digital ergonomic evaluation with digital human models 5) optimization of driver's interface. The future issues of automotive ergonomics cover 1) intelligent driver assistance system 2) Fun-to-drive and 3) differentiation from other vehicles based on ergonomics.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.45-52
• /
• 2007

Shipbuilding workers are potentially exposed to ergonomic hazards in the manufacturing process. The purpose of this study is to describe the impact of an ergonomic intervention and the implementation effect of ergonomics program at a shipbuilding company. This study portrays an implementation procedure of ergonomics program over a period of two years concerning ergonomic hazard analysis and improvement, along with medical management. After implementation of the ergonomics program, the productivity improved, and the rate of accidental incidents decreased, also the loss of workdays decreased largely. The implementation effect of ergonomics program presented in this study can be used to provide baseline information for the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders in the shipbuilding industry.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• /
• v.6 no.8
• /
• pp.13-19
• /
• 1983

In this paper an attempt is tried to answer the following questions : What does ergonomics have to do with work satisfaction\ulcorner Is there more satisfaction when ergonomics have applied in the design of work\ulcorner Is ergonomics important for work satisfaction\ulcorner This paper is started by defining the concept of satisfaction and ergonomics which is still at a comparatively early stage of development, and the effect of this in practice is that the majority of ergonomics assignments involve research. And then there discussions difficult theories of motivation and satisfaction such as Maslow' theory and Horzberg's theory. And in this paper I'll try to formulate the logical consequences of those theories for the relation between ergonomics and satisfaction. Finally I'll conclude with some ideas about the significance of ergonomics satisfaction. The level of satisfaction experienced with one's work is a complete function of the degree to which different values connected with work and with its concomitant results are attained, the opportunities perceived for the attainment of these values, the relative advantages and disadvantages of the work situation compared with that of other people, and personality and cultural determinants. As for ergonomics, the ergonomist's comprehension will need in future to encompass more of the emotional, attitudinal and motivational facts of working people. Ergonomically - designed work will not produce high degrees of satisfaction, but absence of ergonomics in design will be connected with some dissatisfaction. So this paper suggest s that ergonomics has some significance for work satisfaction and that social Psychological efforts to enhance work satisfaction cannot easily succeed without taking into account human-factors principles.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.487-493
• /
• 2010

Work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) became a major problem since 2000 in shipbuilding industry. WMSDs are known to be resulted from awkward postures, high repetitive motions, excessive forces, mechanical stress and vibration. Korean government enacted a law to require companies to take measures to prevent musculoskeletal disorders at work. If there are more than 10 incidences of WMSDs or 5 incidences which are more than 10 percent of all workers in a company, this law requires a company to implement an ergonomics program. A few large companies in shipbuilding industry have already implemented or are in the process of implementing an ergonomics program. This paper presents a case study of an implementation of an ergonomics program in a Korean shipbuilding company. We audited the process of the ergonomics program in this shipbuilding company four times for 3 years. Based on the findings, this paper presents effects and problems of an ergonomics program and improvement measures of them. These findings will help companies which want to implement an ergonomics program in the future.