Workplace design for elderly Singaporean population using anthropometric modeling

• Main Author: Manoharan Aravindakshan.
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/54702
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Singapore is aging rapidly and is likely to become an Aged Society in coming years. In order to design for a wider range of people, it is important to design Singapore's products and workplace equipment to suit the aging population. Anthropometric dimensions of people change as they age. Reported dimensional changes from various sources are used to scale down the recently collected Singapore anthropometric data (Tong Xin, 2011). Using the scaled anthropometric data workplace dimensional mismatches are identified in three chosen workplaces that are likely to be used by elderly people. As expected, the selected workplaces do not suit elderly population. Recommendations based on the books by Stephen Pheasant, Mark S. Sanders and Ernest J. McCormick are adopted to make necessary dimensional changes to ensure these workplaces are usable by most elderly people. Jack 6.1, a Human factors and Ergonomics software is used for postural assessment. The software was used to identify human joints that are likely to exceed its comfort range for each workstation, using appropriate design and task decisions. Although this approach can be used to develop and design workstations for different target population, the collection of anthropometric data is both costly and time consuming. Therefore, designers generally use "Proportionality constants" and readily available databases of the intended user population. The most commonly used ratios are those presented by Drillis and Contini in 1966. The method uses "Stature" to predict the relevant anthropometric body segment lengths with sufficient accuracy. The anthropometric difference due to ethnicity and the anthropometric changes due to the improved nutrition diets that people eat now compared to people used for the study by Drillis and Contini raises a question, "How accurate is the method?" The finding by Drillis and Contini is revisited by calculating correlations among many measures from data obtained in various recent anthropometric surveys and by calculating the mean ratio. From the analysis, it is found stature is better associated with limb segment lengths and weight with widths and girth. Head, hand or feet dimensions have better correlations with anyone of its own association rather than stature and weight. This study concludes that appropriate workplace designs for elderly Singaporeans can be based on anthropometric proportionality and computer modeling approach using recent anthropometric data.