This was originally published as a LinkedIn Article by Julie Charland.
If you haven’t heard of virtual ergonomics, it is normal.
As a manufacturing engineer, one of your focuses is to design safe workplaces in your factory. Ergonomic assessment while in the virtual world (Virtual Ergonomics) can help you do just that:
At this point, you may be wondering:
“Why haven’t I heard about Virtual Ergonomics and why am I not using this”?
If this is the case, you might be interested in the following story. It goes like this:
1. The Future of Virtual Ergonomics
In 2015, I was honored to receive an invitation to write a chapter in a German textbook on digital human models (DHM) and virtual ergonomics. The funny thing is that, as a master procrastinator, I should have said “no” to such project but… with a perfect mix of enthusiasm and innocence, I normally end up saying “yes”. So after days, weeks, and months of wandering in this procrastination world, I finally delivered “Virtual Ergonomics- Vision of the Future: from geeks only to anyone involved in product and workplace design“.
You can read the whole chapter here but here’s an extract:
So, the reason why you might haven’t heard about virtual ergonomics or aren’t using it is because it was reserved for experts.
2. “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” Alan Kay
During the last decade, the Montreal based Dassault Systèmes (3DS) team dedicated to Virtual Ergonomics has been busy inventing the future by thinking and articulating this Vision:
The 3 key ingredients to democratize virtual ergonomics (ie: putting Virtual ergonomics in your hands) are the following:
- Talk the user talk: Resources, MBOM and operations already defined in the process plan are directly used as inputs for worker task creation.
- More time to improve the workplace +less time to posture the digital manikin: Automatic manikin posture creation for each worker task with the “Smart Posturing Engine” TM technology.
- Ergonomic guidance for non-ergonomists: Industry standards-based ergonomic risk level assessment for each worker task as well as suggestions to lower ergonomic risk driven by “Ergo4all” TM technology. Direct link with a certified ergonomist when needed.
These 3 ingredients are at the heart of DELMIA Ergonomic Workplace Designer. As a manufacturing engineer, you now have the possibility to do your job while developing an ergonomic mindset. How does that sound?
How to get started
Check out the demo “An Example of Ergonomic Workplace Design | DELMIA” on YouTube.
Additional resources:
Continue the conversation by joining the DELMIA Ergonomics Community here. Membership is free.
