The Role of Design in Technology Driven Ergonomics Product Development

Abstract

Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) have been considered in New Product Development (NPD) to develop solutions that are useable and useful while maintaining productivity. The importance of technology and design has increased at the intersection between NPD and HFE. Developing a new product driven by technology is known as a technology driven approach which can be infused into existing ergonomic product development processes and may result in the development of effective, new and innovative products. The purpose of this study is to instigate design methods and tools that can be applicable to the technology driven NPD process. The literature regarding existing design methods and tools used and potentially utilized in technology driven NPD process has been reviewed in this study. Also, the role of HFE experts in a technology driven NPD process is addressed in the discussion section. In addition, when to use the design methods and tools found in the literature in the front end of the technology driven NPD process is suggested in this paper to help develop new and innovative products.