Design and ergonomics - Methods and tools for integrating ergonomics at the design stage of hand-held tools

To define design methods aimed at promoting the integration of ergonomics, a generic view of a design method is firstly proposed. The article then goes on to present the main industrial approaches to product design and, for each of them, highlights the times and the types of intervention proposed to ergonomists. An approach adapted to the integration of ergonomics into the design process has thus been determined and defined. It involves, within a concurrent engineering framework, monitoring an iterative design process based on the combination of the functional analysis and prototyping techniques. Finally, three design methodology tools are presented: the functional needs analysis, the QFD and TRIZ. Through their use in the CEROM project (Ergonomic design of hand-held tools), it has been demonstrated that they are capable of responding to the problems involved in integrating ergonomics at the design stage of products.