Chapter 23

Computers, Automation, and Robotics

Major Topics

• Impact of automation in the workplace

• VDTs in offices and factories

• Human-robot interaction

• Safety and health in office automation

• Technological alienation in the automated workplace

• Challenge for the future

How automation has changed the workplace

• Innovative technology calls for intelligent manpower and increases the severity of work. The developments are intended to enhance productivity, quality, and competitiveness.

Effects of automation on workers

• Reducing the amount of physical labor workers must perform.

• Increasing the amount of mental work required.• Polarizing work into mental jobs and labor intensive jobs.• Increasing the stress level of managers.• Decreasing the need for traditional blue collar workers.• Decreasing the feeling of loyalty that workers feel

towards employers.• Increasing workers’ feelings of powerlessness and

helplessness.

Safety and health problem of VDT use

• In 1991 the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) published a study showing that “women who work with Video Display Terminals (VDTs) have no greater risk of miscarriage than those who do not.”

• There is ample evidence that such problems as eye fatigue, blurred vision, eye strain, and nervousness are associated with VDT use.

Reducing psychological and physiological problems associated with VDT use

• Increasing computer response time. Upgrading computer’s processing capability.

• Providing more frequent breaks from VDT use or incorporate non VDT work into schedule.

• Recognize and accommodate the need to break up continual VDT use.• Arrange the keyboard, so it is located to the front of the user and not to the

side.• Adjust the height of the desk.• Adjust the tilt of the keyboard.• Encourage employees to use soft touch keyboard.• Encourage employees to avoid wrist resting.• Place the mouse within easy reach.• Remove dust from mouse ball cavity.• Locate VDT at proper height (top line slightly below eye level) and distance (16

to 32 inches).• Minimize glare (use a screen hood, or adjust blinds).• Reduce lighting levels.• Dusting the VDT screen.• Eliminate telephone cradling while typing.

Robots and Danger

• What makes robots potentially more dangerous than other machines:

• Their ability to acquire intelligence through programming.

• Their flexibility and range of motion.

• Their speed of movement

• Their power.

Hazards of human robot interaction

• Being struck by a moving robot while inside the work envelope. The work envelope of a robot is the total area within which the moving parts of the robot actually move (fig 23-3 page 527).

• Being trapped between a moving part of a robot and another machine, object or surface.

• Being struck by a work piece, tool or other object dropped or ejected by a robot.

Minimizing hazards of robot interaction

• Ensure a glare free, well lighted robot site. The recommended light intensity is 50 -100 foot candles.

• Keep the floors in and around the robot site carefully maintained, clean and free of obstructions so that workers do not slip or trip in the work envelope.

• Keep the robot site free of associated hazards such as blinding light from welding machines or vapors from a paint booth.

• Equip electrical and pneumatic components of the robot with fixed covers and guards.

• Clear the work envelope of all non essential objects and make sure all safe guards are in place before starting the robot.

• Apply lockout and proper test procedure before entering the work envelope.

• Remove and account for all tools and equipment used to maintain the robot before starting it.

Safety and health problems associated with office automation

• Problems associated with office automation:

• Eye fatigue, seeing double images and complementary colors, headache, yawny feelings, unwillingness to talk, shoulder fatigue, neck fatigue, dryness in the throat, sleepy feelings and whole body tiredness.

• Maryland: take a 15 minute break from the VDT every hour.

Safety and health measures for office automation

• Developed by Japanese Association of Industrial Health:• More attention should be focused on bringing employers and

employees together for the purpose of improving working conditions in automated offices.

• Because VDT use is becoming so common in so many different occupations it should no longer be considered specialized. Consequently jobs should be designed to accommodate VDT use.

• The amount of time doing VDT work exclusively should be kept short, and employees should be able to perform the work in their own way.

• Working conditions should be established that prevent safety and health problems so that management is acting instead of reacting.

• Special emphasis should be placed on education and training as the best way to prevent adverse effects from office automation.

• VDT work should not be done part time at home or contracted out because working conditions cannot be properly controlled or supervised under these circumstances.

Maladaption

• Maladaption to the automated environment can manifest itself as an urge to quit work; fatigue; problems with human relations; a drop in work performance; social pathological phenomena such as drug use or crime; mood swings; a loss of motivation; and accidents.

Minimizing potential for maladaptation

• Improving the interaction between humans and robots, computers and other automated machines in the high tech workplace:

• Match the human system and the computer system• Position machine systems as human supportive systems• Adapt human-computer interaction to human use• Initiate job changing opportunities• Allow suitable rest periods for users of automated equipment• Vitalize the workplace• Encourage recreation• Promote the effective use of nonworking hours• Increase the contact with nature• Free people from hazardous, dirty, and harmful jobs• Shorten working hours and promote work sharing• Expand human contact• Harmonize people, things, and the environment ergonomically

Technological alienation, powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, and mindlessness

• Technological alienation: As technology becomes more widely used in the workplace, particularly automated technology, some workers have come to resent its impact on their lives. This concept is known as technological alienation.

• Powerlessness: is the feeling that workers have when they are not able to control the work environment. Powerless workers may feel that they are less important than the technology with which they work and that they are expendable.

• Meaninglessness: is the feeling that workers get when their jobs become so specialized and so technology dependant that they cannot see the meaning in their work as it relates to the finished product or service.

• Normlessness: is the pehenomenon in which people working in a highly automated environment can become estranged from society. Normless people lose sight of societies, norms, and rules.

• Mindlessness: is the result of the process of dumbing down the workplace. This is a concept that accompanied automation.

Problems with mindlessness in the workplace

• These can include an increase in alcoholism, drug abuse, employee theft, work related accidents, absenteeism, sick leave abuse, turn over rates and employee personal problems.

• Mindlessness can also lead to a decrease in job performance, productivity and work quality.

Ergonomic management program

• Ergonomic management program consists of activities undertaken to prevent ergonomics related injuries and disorders. Such a program should have at least the following components: work site analysis, hazard control, health surveillance, and training.

Sociotechnical system theory• The various components in the sociotechnical system theory explain

what must happen if humans and technological systems are going to work together harmoniously and safely. Safety and health professionals can apply the theory as they work to minimize the problems associated with automation in the modern workplace.

• Variance control: involves controlling the unexpected events that can be introduced by new technologies.

• Boundary location: involves the classification of work.• Work group organization: involves identifying the task a work group

is to perform and how these tasks are to be performed.• Management support: must be willing to emphasize safety in spite

of temporary declines of productivity.• Design process: ability of an organization to design itself to promote

productivity, quality, competitiveness, safety, and health.• Quality of work life: involves ways to promote the morale and best

interests of workers. Ensure that people control systems.

Safety of new robot system• Construct a safety fence around the system that defines the work

envelope of the system.• Control the speed of movement of the system components when

working inside the work fence.• Installation of an emergency stop device colored red and placed in an

easily accessible location.• Location of the control panel of the system outside the safety fence.• Establishment of automatic shutdown switches that activate any time

a system component goes beyond its predetermined operational range.

• Safety measures related to training include training system operators to work safely within the work envelope and to work as a team when interacting with the system.

• Maintenance workers should be trained on the technical aspects of maintaining all machines and equipment that make up the system.

• The safety level of a system is the sum of the safety levels of its individual components.

International competition and need to improve productivity

• Increasing international competition may magnify the tendency of companies to neglect safety and health precautions in favor of short term productivity gains.

• Automation and competition are likely to increase the level of anxiety as workers are required to make split second decisions while knowing that their action or inaction have dire consequences.

Meeting the future challenges of an automated workplace

• Technological systems and processes must be designed to take into account the physical, mental, and emotional needs of human workers.

• Workers will need training and continual retraining so that they can effectively and efficiently operate technological systems and interact with them from the perspective of mastery rather than inadequacy.

• The quality of work life and safety and health considerations will have to receive as much attention in the design and implementation of automated systems and processes as do economic and technological concerns.

• Ergonomists should become involved in accident prevention.• Where technology reduces the number of operators, isolation

should be avoided for safety and to increase social contacts to reduce stress.

Summary• The introduction of automation has reduced the amount of physical

labor, increased the amount of mental work, increased stress, and the feeling of powerlessness and helplessness.

• There is a growing concern but little evidence over the negative effects of prolonged VDT (video display terminal) use.

• What makes robots dangerous is their flexibility, speed of movement, and their power.

• Mindlessness is the result of dumbing down of the workplace.• Strategies for overcoming technological challenges include training

and continual retraining, better accident reporting, and the involvement of ergonomists in accident prevention.

Home work

• Answer questions 4, 10, 12, and 16 on pages 536-537.• 4. List 3 strategies for reducing the psychological and

physiological problems associated with VDT use.• 10. Define the term mal-adaptation. Explain how it

manifests itself in workers. • 12. Define the following automation related terms:

technological alienation, powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, and mindlessness.

• 16. Explain how you would ensure that a new robot system was safe for its operator and other workers.