Ergonomics considerations in IT-enabled computer-aided design for discrete manufactured products

Despite great advances in the field of ergonomics, its integration into the conceptual stage of computer-aided product design remains limited. In order that a product be designed for safety and comfort, it is essential that pertinent ergonomic principles be imposed as design constraints during design conceptualization. Further, it is vital that these constraints be propagated to downstream design activities so that they can be considered along with other design constraints such as manufacturing and assembly, in deriving design alternatives and subsequently in determining the outcome of the final product. This should enable the design of safer and more comfortable products, minimize design iterations that often result from ergonomic violations, reduce design cycle time and hence minimize product lifecycle cost.; This work proposes a computer-aided design methodology for the conceptual design of discrete products using an expert system approach. The feasibility of the methodology is tested by implementing it in a Java-based software application and applied to the design of a wheelchair seating system. The performance of the proposed method is compared to that of the current method. Results obtained show that the new method outperforms the current method in terms of design cycle time. The new method also proves very helpful in fast tracking designers to necessary ergonomic design data.