Introduction

In order to develop a tridimensional approach and perform an ergonomic analysis in common areas with free circulation of people, a development of a case study is presented on the following sections.

The main objectives of this case study were:

To develop and test the Ergonomic Tridimensional Analysis, ETdA, in a real-life situation and,

To answer the research questions presented on Chapter 3 using database collected through the ETdA application on a given ergonomic context.

This research method was conducted according to Quivy and Campenhoudt (2008) methodology. The steps of the procedure were adapted to this research field and are described as follows (Figure 4. 1).

Figure 4.1. Research methodology steps.

To establish a guiding principle for the study, a starting point was defined and named Question form ((a) in Figure 4.1). The question is:

“What is the role of Clients, as an integrated part in the system, in the ergonomic analysis performed in common areas (areas designed for Clients and Professionals)?”

From Chapter 2, Literature review ((b) in Figure 4.1), it is suggested that:

organizations come to be seen as a socio-technical systems;

quality management philosophy must be focused not only in workforce satisfaction, but also in Clients’ expectations satisfaction and wellbeing;

processes of improvement must be multidimensional that is, considering all the organizational participants;

macroergonomic approaches must recognise that customer, client or user is an active part of the ergonomic context.

The recognition of the public engagement on ergonomic issues becomes a challenge to ergonomics, being compulsory to understand the importance and the role of this new dimension on a system approach. Therefore, ergonomics challenges must be focused on the study of the interrelations that comprises all system levels. From literature review (see Chapter 2), different approaches were presented allowing the integration of the problem in a theoretical framework, leading to a fundamental resolution. Usually, the main focuses of the occupational ergonomic methodologies are the workers’ performance and wellbeing. But that is not always the case, for example, in situations where design of interfaces or highly specific equipments and tools, are studied. In these situations, the main target of researchers is the product usability. Several ergonomic contexts can be identified where Clients and Professionals interrelate. Most of the times, these ergonomic contexts are designed for clients’ attendance and not for Professionals to develop their activities. Is this case, Client’s point of view, as an integrating part of the system, is not considered on the ergonomic analysis, as primarily they are focused on the professional environment (occupational ergonomic analysis).

The problematic ((c) in Figure 4.1) of a tridimensional ergonomic approach is reflected in a cycle in which the assumptions together with the evaluation of the indicators to be used in the ergonomic analysis (Loureiro, Leão and Arezes, 2009) allow the operability of the proposed model (Figure 4.2).

Figure 4.2. Ergonomic Tridimensional Analysis problematic.

According to Loureiro (2008), three assumptions were considered to develop an ergonomic approach based on a tridimensional perspective: (1) Clients are considered as system integrated part, (2) Clients and Professionals circulate in common area and, (3) the ergonomic intervention is a result of the participation of all system levels.

In order to develop a tridimensional approach, the identification of the indicators to be used in the analysis was required. This contributed to assess risk situations and, consequently, to implement processes of improvements. In the limit, these indicators can be used by Managers,

to establish criteria for quality of service and information provided to Clients. These indicators can be divided into two major groups: ergonomic factors (EFs) and Clients operationally characteristics. The EFs that allow the ETdA operability are intrinsically (individual ergonomic factors) or extrinsically linked to Professionals. In this case, they are divided in environmental or occupational EFs. If they are inserted in the organizational schemes of the social-technical systems they will be occupational, otherwise, environmental, when related to the physical aspects of the work (Table 4.1).

Table 4.1. ETdA ergonomic factors.

Environmental Occupational Individual

Noise Professional training quality Postures

Illumination Decision making General physical activity Thermal environment Restrictiveness Communication/inter-relation

Risk of accident Job content Attentiveness

Work space or common area

Operational characteristics are related to a group of Clients’ characteristics that may have influence on the ergonomic analysis, namely age and gender, professional occupation, education level or the knowledge about ergonomics.

The development of an ergonomic tridimensional analysis, should take into consideration the assumptions and the indicators, above mentioned ((d) in Figure4.1).

At this point, in order to bring the theoretical assumptions to a real-life context, the identification of the cases used on this study was required. Even though the criteria for case selection were related to the above mentioned assumptions, other factors were also considered, namely, location, availability, contact and accessibility. Institutional contacts were established with several companies and as result, three commercial areas were selected to perform this research study.

These areas presented an open space where a wide variety of products are displayed. Each commercial area presented different ergonomic contexts where specific Professionals’ activities were developed. In these ergonomic contexts, Clients could circulate freely contacting with Professionals when required. These areas were identified with a short name, CAFCP, meaning commercial areas with free circulation of people (Table 4.2).

Table 4.2. Short name of the commercial areas.

Commercial area Short name Entertainment retail chain CAFCP 01 Wholesale retailer CAFCP 02

Sports store CAFCP 03

These commercial areas worked under a franchise concept. This could be defined as a method of collaboration between a major company, the Master, and several minor companies, the franchise. This marketing concept was represented by three main elements: the right to use a brand and its identity, a shared experience or know-how and, a set of products, services and technologies (http://www.apfranchise.org). The Master defined the type of furniture and lay-out,

products selection, and the work organization, which could be applied in all stores belonging to the group. This marketing strategy, in some way, implied rethinking the occupational issues on the ergonomics. For that reason, it was important to study and characterize not only the situation and working conditions in these commercial areas, but also the areas where Clients freely circulate, in accordance with the minimum of comfort and wellbeing.

A brief description of the areas is presented below.

The CAFCP 01 was related to an international entertainment retail chain founded in France. The store offered cultural and electronic products, from Audio, Books, CDs, Computer software and hardware, DVDs, Televisions and Video games. Some of the stores also presented services of photography and ticket sales. The company also offered a wide selection of higher-end consumer products positioning themselves above discount retailers. The CAFCP 02 was related to a Dutch cash-and-carry chain. Cash-and-carry is an important retailing sector in market. This kind of business is characterized by large open spaces where different sections with food and non-food services could be identified. The CAFCP 03 was related to one of the largest chains of sports shops in Portugal. By starting its international expansion on May 2008, this commercial area took a step forward. In this commercial area, a wide variety of products related to different sports, could be identified. Comparing the target market of the commercial areas, some differences were identified: Clients’ population of the CAFCP 01 and CAFCP 03 were undefined covering a wide range of Clients, from unemployed persons to students. In opposition, the market target of the CAFCP 02 was very well defined and identified. It could be business owners, self- employed professionals, freelancers or institutions.

A change in the store’ management of the CAFCP 03 happened throughout the implementation of the methodology. The new Manager commitment with this research project was inexistent.

Therefore, it was not possible to perform data collection for analysis during the period intended for that purpose. In order to uncompromise the success of the ETdA development, this area was excluded from the study.

In the step of observation ((e), Figure 4.1) the model analysis and hypotheses were confronted to the real-life context. To make this possible, a correct definition of the observation tools for each ETdA dimension (Analyst, Professionals and Clients) was done. The implementation of the observation tools has allowed the construction of a database, important not only for the definition of the ETdA model but also to the final ergonomic intervention decision. A set of statistical techniques were used to do data analysis helping in decision making ((f), Figure 4.1). In this step the obtained results were also used to answer the research questions (see Chapter 3).

Taking into consideration the proposed research methodology, the present work was conducted based on four stages as illustrated in Figure 4.3.

Figure 4.3. Main stages for the ETdA methodology definition.

The first stage, the ETdA definition, was related to the identification of the ETdA dimensions and development of the correspondent ETdA observation tools. At this stage, the definition of the ETdA variables (indicators) was also performed.

The second stage, the ETdA implementation, was related to data collection in the field. ETdA planning is an important step to normalize the data collection.

The third stage, ETdA data analysis, was related to data analysis of the ETdA observation tools results.

Finally, at the last stage, ETdA validation, by weighting the dimension results, Clients’ impact on the ergonomic intervention was checked as well as research questions presented on Chapter 3 were answered.

The ETdA Methodology General Guidelines will be presented in order to perform the ergonomic analysis in common areas with free circulation of people.

In order to help the Analyst in the implementation of the ETdA model in common areas, a software was developed. It is important to note that software design occurred simultaneously with ETdA development. For this reason, the software was considered to be a product (result) of the ETdA development and not an input to ETdA development. A description of this software development is presented in the Chapter 5 (Results and Discussion).