Scientific approaches for the industrial workstations ergonomic design: a review

Over the last years ergonomic problems have received growing attention due to their effects on industrial plants efficiency and productivity. Many theories, principles, methods and data relevant to the workstation design have been generated through ergonomics research. However, no general frameworks have been suggested, yet. The time seems to be right for presenting a review paper on the scientific studies whose aim is to achieve the ergonomic design of industrial workstations. To this end, it is the intent of the authors to provide the readers with an accurate overview on the main scientific approaches proposed (during the last two decades) by researchers and scientists working in this specific area. In particular, two main scientific approaches have been identified. The first approach is based on the direct analysis of the real workstations, while the second one uses computerized models to design workstations ergonomically. Each scientific approach will be presented through a detailed description of the research works it involves. The initial search identifies a huge number of articles which were reduced to about 60 studies based on content and quality. Note that the research works description represents the core part of this literature review.