The Ergonomic Nightmare....
The IMO definition of ergonomics is the study and design of working environments (e.g., workstation, cockpit, ship bridges) and their components, work practices, and work procedures for the benefit of the worker’s productivity, health, comfort, and safety.
‘An ergonomic nightmare’ is an expression often to be heard emanating from the mariner, reflecting his opinion on the layout of the ship’s bridge, or the engineroom. The IMO definition of ergonomics is the study and design of working environments (e.g., workstation, cockpit, ship bridges) and their components, work practices, and work procedures for the benefit of the worker’s productivity, health, comfort, and safety.
A ship is unique in that it is not only a place of work, within which there are a number of workspaces - the bridge, the machinery control room, the engineroom, the cargo control room, cargo holds, galley etc - each of which may have different operational criteria, but also it is a ‘home’ to those who work onboard. Furthermore, it is a floating platform which can be affected by external and internal environmental conditions such as weather, temperature, humidity, noise, vibration and ship motion (pitching, rolling and slamming), any of which can also be detrimental to the safety and performance of those who work and live onboard. The mariner The mariner is generally a trusting sort of person; he (or she) has implicit faith in those who have conceived, designed and built his ship. Alas, there is no such thing as ‘the perfect ship’, because the end product is inevitably a compromise between what is needed to satisfy the regulations, what is absolutely necessary to fulfil the operational role, and what is affordable. But, it must be ‘fit for purpose’ to enable the master and his crew to fulfil their obligations to ensure the safe conduct of the ship and the safe and timely delivery of its cargo. Put simply, for any ship or system to operate safely and effectively, it must be designed to support the people who operate it, without detriment to their health, safety and overall performance.
Ergonomic considerations do not just start at the design stage of a ship and finish at build - they must be applied throughout its lifecycle, especially when updating its role or its manning philosophies or when retro-fitting new systems or equipment.
If you don’t get the ergonomics right, overall ship performance may be compromised!