۱٫ Introduction

۲٫ Description of the research method

۳٫ Research results

۴٫ Discussion

۵٫ Conclusions

References

Ergonomics is the study that deals with the design of products and processes that improve both human well-being and overall system performance. In order to reduce the ergonomic strain that the workers in the warehouse sector experience, while also increasing competitiveness and tact time, businesses have to understand the importance of emerging technologies and how these can be applied successfully in their working area. This paper offers a grading of existent wearable computer technology that can be used within a warehouse environment, based on their capacity to reduce ergonomic strain both by means of reducing or eliminating repetitive motions as well as by increasing scanning usability through their software integration with existing ERP systems. Besides the ergonomic efficiency, the analysis also looks at the necessary financial investment and the training effort needed to implement such a solution in order to offer a holistic view of the topic to decision makers. The detailed explanation of the results also offers a purchase decision framework, based on the current market trends in warehouse technologies and on the future development capabilities of the technologies analyzed.

Introduction

According to International Ergonomics Association (IEA), ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance. It is considered that the role of ergonomists is to contribute to the design and evaluation of tasks, jobs, products, environments and systems so that they are made compatible with the ways in which people access them, by using both theoretical research as well as practical tool implementations. Such a practical tool implementation that has wide-ranging applicability is that of the wearable computer. With the decreasing size and increasing power of most of the components of a modern computer, it was only a matter of time until computers that could be worn on the body began appearing (Bass, 1996). The social implications of a given technology are not always clear during the technology’s introduction and it takes even more time for scientists to start analyzing the effects said technology has on the world around (Pool, 1977). While still in its infancy, wearable computing is graining steady ground both in the private as well as corporate life. Although its advances are still slow, wearable computing has the potential to have one of the biggest efficiency improving impacts to date in society. Research is currently focused on using wearable computers to get this kind of technology in places where it previously wasn’t available before, due to space or activity restrictions, such as for medical monitoring (Martin, Jovanov & Raskovic, 2000), or mechanical inspection (Sunkpho, Garrett, Smailagic & Siewiorek, 1998; Ockerman & Pritchett, 1998).