Assessing Human Factors/Ergonomics: How Well Are We Doing as a Profession?

Paul Green

Presidential AddressHuman Factors and Ergonomics Society

53rd Annual MeetingSan Antonio, TexasOctober 20, 2009

(not to be confused with the Humor Factors & Economics Society)

This talk was stimulated by Jeff Kelly and ideas he advocated concerning “Knowledge-Based Governance.”

This talk is about…

1. “Human factors” and “ergonomics” as broadly defined HFES members, people with that job title, & kindred folk

2. the society (HFES) and other societies 3. quantification measurements, measures, & statistics, but not metrics

There are at least 4 types of statistics of interest: outcome, output, process, activity.

4. the big picture, but also to provide ideas that individual members can use at a personal level

For the latest info on quantification, see the health care literature.

Green: “How are we doing…. Hancock: relative to what?

Search for: “Hal Hendrick,” “macroergonomics,” ”Colin Drury”

Hal Hendrick 1996 Presidential Address

Product C-141 plane reconfiguration

10:1 benefit to cost ratio

Fork lift truck increased sales -> stock $6 -> $21 Process Machine shop

(various): noise reductions (18, 20 db), sick leave 8 -> 2%, rejects 2.5 -> 1%; production increase 10%

Poultry de-boning knife

line speeds increase by 2-6%, $500k workmenʼs comp saved

There are 21 organizations with about the same total membership as HFES. How do we compare in terms of impact?

Search Associations Unlimited database, lists HFES=4800

Alfa Romeo Owners Club American Society of Dowsers Beefmaster Breeders United Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals Illinois Academy of Family Physicians International Songwriterʼs Association - Ireland National Water Resources Association Royal National Lifeboat Institution - Ireland World Presidents Organization

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

64 70 76 82 88 94 00 06

Num

ber

Year

SIGCHI membership HFES membership HFES attendance 4330

5354

HFES Membership & Annual Meeting attendance has gone up and down. The decline is similar to SIGCHI.

IEA

1250

See Putnam (2000) Bowling Alone

*85-09, Kiwanis TX OK district (benchmark) 17,500->10,200

The US population has grown 0.949% / year, so there are relatively fewer of us (HF/E). Fortunately, that is not the full story.

0 50

100 150 200 250 300 350

80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 00 02 04 06 08

Num

ber

Year

U.S. population has grown 31% from 1980 to 2009 per the US Census Bureau.

HFES Technical Groups 73 75 76 79 80 83 Input/Output Design, Interpersonal Comm, Task Analysis, Urban Prob.

x

Medical Sys. & Rehabilitation x x Computer, Environmental Design, Safety, Training

x x x x x x

Consumer Products x x x x Aging, Educators, Industrial Ergonomics, Visual Perf.->Percep & Perf.

x x x

ODAM -> Macroergonomics x Total 9 5 5 8 9 10

73-83, Few tech groups. Groups come & go, but some persist.

HFES Tech. Group 85 90 95 00 05 09 Aging, Commun., Computer, Macroerg, Prod. Design, Ed., Forensics, Ind. Ergo., P & P., Safety, Sys. Dev., T & E, Training

x x x x x x

Aerospace, Cog. Eng. & DM, Individ. Diffs.,

x x x x x

Health Care, Surface Trans.

x x x x

Internet x x x # of TG 14 17 20 21 22 23 # of TG Members 4839 6865 7843 6615 6023 7448

85-09, Membership in TGs increases.

Reportedly, for all professional societies 1.  Membership is down overall. 2.  The membership is graying. 3.  Relatively fewer young members are joining. 4.  Specialization is increasing.

Are these statements true? If they are true, by how much and why? What should we do about it?

We need the appropriate statistics.

BCPE is adding about 35 full certifications and 19 associate certifications per year

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

92 94 96 98 00 02 04 06 08

Cum

ulat

ive

Tota

l (a

ssum

ing

no d

rop

outs

)

Year

CPE/CHFP/CUXPs

AEP/AHFP/AUXPs

CEAs

0 200 400 600 800

1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000

61 64 67 70 73 76 79 82 85 88 91 93 97 00 03 06

Number of “Communications” + Posters at IEA Congresses

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 00 02 04 06 08

# of

Pub

licat

ions

Year

human factors ergonomics usability

Source: Amazon.com, advanced search feature, relevant titles

There are about 310 new human factors titles each year, and 160 for ergonomics and 170 for usability.

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000

82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 00 02 04 06 08

# of

Pub

licat

ions

Year

human factors ergonomics usability engineering/10 all/500

We are doing better than all publications and “human factors” is doing as well as engineering.

Ask

Without using your iPhone to go on line and search, does anyone know what the most “relevant” ergonomics title is for 2009?

What would you guess?

This is it, according to Amazon.com.

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

0 50 100 150 200

# of

Sta

ndar

ds

Prod

uced

Rank Order (212 max)

ISO TC159 (#44, 104) has published far more standards than most TCs (mean = 83, median = 30).

References to human factors and ergonomics in federal and state cases is increasing.

From: LexisNexus Academic database, legal folder

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700

59-69 69-79 79-89 89-99 99-09

# of

Cita

tions

Decade

submarine

ergonomics

human factors

usabiliity

ergonomics (2.80) usability (2.55) human factors (1.00)

Ergonomics is the most common term in “average worldwide traffic” over time.

Go to trends.google.com, type in search terms

But, the most news is about usability. 

“Horseshoe” has greater average worldwide traffic over time than human factors, ergonomics, or usability.

horseshoe (5.55) human factors (1.00)

But, recently, there is more news about usability than horseshoes. 

Human Factors and

Ergonomics Society

Horseshoe Factors and

Ergonomics Society

?

Should we change?

“We don’t get any respect.” Is it true?

Rodney Dangerfield

Statistically, we should get some respect.

Harris poll, data collected early/mid July, 2008, n=1010 adults

Rank Occupation Very Great Prestige

Rank Occupation Very Great Prestige

1 Firefighter 62 13 Lawyer 26 2 Scientist 57 14 Business exec. 23 3 Doctor 56 15 Athlete 21 4 Nurse 54 16 Journalist 17 5 Military officer 51 17 Union leader 17 6 Teacher 51 18 Entertainer 17 7 Police Officer 44 19 Banker 16 8 Clergy 41 20 Actor 15 9 Engineer 39 21 Stockbroker 13

10 Farmer 36 22 Accountant 11 11 Architect 29 23 Realtor 5 12 Member of Congress 28

HFES member salaries have increased over time, but there is a small bachelors-masters difference.

0 20000 40000 60000 80000

100000 120000 140000

86 90 97 05 09

Med

ian

Sala

ry ($

)

Year

Doctorate Masters Bachelors ?

For more info, see the current & previous HFES salary surveys.

?

0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

97 05 09

HFES

/US

Cens

us D

ata

(med

ian

$)

Year

Bachelors Masters Doctorate

??

Relative to others with similar education, HFES members are paid more.

The 2009 HFES salary survey is available for $50 from the shameless commerce department of HFES.

My main points 1.  Our profession seems to be doing ok. * membership & attendance, publication counts, web citations, standards, forensics * There is much more to the story than time permits.

2. Frequency counts of key words in data bases and other statistics are useful in assessing the human factors and ergonomics profession, and hopefully, your organization and yourself.

3. Quantifying how we are doing in terms of outcomes, output, process, and activity statistics is essential to wisely allocating our limited resources.

But...

What we do and how we do it is not always a calculated decision based on statistics.

Ask:

How many of you have seen the TV program “Dirty Jobs?”

Mike Roweʼs blog Why should you want to be an eagle scout (or maybe a human factors engineer or an ergonomist)?

Thanks for listening! Barry Beith David Caple Pascale Carayon Colin Drury Don Chaffin Peter Hancock Hal Hendrick Richard Hornick Bill Howell Laura Lammons Andy Imada Karel Jahns

Jeff Kelley

Dick Pew Michelle Robertson Kris Rightmire Jason Schweitzer Lois Smith Aaron Steinfeld Ed Steinfeld Lynn Strother Bob Sweet Loren Terveen

And thanks to: