The objectives of the 11th edition of this popular text are to provide a practical, up-to-date college text describing engineering methods to measure, analyze, and design manual work. The importance of ergonomics and work design as part of methods engineering is emphasized, not only to increase productivity but also to improve worker health and safety and, thus, company bottom-line costs. Far too often industrial engineers have focused solely on increasing productivity through methods changes and job simplification, resulting in overly repetitive jobs for the operators and increased incidence rates of musculoskeletal injuries. Any cost reductions obtained are more than offset by the increased medical and Workers Compensation costs, especially considering today's ever-escalating health care costs.
Also, with the continual decline of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and an increase in the importance of the service sector, a chapter on the cognitive aspects of work, information processing, and office ergonomics has been included. Additional examples and case studies showing applications with the service industry have been provided. Some topics of lesser importance or those that have been supplanted by technological changes have been reduced in scope. However, the 11th edition still provides a continued reliance on work sampling, time study, facilities layout and various flow process charts in the industrial engineering profession.
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2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education