Ergonomics: Human Engineering, Human Factors

Merriam-Webster defines ergonomics as “an applied science concerned with designing and arranging things people use so that the people and things interact most efficiently and safely —called also biotechnology, human engineering, human factors”. “Process improvement is the proactive task of identifying, analyzing and improving upon existing business processes within an organization for optimization and to meet new quotas or standards of quality.” (www.appian.com/about-bpm/process-improvement-organizational-development/) For the past twenty or more years the GE rotor shop has received their kits to assemble their many different rotors the same way. All the parts scattered in one or more large tubs on a pallet or two depending on the amount …show more content…
Eventually it made its way to the GE rotor shop. The GE rotor shop is located in the NW corner of building 3001 is the home of rotating on non-rotating rotor parts for the majority of all aircrafts engines flown by the US Air Force. These engines include the F108, F101, F110, and the F118. The rotor shop is divided in half it has the rotating side and the non-rotating side. Both halves are then divided in half again for disassembly and assembly. Some of the rotors that are assembled on the rotating side includes the LPT (low pressure turbine), HPT (high pressure turbine), blade up, Compressor, fan and booster, and 1 and 2 bearing …show more content…
At the time I was working as a mechanic assembling the 1 and 2 bearing support, although I was certified to assembly just about all the other rotors I was a part of the designing the cart used for the 1 and 2 bearing support. I was given the overall dimensions that the cart would be and how many shelfs I was allowed to use. I then spent a number of hours measuring the parts of the 1 and 2 bearing support. This assembly has quit a few small parts and two rather large bulky parts. The few middle size parts and the parts that were awkward shaped were placed on the top shelf the smaller and lighter parts were on the middle shelf and the two larger bulkier parts were on the bottom shelf. Each shelf had a foam top where each part could be shadowed in. This made it corrected two major problems that we were having. First, we could look at the cart and know in just a few seconds if we had all our parts. Second, all the parts were at a level that required the least amount of bending from the mechanics. The larger parts on the bottom required a two men to lift the parts because of their weight. Even though it was a two man lift neither had to bend over it was at the right