Cognitive issues in the ergonomic design of work systems

Work systems are organized groups of men and technical tools which, through their collaboration in a specific environment, achieve a productive purpose. The performance level of the work system, not only in terms of productivity, quality and costs, but also in terms of work injuries, accident and safety level in general, can be improved by respecting human limits, needs and expectations in the design of work systems. This goal, a specifically ergonomic one, until now had practical consequences in the technical field mainly with regard to environmental ergonomics and to the physical workspace ergonomic features. On the contrary, the consideration of cognitive issues in work system design is often neglected, notwithstanding it can play an important role in determining the number of work injuries. This is due in particular to the lack of technical instruments able to take into account the cognitive issues and on which the practical development of systems can afford on. In this paper, the authors propose a methodology for the design of work systems with the aim to contribute to overcome the above described lack. This methodology has been developed through the study and the critical evaluation of the conceptual schemes of man-machine interaction, the cognitive interaction models and task analysis methodologies, the analysis of the requirements of a “well designed” work system, the identification of patterns of typical and operatively useful ergonomic cognitive factors determining the performances of the work systems.