Ergonomics Intervention Programme Technique (EIPT) in IDC case studies in Iranian industries

Abstract: In recent years, it has become clear that the workshop with active participation is the best method of conducting training, especially for training people in an Ergonomics Intervention Programme (EIP). A participative workshop with a holistic and multidisciplinary ergonomics- training program is an effective way for building competence among employees for designing and implementing improvement changes at work. The thesis presents the result of a macroergonomics survey, which contains workshops and intervention projects in some Iranian industries since March 1995 by the Center for Ergonomics of Developing Countries (CEDC) in Iran. The workshops were aimed to create ergonomics learning and implementation process at three levels, viz; 'Individual, group and organization' participants of Iranian industries (papers I to V). Ergonomics intervention programme technique (EIPT) in this study was defined as the activities performed by the facilitators (ergonomics expert and Ph.D. students) for the purpose of doing; 1)- Ergonomics Training (ET) building awareness (BA), Ergonomics Application (EA) and Evaluation (E), 2)- Research Activities (RA) and 3)-Network Building (NB) in industries in the Industrially Developing Countries (IDC), case - Iran. Employees and management participation in the ergonomics activities was a key issue and integrating factor in this EIPT. According to all the issues presented in this work-study, we can argue that the EIPT will bring about awareness and action, aiding in the introduction of necessary changes. The results of the exercises and studies have shown that, in the pre-intervention phase of EIP, the positive synergistic effect of a macroergonomic approach is significant and thus the EIPT model should be followed; by virtue of the fact that intervention as the basis of action research in IDC due to action research is concerned primarily with intervention and not observation. A key role for speeding up the process of transferring ergonomics know-how to IDC could be played by universities in industrialized world, both with regards to accepting students from IDC as well as conducting collaborative research, similar to the past activities of CEDC. Furthermore, international networks, and interested ergonomists from ICs and IDCs, as well as Ph.D. students from IDCs could contribute greatly in facililitating ergonomics know-how transfer to IDCs.