OSKU. Digital Human Model in the Participatory Design Approach: A New Tool to Improve Work Tasks and Workplaces

The goal was to improve manual work tasks and workplace design.The objective was a new digital human model based participatory design approach, and as an implementation a tool, to be used concurrently with production design.It was emphasized that even an ordinary worker would identify workplace and work task problems and perhaps could produce illustrative alternative 3D solutions to control physical human load and to increase the productivity.The developed tool exploits a production design simulation software platform.The OSKU tool includes basic human motions as an expandable database, and embedded ergonomic analyses, either timeline or sequent based when possible.It includes also additional checklists to assessing other ergonomic and workplace point of views.One can produce and compare alternative solutions for human work and production and evaluate their added value with each others.Thus human work, working environment, machinery, and production can be concurrently designed with exploiting the participatory design approach, too.The developed OSKU method benefits of participatory design method, which in collaboration with industry has been implemented to fit 3D modelling and simulation.It is focused on obtaining the end user and other shop floor level employees' experiences, tacit type information and skills to benefiting the design of work, workplaces and production concurrently.