Ergonomics and the Customer Satisfaction Model: Ergonomics in the Language of Business

Abstract

Ergonomics has a strong human focus and success lies in integrating the effort to the goals of business. It is suggested in this paper that ergonomics has a strong contribution to business in any continuous improvement effort. This strength lies in the focus on the human as an employee or participant in business ventures and as a customer or a recipient of the product or service. A customer satisfaction model is suggested that pulls together customer and employee oriented quality initiatives that are occurring across industries with examples drawn from the Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems (LMTAS) experience to illustrate the application. The various initiatives of National Quality Awards and productivity improvements through the Lean Enterprise focus have made major changes in business processes. For the human factors and ergonomics message to be part of these current business trends it must be phrased in the language of business.