Management Of Family Resources

Lesson 44 : Management Of Energy Applied To Work Place Design

Functional Design Of Workplace

The functional design is the arrangement of the important parts to serve a special purpose. Applied to household workplaces, we say that a functional design for a workplace is a design meeting the requirements of the work and the worker. Our problem is to determine and coordinate the requirements of the task and worker.

Functional design should result in minimum of strain on the worker and require a minimum of effort to do the activity. Availability of needed space, items, and facilities makes it possible for the worker to do the work without allocating much attention to the situation itself. One set of conditions is not satisfactory for all household tasks. Many tasks require a particular setup due to requirements for specialized equipment or facilities, type of supplies, and work surface on which to manipulate items or carry out processes. Characteristics of each part of the workplace must be designed to facilitate the performance of the specific task.

The equipment, storage, and work-surface requirements for a work place are determined primarily by the nature of the activity, but these must be tempered by the worker's requirements if the design is to truly functional.

To develop the physical design of workplaces, a number of aspects must be considered:

1. Location in vertical space

Height of work surfaces
Height of shelves, drawers, bins
Height of appliances or their parts
Weight and size of items to be stored

2. Location in horizontal space

Supplies, tools
Adjacent workplaces-height

3. Spatial arrangement of parts

Work surface-appliance relationship
Distribution of work surface
Location of drawers, doors, bins
Location of controls

4. Amount and dimensions and space for

Work (length and width of surface; depth of basins)
Worker at work-one and more than one
Storage of supplies and other items

5. Provision of special features

Utilities (electricity, gas, water; drainage)
Duplication of facilities
Ventilation
Lighting

Task and worker requirements must be related to each of these aspects to achieve a functional design. Some of the good work surface and equipment design are shown in the following pictures as given by Nickel et.al (1942)








fig: Equipment suited to worker permits good working posters