D-Lab

Design for Human Use

 Ergonomics
• Ease of use
• Ease of maintenance
• Number of interactions
• Novelty of interactions
• Safety
Battery Maintenance
 Design for as many target users as possible
140

120

100

80 male high
male low
Female high

60 Female low

Grip strength

40

20

0
15-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69
Age
Consequences of bad design
 Ergonomics
• Ease of use
• Ease of maintenance
• Number of interactions
• Novelty of interactions
• Safety
Micro-Flail Time and Motion
Comparison
Probing- 2-6 minutes

• Set up flail – 15 seconds

• Walk away – 90 seconds
• Run flail – 10 seconds
• Walk back – 90 seconds
• Finish operation – 15 seconds
Total ~4 minutes
Charcoal Briquette Making
Time and Motion Study
bake briquettes
split/shred bagasse
dry
load into kiln/oil drum
make briquettes light
wait
cover
seal
wait
empty

mix with charcoal

crush
let porridge cool
make porridge
mix manioc w/ cold water
boil water

grate manioc
Total = ~4 hours
Briquette Making
Original prototype in use
 Break process into steps

1. Load charcoal
2. Hammer
3. Eject Briquette
 Define the steps

1. Load charcoal – until hand releases scoop

2. Hammer – until hand releases hammer
3. Eject Briquette –until hand releases pin
 Time study data
(seconds)
Cycle # Load hammer eject total cycle
1 8.3 7.4 10.5 26.1
2 9.0 6.3 9.5 24.8
3 7.1 6.4 11.7 25.2
4 10.8 5.6 36.5 52.8
5 9.1 6.5 13.6 29.2
6 9.2 6.8 11.9 28.0
7 11.6 6.2 13.2 31.0
8 10.5 9.3 11.0 30.9
9 9.3 6.8 14.3 30.4
10 12.4 7.2 11.7 31.3
11 10.9 7.3 12.9 31.0
12 9.2 6.4 47.1 62.7
13 9.5 7.2
 Time trial data
70

60

50

Load
40
Hammer
Eject
30
Seconds Total

20

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Briquette #
 What took so long?
Cleaning, 17%

Eject, 42%

Load, 34%

Hammer, 24%
 What took so long?
Hammering
•Pick up hammer
•Pick up piston
•Insert piston
•Hammer
•Remove piston
•Set down piston
•Set down hammer
 New designs
•No corners in compaction area (no cleaning necessary)
•Piston hangs in top of tube (don’t remove and set down piston)
•One handed eject door (don’t set down hammer)
•Use hammer to open eject door (eliminate the closing pin)
Estimated speed = 5 Briquettes per Minute (BPM)
(old machine 2 BPM)
Alternate design: Two pistons
Estimated speed = 5.4 to 6.6 BPM, depending on the loading
method.

Conclusion: second piston is not worth the added complexity

New machine 2.5x faster
New machine time breakdown

Eject
33%
Load
43%

Hammer
24%
More people 5.5x faster
 Comparison between machines

60

50

40 Bottom Eject, 3 people

Side Door Eject

30 Bottom eject, one person

Linear (Side Door Eject)

20 Linear (Bottom Eject, 3
Time per cycle (seconds)
people)
Linear (Bottom eject, one
10 person)

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
cycle#
 Types of time studies:

• External: Compare your product to other

products to see what the benefits are
(or are not).

• Internal: See if your product is efficient,

and identify the best places for
improvements.