Ergonomics and design for safety: A scoping review and bibliometric analysis in the industrial engineering literature

Abstract

The rate of accidents in the manufacturing context is not decreasing significantly, despite the continuous effort of providing stricter safety requisites at the regulatory level. In particular, recent statistics show that most accidents are related to the interaction between humans and technical systems, primarily due to inadequate consideration of human factors. Based on this, the purpose of the present study is to investigate the recent research addressing design for safety (DfS) in the manufacturing context, focusing on those research approaches aimed at integrating human factors and ergonomics (HFE) within DfS activities. A scoping review and bibliometric analysis were performed considering engineering journal articles that appeared in the literature in the period 2006–2023. The analysis pointed out four main themes addressed in the literature (namely, assistive/smart interfaces, frameworks and methods, safety ergonomics knowledge, and workplace design), with an increasing focus on the human side of the human–machine interaction and a growing interest in 4.0 or 5.0 solutions. The need for clearer definitions and standardized methodologies within the HFE field also emerged. This will facilitate a better integration of safety and ergonomic principles in industrial practices, aligning with the new paradigms of resilience engineering and Industry 4.0/5.0.