Robert R. Fox, PhD, CPE, General Motors

Title: International Ergonomics Standards, Their Development and Challenges: A Perspective from a Corporate Ergonomist

Bio: Bob Fox has 30 years of experience in the field of ergonomics, human factors and physical anthropology. He holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Texas Tech University and has worked in General Motors North American and global ergonomics activities since late 1993. He has worked with divisions, plants and the UAW-GM joint ergonomics program on addressing proactive ergonomics concerns and in developing and issuing ergonomics guidelines and evaluation tools and methods. He is also involved with the development and presentation of advanced and specialized ergonomics training programs and special projects for GM. He chairs the US Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to the International Standards Organization (ISO) for anthropometry and biomechanics and participates on various work groups for ANSI and ISO standards and technical reports on ergonomics. He chairs the Technical Standards Division of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) which involves coordination and oversight of most human factors and ergonomics standards development in the USA. He is currently an industry representative on a NIOSH developmental team for further MMH assessment tool development and participates in the NORA Musculoskeletal Cross-Sector Council.

Abstract: The International Standards Organization (ISO) has technical committees devoted to the development and publication of voluntary standards in the ergonomics and human factors areas. This presentation will discuss how the standards development process works and will focus on standards developments in the anthropometry and manual handling area. The relevance of ergonomics standards to the industrial practitioner will be examined. In particular, the presentation will cover recent work on the revision of current lifting standards and efforts to involve industry and government in collaboration on standards work.