Category: Blog

23 September 2018, Shah Alam, Selangor – The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Malaysia (HFEM) ended a successful effort with the FKM UITM, Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) and Samsung Electronics to promote human factors and ergonomics in Malaysia through its  ErgoCUP and HFEMC 2018 at FKM UITM.

HFEM is a federated member of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) and a member of the Southeast Asian Network of Ergonomics Societies (SEANES). HFEM was established in 2010 as a non-profit organisation to promote the application of human factors and ergonomics (HFE) knowledge for design of products, systems and services. The Society offers consulting and training services to all sectors. To date, HFEM has collaborated with DOSH in developing Guidelines for Ergonomics Risk Assessment in the industry. It also supported SOCSO in ergonomics training of individuals in government and industry.

The ErgoCUP and HFEMC were held with the theme “ErgoThinking: It’s time to Rethink” and was attended by 180 participants from all over Malaysia , comprising of researchers, academicians and students and practitioners from human factors and ergonomics and also occupational health and safety. The Conference was officiated by the Ir. Dr. Majahar

There were 3 plenary speakers at the conference. Mr. Ishkandar Bin Md Yusoff, Deputy director Hygiene Industry and Ergonomics department, DOSH speakers talked about Rules and Regulations in Ergonomics. Associate Professor Dr. Anitawati Mohd Lokman, from faculty of science computer and mathematics, UiTM. talked about “Kansei Engineering”. SAMSUNG Malaysia Mr. Lee Min Ho from SAMSUNG talked about Ergonomics intervention in SAMSUNG Factory. In addition, some 8 papers, with topics ranging from physical and cognitive ergonomics, to occupational safety and health was presented at the two-day event.

In conjunction with the HFEMC 2018 an ergonomics design competition called the ErgoCUP was also held to award ergonomically best designed products and to encourage the design of products that meet global and local ergonomics standards of safety, productivity, usability and user satisfaction. There were 2 categories: Open and School. A panel of highly experienced judges with more than 20 years of expertise in human factors, ergonomics and occupational safety and health decided on the winning products. For open category, the gold award for the best ergonomics product was by DETECTION OF LUNG NODULES USING IMAGE PROCESSING (SOFTWARE BASIS) from UniMAP. Silver award was “Safety Helmet Prototype” from UPM and Bronze award for UTeM 3D CAMERA ANTHROPOMETRY SYSTEM (3D CAS). Prizes in the form of electronic products were sponsored by Samsung Electronics.  While for school category, Gold award goes to MRSM Terendak, ANTI ANIMAL PROOF BIN, While SMBPI Temerloh’s Z.A.N LOCKER won silver and MRSM Terendak, SMART EXAMINATION TOILET INDICATOR (SETI) won bronze.

“Ergonomics is not something new. Leading country in ergonomics such as South Korea, United Kingdom and United State actively organise and involve in research, especially on the application of ergonomics in the workplace,” said the Ir, Dr. Majahar . Mr Seong Jeon Woo. “Thus, the level of awareness, knowledge and implementation of ergonomics in Malaysia should be enhanced further.”

Prof Dr. Shamsul Bahri Mohd Tamrin, current President of HFEM noted that HFEM takes pride in initiating this collaborative effort. It is hoped that more participants from the industry as well as academicians will take part in future HFEM conferences, in order to establish the culture of human factors and ergonomics in Malaysian workplaces.

Dr. Ahmad Khushairy Makhtar
Chairman HFEM ErgoCUP 2018