Three-dimensional workspace for industrial workstations

Direct anthropometric measurements of maximum functional reach points were made for male and female populations to determine a three-dimensional (3D) workspace for industrial workstation design. The reach distances in the wor kspace spectrum were not constantly proportional to the arm length of a man or woman. It was shown that the conventionally determined workspace envelo pe could not be reached by 95% of the population but, rather, by only 73% o f men and 75% of women. A new method was developed to determine the 3D work space for any percentile for which the corresponding percentage population could actually reach and work efficiently. The percentile workspaces determ ined by the conventional and new methods were compared and found to be sign ificantly different. Actual or potential applications of this research incl ude designs of industrial workstations, equipment, tools, and products.