The Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Facilities: Ben Niebel Work Design Lab
Assembly workstation

Purpose of Lab

The Ben Niebel Work Design Lab focuses on the human within the context of today's technological work environment. Work analyses are conducted to improve industrial processes and methods, design and build interfaces between humans and the environment to enable control of complex systems, and advance the development and management of organizations from a social-technical perspective. The lab provides close to 1,000 square feet of laboratory space dedicated to human factors research and education and contains an extensive array of equipment to measure physical, physiological, and cognitive performance. Strength, electromyography, temperature, stress, aerobic capacity, eye tracking, reaction times, time study, and work sampling are typical measurement applications. Some of the courses that use the facility include:

Equipment

The Human Factors/Ergonomics Lab is currently set up with the following equipment:

  1. Eye Tracking System
  2. Simulated Job Workstations
  3. Ergonomic Chairs
  4. Environmental Measurement Equipment
  5. Force and Strength Measurement Equipment
  6. Visual Inspection Station
  7. Metabolic Monitor
  8. Videotape Equipment
  9. FSR Glove
  10. Virtual Glove
Ben Niebel

The late Ben Niebel was a long-time department head, the original author of Methods, Standards, & Work Design (the popular introductory IE textbook), and the winner of the prestigious IIE Frank and Lillian Gilbreth Award. It was through his generous donation that this lab evolved as it has.