Fitting Machines to People

TECHNOLOGY

Fitting Machines to People

During the development of the Mus tang, Ford Motor Co. shaped the car's bucket seats to the specifications of those on the British Ford -- only to find it necessary to change the design almost immediately. Five years later, with the Mustang's popularity firmly established, company officials can smile about the costly changeover. "We re alized," says one, "that American buttocks are larger than British." To guard against just that kind of mistake, U.S. business is relying increasingly on the fast-growing science of anthropometry, which systematically studies man's ever-changing anatomical measurements and applies the findings to products and equipment. The idea, says Henry Dreyfuss, a Manhattan industrial designer who specializes in anthropometry, is to "make machines fit people, because it's easier than making people fit the machines." As it catches on in one industry after another, anthropometry is becoming quite a tidy industry in its own right.

New Adjustment. While a few companies--Ford is one--employ their own in-house anthropometric specialists, most rely on outside consultants. In recent years, anthropometry has enabled manufacturers to develop movie cameras compact enough to fit snugly in one hand, more fully rounded typewriter keys that are kinder to secretaries' fingernails and elevator buttons that are within the reach of tall and short peo- ple alike.

Gillette Co. in Boston performs research on some 500 male employees who report to work stubble-faced every morning and subject themselves to nicks and scrapes. The experimental shaves provide the company with the kind of data that resulted in the introduction two months ago of a new blade-angle adjustment on its bestselling Techmatic Razor. To design a more comfortable and efficient shooting jacket for Olin Mathieson's Winchester-Western rifle subsidiary, Connecticut-based Dunlap & Associates, a leading industrial-consulting firm, spent months studying where existing jackets were binding and where more freedom of movement was required.

Sometimes the contribution made by anthropometry is quite modest. Because stewardesses are wearing short skirts these days, for example, engineers working on McDonnell Douglas' new DC-10 air bus have designed the emergency ladder leading from the lower service level to the abovedeck public cabin with rungs that are relatively far apart. "If dresses get long again," says a company spokesman, "we can always change ladders." A more far-reaching chore is that of doing something about bathtubs, which might make a lot more sense if they were equipped with reclining backs, more handholds and nonslip surfaces. The number of man-hours that anthropometric professionals have spent inside experimental bathtubs is incalculable, but bathroom plumbing has generally resisted comfort-making changes in design.

No Lingering. In developing new products, business has come to rely as much on psychology as on physiology, with the result that anthropometry is now only part of a more inclusive science that practitioners rather grandly call "human factors engineering." One example of that science at work is an interior design prepared for Lockheed Aircraft by Detroit's Sundberg-Ferar studio, which took pains to arrange cabin seats for the upcoming L-1011 air bus so that nobody aboard would be able to view all other passengers simultaneously. "It would be extremely frightening to see so many people preparing to fly at once," explained President Carl Sundberg. Similarly, farm-machinery manufacturers now equip tractors with hydraulic suspension seats and enclosed, air-conditioned cabs not simply to assure greater comfort but because of their findings that such amenities make for safer and more efficient drivers.

Not all innovations in human factors engineering, however, are intended to make things easier for people. At Chock Full O'Nuts, a Manhattan-based luncheonette chain, the reverse is true. "During peak periods, you want to move people out as fast as possible," says Executive Vice President Michael Okola. Consequently, the chain's counter stools are deliberately designed so that a customer lingering over a second cup of coffee will become uncomfortable after about 20 minutes.

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