Publications / 2000 Proceedings of the 17th ISARC, Taipei, Taiwan
"To err is Human" . The basis of the discussion of the Man-machine Interface is due to imperfection of the human. Any human being make mistakes. Mistakes make at construction sites could be fatal. The management of the safety of the sites is important aspect in the construction industry in ensuring the safety of the people involve in the sites. The management should consider workers as their assets. They need to ensure that the tasks fit the workers and even make is user-friendly. There would be grave consequences when the tasks do not fit the workers. The high cost of design failures should be another basis for the proper interface between man and machine or between man and the work environment. The basic principles of ergonomics will assist in giving some insight of the matter. Human are different, human have limitations and human have predictable reactions. These three basic limitations of the human beings should be the basis of the management of the construction sites.