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This paper shows the general design conditions about ergonomics and safety for control centers in the petrochemical process industry. Some of the topics include guidelines for the optimized workstation design, control room layout, building layout, and lighting, acoustical and environmental design. Also takes into account the safety parameters in the control rooms and centers design. The conditions and parameters shown in this paper come from the standards and global advances on this topic on the most recent publications. And also the work was supplemented by field visits of our team to the control center operations in a petrochemical company, and technical literature search efforts. This guideline will be useful to increase the productivity and improve the working conditions at the control rooms.

The aim of this study was to combine three different analytical methods from three different disciplines to diagnose the ergonomic conditions, manufacturing and supply chain operation of a baking company. The study explores a summary of comprehensive working methods that combines the ergonomics, automation and logistics study methods in the diagnosis of working conditions and productivity. The participatory approach of this type of study that involves the feelings and first-hand knowledge of workers of the operation are determining factors in defining points of action and ergonomic interventions, as well as defining opportunities in the automation of manufacturing and logistics, to cope with the needs of the company. The study identified an ergonomic situation (high prevalence of wrist-hand pain), and the combination of interdisciplinary techniques applied allowed to improve this condition in the company. This type of study allows a primary basis of the opportunities presented by the combination of specialized methods of different disciplines, for the definition of comprehensive action plans for the company. Additionally, it outlines opportunities for improvement and recommendations to mitigate the burden associated with occupational diseases and as an end result improve the quality of life and productivity of workers.

Develop and manage a project seeking an optimum control of resources to achieve a series of objectives is a multidisciplinary task. Engineering seeks to align said management to a global trend to ensure that the specific capacities, limitations, demands and requirements of human beings have been taken into account from the initial concepts of design through ergonomics. This discipline, used as a managing tool and commonly known as Human Factors Engineering (HFE), allows an early approach that systematically outlines the problem to solve, focusing all efforts to the control of the source and not on future corrective solutions. Several industrial sectors have estimated the costs associated to ergonomic shortcomings in social terms (health of employees, occupational diseases) economic terms (low productivity, corporate restructuring, design and construction of facilities), and in the worst case scenario loss of life, permanent disability, days of healthy life lost and significant material damage in facilities. The following article presents the case of how successful the application of a system of ergonomics management was for the Colombian oil company, Ecopetrol SA, emphasizing on the development of this system in early project management. Presented below are the most important findings related to revision of projects of different nature and type of business, including transportation, production and refining for industrial and nonindustrial facilities. The results have been presented as opportunities for improvement that allow corroboration and may even be subject to impact measurement as the projects progress. The steps presented in the following paper may be applied in engineering project in general.