Preparation of ergonomic analysis in an aeronautical design office: resilience and adaptation in times of crisis

The preparation of ergonomic analyzes is a sensitive stage in the design office, where design ergonomics is practiced and where future activity is anticipated through simulation tools. In this context, the challenge is to define the best level of representativeness of the simulated situation and therefore ensure a high ecological value of the analysis. The preparation stage is all the more complex to master when it must bring together, in the design office, stakeholders who are not aware of ergonomic analyses, their interest and their impact on the products designed. However, companies may have to adapt processes for preparing ergonomic analyses. For example, the health crisis linked to COVID-19 has led to an unexpected and brutal change of work organizations in many companies, all sectors combined: slowdown or stoppage of production, mass teleworking, disruption of physical exchanges affecting both the flow of people as the flow of materials, etc. This major crisis, like many others, has disturbed ecosystems previously considered as reliable and stable. It has also made it possible, through an effect of resilience, to set up new ways of working by adapting. Thus, in this paper, we will make an objective and pragmatic observation within an aviation industrial organization, affecting the maintainability design office. We will thus compare the organization deployed and the associated protocols to prepare ergonomic analyzes on the maintenance activity, before and during the health crisis, mainly during the first lockdown between March and April 2020. We will try to understand what can be positive, useful, and sustainable for the post-crisis period in order to conduct ergonomic analysis preparations more efficiently within a design office where the stakeholders are not all specialized in ergonomics. A better use of existing simulation tools in design office, like virtual reality, could be a new way of working to perform ergonomic analysis.