Standardizing Human Factors and Ergonomics Education for the Undergraduate Programs in Industrial Engineering: A Comparative Analysis between Indonesia, Philippines, and Taiwan

Abstract

Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) is one of the core subjects in industrial engineering. Despite the development of industrial engineering over the past 100 years, there is limited information regarding the standard HFE education for the undergraduate programs. The purpose of this study was to propose a standard HFE education for the undergraduate programs in industrial engineering. Several institutions in Indonesia, Philippines, and Taiwan were listed and the HFE courses were evaluated as case studies. The results indicated that there were discrepancies between several institutions regarding HFE education and it is required to standardized the topics under the compulsory courses. This study is one of the first studies that proposed a standard HFE education in the industrial engineering field. The proposed standard could be extended to other institutions worldwide that offer industrial engineering programs. In addition, the proposed approach could also be applied for standardizing master and doctoral programs with a specialization in HFE. Finally, the proposed approach would also be very beneficial for academicians, HFE engineers, and even policymakers.