TOWARD A CONCEPT OF LOGISTICS ERGONOMICS: HUMAN FACTORS IN INTELLIGENT WAREHOUSE SYSTEMS

Digitalisation and automation have transformed warehouse operations, but they have not removed the human operator from the logistics system. Instead, warehouse work increasingly combines physical handling with digital instructions, time pressure, exception management and interaction with intelligent technologies. This conceptual paper develops logistics ergonomics as an engineering-logistics perspective that considers physical workload, cognitive workload, the technological environment, work organisation and logistics performance within a single analytical frame. The study synthesises established ergonomic methods and recent warehouse research and proposes a preliminary Logistics-Ergonomics Risk Indicator (LERI), implemented as a four-domain screening profile for identifying operations that warrant deeper ergonomic assessment. LERI is not presented as a validated risk scale and is not intended to replace RULA, REBA, NASA-TLX, the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation or other specialised methods. The framework is intended to connect human-factor analysis with warehouse design and operational decision making and to provide a basis for subsequent expert validation and empirical testing.