Comfortable Cabs for Your Equipment Operators

Manufacturers respond to the expectations of today’s operators.

As contractors battle to keep operators happy and productive, compact loader manufacturers have placed an emphasis on operator comfort and ergonomics in new product design.

“It’s hard to get good operators and harder to keep them,” says Mike Fitzgerald, loader product specialist at Bobcat Company. “Operator expectations have changed. They want to be comfortable, and they want to walk away from the machine at the end of the day and not feel tired.”

“What was acceptable 20 or 30 years ago is no longer acceptable,” Fitzgerald says. “Today, it’s critical that we offer air conditioning, radios and other items.”

Owners of compact loaders should choose a style of controls that is familiar to their operators.

The Customer’s Voice

“Designing a new cab from scratch can take as long as four years,” says Josh Maus, senior design engineer at Bobcat Company. “This includes one to two years of research and development and then another two to three years of design, validation and implementation.”

Listening to customers plays a large role in the cab design process, Maus says. Manufacturers call this the “voice of the customer” (VOC).

And gathering VOC data is a continual process, Fitzgerald says. VOC requests include improved control access, cup holders, storage locations and a cleaner, quieter and cooler cab, Maus says.

Industry Standards and Other Challenges

Industry standards also play a part in cab design, Maus says. For items like drive control locations, overall visibility, seat locations, seat belt requirements and display requirements, Maus notes that certain standards are used from the International Organization for Standardization (IOS) and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).

For example, ISO 5006 deals with the operator’s field of view for earthmoving machinery.

Fitzgerald notes that while ISO and SAE create standards, they do not have regulatory authority. Manufacturers often add features to equipment, such as backup alarms, which are not in the standards for skid-steer loaders but may be required on certain jobsites by government regulators like OSHA. “Often, manufacturers do this because it’s a benefit to both owners and operators to have that feature,” he says.

Designing cabs to meet the needs of international markets is another challenge. One solution is to have a design that will accommodate all regions worldwide.

Accommodating operators of various heights and sizes is also important. Most manufacturers now use computer-based 3-D modeling software to analyze the space requirements needed to meet a broad spectrum of operators.

Input from the customer plays a large role in the design and development of compact loader cabs.

Comfort

“During the last 10 years or so, the market focus seems to have shifted toward operator comfort,” Maus says. “Things such as cab pressurization, control access and operator space have become more prevalent in customer feedback than they were before.”

Contractors and operators spend more time in their machine cabs than ever before, making the cab environment far more important.

“It’s fair to say that in today’s world, contractors are under the gun,” says Jason Magnuson, product function leader for cabs and interiors at Bobcat Company. “They need to meet tight deadlines, so they’re trying to get as much productivity out of their machines as they can. They’re taking fewer days off and working on more bad weather days.”

Maus says that the control layout, overall visibility and comfort features, such as cup holders, can have a big impact on the operator’s ability to accomplish work comfortably and quickly.

Construction Business Owner, August 2011