Marks and Spencer puts ergonomics on the case in design challenge

Marks & Spencer placed ergonomics at the heart of a major design programme for new retail equipment, resulting in an innovative design which not only ensures the safety and comfort of customers and staff but also meets exacting business requirements.

The Brooklands Refrigerated Display Case was launched across the Marks & Spencer business following a five-year development programme involving a consortium of three manufacturers and consultants in product design, hygiene, structural engineering and ergonomics.  Tom Stewart, Managing Director of System Concepts and a renowned expert in ergonomic and HCI standards, was appointed Project Director of this major design and development programme.

Marks & Spencer’s top priority in developing a new case was ensuring that food would be presented to the customer attractively and in optimum condition – both in terms of temperature and hygiene.  The wide-ranging design brief also required the size and shape of the case and the shelves to allow easy access for customers, including wheelchair users, and to improve staff health and safety when merchandising and cleaning, whilst also reflecting the business needs for reliability, energy efficiency (minimising greenhouse emissions) sophisticated monitoring and control, efficient use of space and value for money.

With Tom Stewart as Project Director, customer and employee ergonomics were kept at the top of the agenda and addressed at the appropriate design stages before other issues affected the decision-making process.
 
From the customer’s viewpoint, a display case simply needs to present food at the right temperature in a convenient and accessible manner for easy browsing and selecting.  So ergonomics considerations here involved making the case structure as unobtrusive as possible, whilst ensuring that people could reach forward and pick up merchandise safely and easily.  Other major factors included allowing access for cleaning and maintenance (always difficult where space is at a premium) as well as the safe and practical location of the considerable amount of machinery, such as fans and electronic controllers, necessary to maintain an even temperature in an open-fronted case.  To avoid the ‘trapped in canyon’ effect which tall display cases often create in aisles, an aerofoil front canopy edge was specially designed which was cut back, unobtrusive and delivered an appropriate air flow.

For staff responsible for loading merchandise, cleaning and maintaining the cases it was essential that surfaces were easy to clean and handle with no sharp corners.  The introduction of a small 600mm shelf module was a major ergonomics benefit being easy to move, adjust and clean and allowing more efficient use of space. 

Rigorous testing ensued with prototypes in two parallel streams playing an important part in the development process.  A functional prototype was tested in controlled laboratory conditions to refine the technical design to meet Marks & Spencer’s demanding performance standards and a merchandising and design prototype was developed to test aesthetic and operational requirements in parallel.  Eventually, trials took place in store with staff and customers and the final improved product was first installed at the Brooklands store (hence the display case’s name) and then rolled out throughout the business.
 
Marks & Spencer Executive David Williams commented, “People are at the heart of our business and although the new case had to meet a wide range of practical business needs, the main design objective was ease of use and safety for the variety of people, from customers and sales advisors to cleaners and engineers, who would use or work on the case during its lifetime.  For this reason, ergonomics was kept at the centre of the design process to maintain this people-oriented focus”.

“The end result was not just an innovative design for a refrigerated display case but a major development which gives us enormous flexibility in planning and efficiency in operation in order to provide customers with high quality merchandise in peak condition.  We are also delighted that the design was selected as a Millennium Product for its innovation in energy efficiency, ergonomics and accessibility, which is a further testimony to its significance as a major step forward in display case design.”