Human Factors and Ergonomics (HF/E) play an essential role in the development of sustainable manufacturing systems. By prioritizing worker wellbeing through the mitigation of occupational hazards and the enhancement of workplace health, HF/E contributes significantly to improved system performance. In accordance with the principles of Industry 5.0 and Society 5.0, which emphasize human-centered design and wellbeing, organizations that effectively integrate HF/E principles can achieve a competitive advantage on the market. Based on a globally recognized ranking system utilized by investors in making informed decisions, the study focuses on manufacturing companies ranked by their occupational health and safety (OHS) scores, a key criterion for assessing the social dimension of company performance. This research aims to identify and analyze top-ranked companies that explicitly highlight HF/E-related benefits within their public documents and sustainability reports. The paper investigates aspects related to the integration of AI and digital technologies to enhance safety and health in manufacturing systems, with a specific focus on human presence detection in hazardous zones, improvements in machines and equipment design, occupational risk assessments, and initiatives for enhancing worker wellbeing. The findings are expected to provide compelling evidence for companies to prioritize HF/E consideration during the design and redesign phases of sustainable manufacturing systems. The paper provides significant value to non-indexed companies by offering a dual approach for improving OHS performance, based on an empirical evaluation assessment method and practical strategies for effective OHS implementation in different manufacturing industries and countries.

The new managerial challenges are related to finding solutions for complex problems, inside some more and more complex management systems, in a continuously changing organizational context. Competitivity and progress imply a continuous positive change and the need to accept, respond, and adapt to the organization’s internal and external environments changes. This brief research report aims to point out the organizational ergonomics’ contribution to employees’ wellbeing through a systemic, emotional, and spiritual approach to man’s interaction with technology, systems, and organizational environment. The research methods used were the multidisciplinary bibliographic study and the interview. Three semi-structured interviews were taken to explore today’s challenges and new 4.0 technologies’ impact, especially robots, on the company and on employees’ wellbeing and spiritual fulfillment. The novelty comes from the analysis of new technologies’ impact on the human factor from the spiritual point of view. Our main results have to do with the shaping of a model for human capital’s valorization and with suggesting a list for monitoring human capital valorization in the company. This article’s main conclusion shows that the organizations’ management must be prepared to manage future challenges by improving the employee’s abilities, adaptability to change, and collaboration with robots.

Education for sustainability is one of the big challenges that higher education institutions (HEIs) face in the context of Society 5.0, which promotes human-centered design solutions. Therefore, solutions for collaboration between humans and technology in organizations are needed, as Industry 5.0 suggests. However, the concept of Engineering Education 5.0 promotes engineers who are able to solve global changes and are endowed with knowledge, skills, and a mindset for sustainability. This paper aims to highlight the transformative potential of international multidisciplinary consortia in HEIs, both for teaching and learning practices. Using a methodology that combines autoethnography and narrative analysis based on qualitative feedback received from participants, the paper presents lessons learned, good practices, and pilot co-teaching experiences within two Erasmus+ cooperation partnerships. This paper describes the educational process during joint learning sessions based on co-teaching and art-based training, showing educational practices for curricula development in engineering education. The findings show that cultivating teachers’ mindsets, skills, and pedagogical approaches can empower students to become active agents in fostering a more sustainable society and suggest that both ergonomics competencies and soft skills (e.g., self-awareness, creativity, collaboration) are crucial sustainability-oriented competencies, developed within international collaborative and enjoyable learning environments based on transformative learning experiences.

The paper presents a new approach to solve real life complex management case studies, tested within ProCESS project, that takes into consideration the development of students' SES (sensorial, emotional and spiritual) skills and their implication in solving four complex management cases prepared by a group of four companies. During the first round of solving the cases, different activities were organized, from enterprise meetings, videoconferences, and visits to tailored workshops on developing SES skills. The contribution of this paper consists in presenting the experience and results gained at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca during the first year of the Erasmus + ProCESS project implementation, focusing on the development of students’ SES skills and on the use of these capacities for finding innovative solutions to complex management problems.

In the context of the global crisis there is an increasing interest regarding sustainability. While the focus of debate was at the beginning mainly on society level, sustainability issues have currently a growing relevance for social and economic organizational performance. The paper aims to present arguments for considering ergonomics as a support for organizational sustainability. Based on sustainability reports and ergonomics literature review, the paper highlights the essential role of work systems’ ergonomic design and finds supporting arguments about ergonomics interventions’ impact on organizational performance. The contribution of the paper focuses on helping companies and top managers to understand the impact of ergonomics interventions on decreasing social and economic costs, related especially to occupational health and safety hazard prevention.

Higher education (HE) institutions and educators continually explore novel and practical pedagogical approaches to equip future managers with the skills to make effective decisions and navigate complex organizational environments. This paper presents an empirical case of a pioneering project that devised an innovative training methodology strategically using Sensorial, Emotional, and Spiritual (SES) skills, in addition to rational capacities, to address complex management cases. The methodology, rigorously tested over three years with students from four European universities, has demonstrated its potential to revolutionize management education and instilled confidence in its effectiveness. The results underscore the significant value of sensorial, emotional, and spiritual (SES) training within HE institutions. This training enhances the competencies necessary for future managers to tackle and resolve complex problems effectively, strengthening their ability to manage complex environments. The survey data and interviews we conducted indicate that sensory, emotional, and spiritual skills training has not only improved the competencies needed to manage complexity – awareness, sense of community, self and other regulation, and sense of life but has also transformed the students' approach to problem-solving. This transformative approach not only inspires hope for the future of management education but also suggests a potential for positive change. Our investigation presents Sensorial, Emotional, and Spiritual skills as a transformative subset of soft skills, advocating for the need for SES skills training for future managers. We discuss the implications for pedagogies and strongly advocate for including SES skills development in students’ training and learning at higher education institutions.