An Ergonomic Approach on Design of Daycare Centers in the Philippines

Daycare center is a nursery place for the supervision of children ages 2-6 years old while the parents are at work. This is one of the places where children build and enhance their characters and skills. Having a comfortable and safe environment for both teachers and kids is very important especially because daycare centers or schools are their second home. Currently, daycare centers in the Philippines do not have a standard design for facilities, only the public classrooms under DepEd have a standard design [1]. Additionally, according to previous study, Philippines' daycare facilities and their resources are insufficient, even basic resources are lacking, and facilities are low because the facility ratio to the kids does not meet the acceptable minimum limit [2]. As a result, many issues and problems are emerging in current daycare centers in the country. To address this, the researchers aim to propose an ergonomic design of day care centers. Principles of ergonomics was used in this study such as anthropometry and work environment design to determine the possible recommendation for the day care facility design. Also, design tools were used to support the analysis of the study such as Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Failure Mode Evaluation and Analysis (FMEA), 3D design modeling and cost-benefit analysis. By analyzing the data gathered from the study, the researchers were able to develop a standard design for daycare facilities based on the recommended measurements from 150 subjects in the study.