Prof. Dr. Toni Wäfler is lecturer and researcher at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), School of Applied Psychology (APS), where he established the Institute “Humans in Complex Systems (MikS)”. The Institute conducts research projects in the domain of human factors, sociotechnical system design, collaborative planning processes, occupational health, safety, and security. In 1998 Toni Wäfler was also co-founder of iafob GmbH (www.iafob.ch) a private consulting company in Zurich, Switzerland, were he still is a senior consultant. As a consultant his main topics include organizational and job design in highly automated work system, with a main focus on process efficiency and reliability as well as on system safety.

Work systems are sociotechnical systems consisting of technical sub-systems (i.e. technical equipment, production resources, regulations, facilities, etc.) and social sub-systems (i.e. all individuals and groups with specific skills and needs as well as formal and informal relations). To optimize overall system performance a joint optimization of technical and social sub-systems is required. However, humans make errors, take wrong decisions, miss something, are prone for distraction and suffer from fatigue. This is why humans are normally considered to be a risk factor. As a consequences system design often aims at mitigating this human risk by the means of automation. The aim is to replace the human or at the least to control human behavior. The assumption behind is that by doing so the system becomes more reliable and safe. This point of view underestimates the contribution humans provide to a successful system performance. A major precondition of complex systems' viability is their ability to adapt to dynamics. Humans due to their flexibility and creativity are a major resource of this adaptability. However, whether or not humans can fulfill this role is determined by system design, i.e. by balancing social and technical system design.