This SAE Standard applies to Construction, General Purpose Industrial, Agricultural, Forestry, and Specialized Mining categories of off-road, self-propelled work machines, as defined in SAE J1116. Powered industrial trucks and agricultural equipment, other than the basic agricultural tractor, are excluded from the scope of this document. The document defines positions for convenient placement of hand- and foot-operated controls derived from the overlapping reach capability of large and small operators. The large operator approximates the 95th percentile male, and small operator approximates the 5th percentile female of the U.S. population.

This document defines zones in which controls used by a seated operator would ordinarily be placed, and is intended as a guide for the design of the operator compartment controls. Constraints peculiar to individual machine or user applications may require modification to these defined zones.

The established zones are based upon singular reach capability: appropriate consideration must be made for effort, displacement, and simultaneous operation of two or more controls.