One of the objectives of any task design is to provide a safe and helpful workplace for the employees. The safety and health module may include means for confronting the design with safety and health regulations and standards as well as tools for obstacles and collisions detection (such as error models and simulators), Virtual Reality is a leading edge technology which has only very recently become available on platforms and at prices accessible to the majority of simulation engineers. The design of an automated manufacturing system is a complicated, multidisciplinary task that requires involvement of several specialists. In this paper, a design procedure that facilitates the safety and ergonomic considerations of an automated manufacturing system are described. The procedure consists of the following major steps. Data collection and analysis of the data, creation of a three-dimensional simulation model of the work environment, simulation for safety analysis and risk assessment, development of safety solutions, selection of the preferred solutions, implementation of the selected solutions, reporting, and training. When improving the safety of an existing system the three-dimensional simulation model helps the designer to perceive the work from operators point of view objectively and safely without the exposure to hazards of the actual system.