Workers’ rest allowance and smoothing of the workload in assembly lines

Ergonomic aspects have a crucial role in manual assembly systems. They impact on the workers’ health, final product quality and productivity. For these reasons, there is the necessity to integrate them into the assembly line balancing phase as, whereas, only time and cost variables are considered. In this study, human energy expenditures are considered as ergonomic aspects and we integrate them, for the first time, into the assembly line balancing problem type 2 through the rest allowance evaluation. We consider as an objective function the minimization of the smoothness index. Firstly, a new optimal method based on mixed integer linear programming and a new linearization methodology are proposed. Then, a heuristic approach is introduced. To complete the study, a computational experimentation is presented to validate the mathematical model and to compare the methodologies proposed in terms of computational time, complexity and solution. Additionally, we provide a detailed analysis of the impact that rest allowance evaluation can have on productivity comparing the results obtained, taking into account the rest allowance integration before, during and after the assembly balancing process.     

Ageing workforce management in manufacturing systems: state of the art and future research agenda

The workforce ageing phenomenon is recently affecting most of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries, due to a general ageing of their populations and a higher average retirement age of the workforce. In this paper, the topic of ageing workforce management is addressed from a production research standpoint, with the aim of understanding how older workers can be supported and involved in a manufacturing system. First, the current state of the art related to the ageing workforce in production systems is presented. This is structured according to four main topics: (1) analysis and evaluation of ageing workers’ functional capacities, (2) consideration of ageing workers’ capacities in industrial system modelling and management, (3) analysis and exploitation of ageing workers’ expertise, (4) acknowledgement, analysis, design and integration of supporting technologies. Next, the discussion on the impact of the ageing workforce on manufacturing systems’ performances leads to the comparison of some technological advances that are related to the Industry 4.0 paradigms. Finally, a future research agenda on this topic is proposed, based on the same topics classification proposed for the literature analysis. Five different research areas are derived, suggesting future directions for appropriate research concerning the employ of older workers in production environments.     

管理系统设计中的人体工程设计思想

目前人体工程学的应用领域主要集中于机器或生产环境等“硬”系统的研究与设计，其设计的思想、内容与程序对具有“软”系统特征的管理系统设计具有深远影响。文章对管理系统设计中的人体工程设计思想进行了讨论。     

Model-guided evaluation of consumer products

An evaluation of a consumer product is presented as an example of how ergonomics models can guide data collection and interpretation by non-ergonomists. The product, a new cooking pan, was compared with its earlier counterpart on performance and safety tests for specific features. Model-guided evaluations produced data which could be well-fitted by linear relationships, and measures derived from the data could be interpreted in physical terms by engineers. This is now the standard methodology for pan evaluation in the client company.     

Good ergonomics and team diversity reduce absenteeism and errors in car manufacturing

Prior research suggests that ergonomics work design and mixed teams (in age and gender) may compensate declines in certain abilities of ageing employees. This study investigates simultaneous effects of both team level factors on absenteeism and performance (error rates) over one year in a sample of 56 car assembly teams (N = 623). Results show that age was related to prolonged absenteeism and more mistakes in work planning, but not to overall performance. In comparison, high-physical workload was strongly associated with longer absenteeism and increased error rates. Furthermore, controlling for physical workload, age diversity was related to shorter absenteeism, and the presence of females in the team was associated with shorter absenteeism and better performance. In summary, this study suggests that both ergonomics work design and mixed team composition may compensate age-related productivity risks in manufacturing by maintaining the work ability of older employees and improving job quality.     

Fundamentals of systems ergonomics/human factors

Ergonomics/human factors is, above anything else, a systems discipline and profession, applying a systems philosophy and systems approaches. Many things are labelled as system in today's world, and this paper specifies just what attributes and notions define ergonomics/human factors in systems terms. These are obviously a systems focus, but also concern for context, acknowledgement of interactions and complexity, a holistic approach, recognition of emergence and embedding of the professional effort involved within organization system. These six notions are illustrated with examples from a large body of work on rail human factors.     

面向用户行为过程的无人机遥感指挥车人机工程设计

为提升无人机遥感应急指挥车的工作舒适度,结合无人机遥感监测手段和应急监测指挥车功能,对无人机遥感应急指挥车进行人机工程设计。以用户行为过程为指导,研究了用户的工作轨迹,得出车辆的最佳功能分区,在此基础上,利用JACK软件对车辆的易用性和舒适性进行仿真分析,得到指挥车各功能空间的最佳布局及车内设备的最佳尺寸设计区间,为方案设计提供依据。     

Whole-body vibration exposure in sport: four relevant cases

This study investigates the whole-body vibration exposure in kite surfing, alpine skiing, snowboarding and cycling. The vibration exposure was experimentally evaluated following the ISO 2631 guidelines. Results evidenced that the most critical axis is the vertical one. The weighted vibration levels are always larger than 2.5 m/s² and the vibration dose values are larger than 25 m/s^1.75. The exposure limit values of the EU directive are reached after 8–37 min depending on the sport. The vibration magnitude is influenced by the athletes’ speed, by their skill level and sometimes by the equipment. The large vibration values suggest that the practice of sport activities may be a confounding factor in the aetiology of vibration-related diseases.     

Effectiveness of participatory ergonomic interventions on health outcomes: a systematic review

The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review of the literature on the effectiveness of participatory ergonomic (PE) interventions for improving workers' health. The search strategy targeted six electronic databases and identified 442 potential articles. Each article was examined by pairs of reviewers for relevance (assessed a participative ergonomic workplace intervention, with at least one health outcome, published in English in peer reviewed literature). Twenty-three articles met relevance criteria and were then appraised for methodological strength. Using a best evidence synthesis approach, 12 studies that were rated as 'medium' or higher provided partial to moderate evidence that PE interventions have a positive impact on: musculoskeletal symptoms, reducing injuries and workers' compensation claims, and a reduction in lost days from work or sickness absence. However, the magnitude of the effect requires more precise definition.     

基于异步条件下的笔+触控双手交互点击任务人类工效学模型的建立与研究

目的建立与研究基于异步条件下的笔+触控双手交互点击任务人类工效学模型。方法通过18名实验者对于10种不同任务复杂度下的一维异步笔+触控双手点击任务所花费的任务时间进行单因素方差分析以及线性分析,证明该模型的有效性和适用性。结果通过实验我们发现该模型所计算出的任务复杂度对任务时间具有显著影响(F_(9,170)=6.276,P=1.202×10~(-7)),并且该模型调整后的拟合度R~2达到了0.973。结论该模型对于异步条件下的笔+触控双手点击任务具有很强的有效性和适用性。