Title: An experimental investigation on ergonomically designed assembly workstation

Authors: Ibrahim H. Garbie

Addresses: Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering at Helwan, Helwan University, Helwan, Cairo, Egypt; Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 33, Al-Khoud 123, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

Abstract: The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of designing ergonomically assembly workstation on operator performance. This paper describes these results using factorial design of experimental which were conducted on assembly of a product. A fully adjustable ergonomically designed assembly workstation was used for the experiment. Ten college students were randomly assigned into three experimental factors or parameters (table adjustable, chair adjustable, and gender) to perform the assembly task. Performances of the participants assembling a product are: operator productivity (units/hour); operator satisfaction (degree of comfortable), and operator health (headache). The regression models to measure the operator performance were built based on the experimental investigation to suggest a practical performance measurement of operator. The results show that female subjects are more productive and healthy than male but with lesser satisfaction.

Keywords: assembly lines; ergonomic design; design of experiments; DOE; ergonomics; assembly workstations; workstation design; operator performance; adjustable tables; adjustable chairs; gender; operator productivity; operator satisfaction; operator comfort; operator health.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2014.060131

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2014 Vol.16 No.3, pp.296 - 321

Published online: 07 Jun 2014 *

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