A multimeasure-based methodology for the ergonomic effective design of manufacturing system workstations

The paper proposes a multimeasure-based methodology that can be used by production engineers for the ergonomic effective design of workstations within industrial environments. In particular the authors achieve the effective ergonomic design of the workstations belonging to a real industrial plant by using an approach based on multiple design parameters, Design of Experiments (DOE) and multiple performance measures. The industrial plant being considered is made up by 8 different workstations, 14 workers and it manufactures high-pressure hydraulic hoses. The design methodology aims at considering both the interaction of the operators with their working environment and the work methods. To this end, the workstations' actual configurations are compared with several alternative scenarios by using a well-planned experimental design. As support tool for applying the design methodology the authors use Modeling & Simulation (M&S) and a virtual three-dimensional environment for recreating, with satisfactory accuracy, the evolution over the time of the real industrial plant. Relevance to industry: The authors propose a methodology for the effective ergonomic design of workstations within industrial plants. The methodology based on multiple design parameters and multiple performance measures supports the design and the evaluation of workstations in terms of both ergonomics and work methods. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.