Computer-Aided Planning of New Production Lines in Mechanical Industries and of Working Environments for Disabled Persons

• To optimize productivity and working-life quality, it is important to understand and utilise the connections between productivity and working environment. Culture and the state of the market may affect the strength of these connections. However, in order to ensure flexibility and quality in products and services, it may be useful to have motivated, skilled and responsible coworkers at all levels. For the same reasons, absenteeism and high turnover rates have to be avoided. In a time when new technology is rapidly disseminated throughout the world, the way in which human resources are managed may be of the outmost importance to success. A major obstacle to the gathering of experience and knowledge from all relevant parties – e g production engineers, managers, the workforce and external experts – in a planning process is the lack of a common, efficient language. Mistakes made when designing new working environments are often very costly to adjust once the plans are realized. The prize of a poorly-planned environment is high in economical terms, but also in terms of human suffering. This may be especially important for disabled persons. Some basic ideas behind the computer-aided planning methodology currently being developed at the Lund Institute of Technology, and at Lund University, are the following ones: -In a planning process, it is important to draw on the creativity, experience, knowledge and enthusiasm of as many persons as possible. It is particularly essential that the group which is going to manage and apply the planned system finds it acceptable, as this group’s willingness and competence to improve the solution during and after implementation is often crucial. -Time is a resource in short supply, and a planning group including persons with very dissimilar backgrounds in terms of experience and knowledge could be too time-consuming. -Pictures of planned systems may help a heterogeneous group to obtain a common language; they may also provide the members of the group with good mental models as a basis for an efficient dialogue. In this workshop paper we will briefly discuss the computer-aided planning tool and present some of our experiences of its application to the planning of new production lines in mechanical industries and of working environments for the disabled.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

computer-aided planning

working environment

disabled people

participation

Publikations- och innehållstyp

kon (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)