The impact of materials exposure on the conditions at the workstation

• The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of how the materials exposure impacts the workstation conditions, in terms of non-value adding work, the space needed and ergonomics. In a typical workstation in the Swedish Automotive industry materials for manual assembly are exposed along the line in pallets, being supplied by forklift trucks. In this study, three workstations were re-designed, using the principles of lean production, one was subsequently rebuilt and a pilot study was performed. Materials had previously been supplied and exposed in pallets and the re- design with smaller containers decreased the space needed along the line with 67%. The results included a decrease of the non-value adding work at the workstation of 23%. The walking path for the operator was decreased by 52%. Reducing picking of unbeneficial exposed materials, unnecessary movements and carrying work improved the ergonomics for the operator.

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)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Materials feeding

packaging

manual assembly

Publikations- och innehållstyp

kon (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)