A Systemic Overview of Factors Affecting the Cognitive Performance of Industrial Manual Assembly Workers

In paced assembly lines, cognitive processing is required from assembly workers to perform correct and timely assembly of complex products with varying specifications. This interview study involving 75 industrial assemblers, design- and manufacturing engineers explores how assemblers’ cognitive performance is influenced by multiple factors within the contexts of product design, production setup and assembly. Our results indicate that both positive and negative effects on assemblers’ cognitive performance can stem from task design, timing, physical loading demands, extrinsic motivation factors, teamwork and the assembly “interface” design. Among design- and manufacturing engineers, two mindsets emerged: (i) a product-centred mindset relying on assemblers having sufficient experience, knowledge, and assembly instructions, (ii) an assembler-focused mindset characterised by an iterative and collaborative development process to ensure easy-to-assemble solutions, and avoid errors, delays and costly re-work. Despite organizational differences and conditions between the companies that took part in the study, the results are largely consistent.