Advances in Ergonomics of Manufacturing: Managing the Enterprise of the Future

This research put the focus on fabricating the GFRP that inserted silk cloth (silk inserted GFRP) and developing the GFRP lighting materials. Now, the luminance diffusion of silk inserted GFRP is better than that of only GFRP have been reported. However, the light diffusion is not clear. In this study, the aim is to clear the light diffusion property of silk inserted GFRP by measuring haze. Furthermore, silk inserted GFRP’s surface structure was measured to investigate relationship between the light diffusion and surface shape.

Hand lay-up fabrication is a form of craftsmanship and an implicit skill supported by individual sense, and subjective implicit values deep-rooted in expertise and judgment by touch and from appearance based on “instinct” and “know-how” skills inherited from past generations for the evaluation of thickness and impregnation, removal of voids, etc. Typically, more than 20 years of experience is required for a person to become a skilled craftsman in hand lay-up fabrication. Challenges the need to be addressed are how to pass their skills onto future generations, foster artisans, and construct a sustainable manufacturing process. In this study, the development of HLU molding robots input with the knowledge of skilled engineers as an achievement of this research will help overcome the lack of skilled workers during the stage of training young personnel to replace their predecessors as generations change.

This study aimed to develop a learning system for studying the coating and painting tasks performed in automobile repair. This study analyzed and compared the characteristics of skilled spray gun handling for automobile repair painting with those with little experience. The spray gun movements and postures of 10 participants were measured using a motion capture system. The results showed the distance between the door and the experts’ body to be approximately 1 m. The experts kept their axillae closed, bent an elbow, and set the distance between the door and the spray gun to approximately 0.22 m. The experts’ spray gun running speed was faster than that of non-experts, and the speed reduced at the door panel edge. The experts’ body movement realized a uniform thickness coating.

Glass fiber is well known as a reinforced material with low costs and excellent mechanical properties advantages and it has been extensively exploited over the past few years. In this paper, glass fiber was selected and used to fabricate composite with unsaturated polyester resin by hand lay-up method. However, the issue that it is difficulty for quality of product to control was caused by this method. At recent research, the effect of the worker’s skill levels on the quality of product has hardly been investigated. Therefore, it mainly focuses on worker’s skill level influence on the mechanical performance of molded product in this paper. To achieve this purpose, Subjects (Subject A, B, C, D, E had 25, 18, 15, 4, 1 year of experience, respectively.) were allowed to choose their familiar molding tools to produce product which were made of the same materials and met the requirements of volume friction. The thickness of laminates was measured especially in the corner before the test. In addition, bending properties and low cycle bending fatigue (LCBF) were also discussed and investigated. After the test, the fracture cross sectional observations was implemented on the selected test specimens by using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), with a focus on the fracture morphologies.

Quartz glass has a superior performance than other glasses. Especially it has been used as a key component of high-performance analytical instruments and scientific instruments and special manufacturing equipment. But now we have to manufacture these products by engineer’s human hand, the most important reason is a very small lot production of many products. And engineer expend the long time to study about process technology. So we have to analyze these processing technology from expert and non-expert engineers and have to make a standard model of the fire process technology.

Hand-lay-up method is superior as the molding method for FRP in terms of small lot production of many products. However, there is potentially the problem that mechanical property of molding products depend on technique of workers. Therefore, if tacit knowledge those experts have, early growing of that non-experts and automation of hand-lay-up method are hoped. The purpose of this study is to clarify the tacit knowledge and to change it explicit knowledge. In order to this purpose, process analysis, measurement of thickness and pressure of molding production and many subjects were examined to clarify correlation to mechanical properties. As a result, it was established that the guide of technique for hand-lay-up enabled non-expert to mold the FRP which has similar mechanical property to expert by clarifying the explicit knowledge of experts.

In this paper, the motion making technique of Japanese traditional handicraft was analyzed by motion analysis system. Two experts were employed as expert and non-expert for comparison. The feature of interval time for each main work process was paid attention. The interval timing during the weaving process was clarified to investigate the proficiency of weaving technique quantitatively. It is found that expert was able to go into working state easily.

A braiding rope is the Japanese traditional rope that a quality and beauty of them have depended on the skill and experience of a braider. In this research, the skill of the expert and two non-experts who practice the braiding everyday and every week, respectively were measured and compared through the eye’s movement measurement and observed the braiding rope quality. The measurement was carried out every month for three times. It was found that the expert showed the constant of eye’s focus at the center of a marudai plate and revealed a complete pattern of braiding rope. For two non-experts, their eye’s movement wobbled around the marudai plate for all trials. However, the braiding speed and quality were developed by the regular training. There are no defects in the ropes in the trial number 2 and 3.

This research interested on the developing the ability of knitting skill. The comparison of skill between the experts with non-experts was studied. The movement of arms was measured to examine the effect of arm movement on quality of knitting fabric. The experiment was carried out with a video camera to record and analyze the differences of the knitting speed and manner in knitting. The quality of the fabric was measured by a loop of fabric to see the consistency of the loop fabric, which is important for beautiful fabrics. The results revealed the procedure used to crochet knitting machines were very different in appearance, knitting and speed. The quality of the fabric was beautiful, similar to the use of the knitting as machine knitting. The main difference between them was only part of the seams.

The increasing variety in product range demand high flexibility of the production technologies and assembly systems of producing companies. Integrating the human into the assembly process by establishing collaboration between the human and robotized assembly systems seems to be a promising approach to achieve this flexibility even for very small lot sizes. This paper presents a model for assessing the ergonomic risk in such collaboration scenarios. Criteria for assigning assembly steps to the human or the robot are introduced as well as for describing the physical and cognitive ergonomic risk of an individual assembly step. The presented risk model is finally applied to the process of assembly sequence planning, in order to find the optimal assembly sequence in situations of human-robot collaboration.

Automation of certain processes in assembly systems used to be too expensive for SMEs, but thanks to small, lightweight robots, there is now a new cost-effective option. The new robots make it possible to work without security barriers, thereby opening up new approaches for work design, especially in manual assembly systems.

In globalized and digital connected markets enterprises have to respond immediately to customer demands. Therefore flexible utilization of labor hours is a significant key element of an agile enterprise. At the same time in a digitalized society private concerns of employees are expected to get more important. Therefore work assignments and employment contracts have to offer flexible regulations and means of control for the staff also. On the other hand, digital interaction and communication offers new ways to organize work flexible. Within this paper a new mobile application for the support of self-organized and highly flexible labor utilization will be presented. The approach is to involve employees in the personnel planning and scheduling processes by means of a matching and voting process with mobile communication devices and a rule base with a comprehensive set of priority rules which limit the possible work assignments within a legal and economical justified corridor for flexible working hours. Used Criteria are the qualification of employees, the legal restrictions on maximum working hours, the flextime wage records and the personal preferences of the employees.

The demand for flexible production systems in which the flexibility at assembly processes is increased by human-robot collaboration rises. In such systems the safety of the worker, transparency of the robot’s actions and mental effort are of special importance. As acceptance of technical systems can be increased by anthropomorphism, an anthropomorphic speed profile of a simulated gantry robot is compared to conventional robotic trajectories. Results of a study with 20 male participants, in which the influence of these speed profiles for movements of the gantry robot on mental effort and prediction time was investigated, are presented in this paper. The results show a significant increase of accuracy for predicting target positions for the movements with an anthropomorphic speed profile. The speed profile does not have a significant effect on prediction times and mental effort. Hence, design recommendations for an ergonomic design of human-robot collaboration can be derived from these results.

The paper presents the comparative evaluation of the building block system MTM-HWD® (Human Work Design). It aims at verifying the statistical accuracy of the method to predict motion times compared to the generic MTM-1 system. The MTM-HWD® system is for use in serial production and especially for cycle times between 30 and 120 s. The accuracy of the system as the mean difference between MTM-HWD® and MTM-1 cycle times at the 95 % confidence level are determined by using a sample of 43 real work place analyses summing up 12,499 MTM-1 process building blocks. The sample size is representative by comparing it to a similar study during the development of MTM-2 made by the Swedish MTM Association. The findings show a statistical significant difference between MTM-HWD® and MTM-1 (α = 0.05). However, the cycle times analyzed with MTM-HWD® deviate on average not more than 5 % from those using MTM-1.

A study was carried out to determine an optimal solution for presenting multiple interaction options on the limited space of a mobile device, e.g., a smartphone, taking into account the special situation of walking. We compared three different hierarchy models and a complex interaction editor which combines all the required interaction alternatives in one screen. Slow versus fast walking on a treadmill was introduced as an additional mobility condition. The results showed that menus with a hierarchy breadth of 4 or 8 to be suit best for walking. Flat hierarchies required longer time on task and led to fewer gaze changes per single interaction. The complex interaction editor triggered a high error count and a high task load level and therefore should be avoided while walking.

For a wholesome and comprehensive planning and design of future hybrid work systems and adaptive workplace assistance systems, several components of these systems are to be considered in detail. To ensure a human-centered and safe prospective planning and design process, these components need to be thoroughly investigated already in early stages of the simulation and virtual environment. In his context, especially the joint workplaces of humans and robots are of increasing importance for industrial assembly systems. For the planning process, existing software in Computer-Aided-Engineering (CAE) provides the possibility to incorporate the factor human by means of digital human models (DHMs) as well as robots by implementing e.g. robot trajectories, path planning and specific factory characteristics. Both partners show the potential to be incorporated in a simulation tool that accounts for the flexibility of robotic technology as well as the variability of the human body, anthropometrically and biomechanically. For an accurate description and simulation of a hybrid work system it is necessary to align the DHM individually to the employee’s anthropometric data and physical performance parameters. These data can be recorded with motion capturing methods and systems and serve as a basis for the human-centered design and planning process of adaptive work assistance in assembly systems and technologies.

The process of digitization in the surrounding business reality is constantly developing, which causes that every year a number of devices, including everyday devices that are incorporated into the network, is growing. The Internet of Things is a specific ecosystem in which devices that surround us communicate with each other while remaining in the interaction thanks to mobile solutions and applications. Due to that enterprises of the future have a chance to increase the level of competitiveness. All of these, however, require a holistic approach to market perception and understanding the essence of changes. Observed growth of interest in the Internet of Things will entail social and behavioral changes while changing the specificity of contemporary management.

The concept of industrial human-robot collaboration (HRC) is becoming increasingly integrated into manufacturing production lines as a means for enhancing productivity and product quality. However, developments have focused primarily on the technology and, until recently, little research has been geared to understand the key human factors (HF) that need to be considered to enable successful implementation of industrial HRC. Recent work by the authors has led to the identification of key organisational and individual level HF. The purpose of this paper is to draw together the evidence from their studies and propose a HF roadmap for the successful implementation of industrial HRC. The roadmap will have profound implications as it enables automation specialists and manufacturing system engineers to understand the key HF that need to be considered optimise the efficiency and productivity of the collaboration between humans and industrial robots.

Critical to a seamless working relationship in human-robot collaborative environments is effective and frequent communication. This study looked to assess whether placing a light source on a robot was more effective for informing the human operator of the status of the robot than conventional human-machine interfaces for industrial system signaling such as light towers. Participants completed an assembly task while monitoring a robot and changes to the light sources: either from one of two light towers or LED strip lights attached to the robot. Workload was assessed by measuring reaction times to light changes and by counting number of completed assemblies. Although both the ANOVA and Friedman tests returned none significant results, total misses per condition showed that the participants did not miss any of the robot lights, whereas signals were missed for the light towers.

Manual handling involves transporting of load by hand through lifting or lowering and operators on the manufacturing shop floor are daily faced with constant lifting and lowering operations which leads to Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders. The trend in data collection on the Shop floor for ergonomic evaluation during manual handling activities has revealed a gap in gesture detection as gesture triggered data collection could facilitate more accurate ergonomic data capture and analysis. This paper presents an application developed to detect gestures towards triggering real-time human motion data capture on the shop floor for ergonomic evaluations and risk assessment using the Microsoft Kinect. The machine learning technology known as the discrete indicator—precisely the AdaBoost Trigger indicator was employed to train the gestures. Our results show that the Kinect can be trained to detect gestures towards real-time ergonomic analysis and possibly offering intelligent automation assistance during human posture detrimental tasks.

The shift towards more collaborative working between humans and robots increases the need for improved interfaces. Alongside robust measures to ensure safety and task performance, humans need to gain the confidence in robot co-operators to enable true collaboration. This research investigates how graphical signage can support human–robot co-working, with the intention of increased productivity. Participants are required to co-work with a KUKA iiwa lightweight manipulator on a manufacturing task. The three conditions in the experiment differ in the signage presented to the participants—signage relevant to the task, irrelevant to the task, or no signage. A change between three conditions is expected in anxiety and negative attitudes towards robots; error rate; response time; and participants’ complacency, suggested by facial expressions. In addition to understanding how graphical languages can support human–robot co-working, this study provides a basis for further collaborative research to explore human–robot co-working in more detail.

Development of any advanced, intelligent robotic welding system requires correct interrogation of welding parameters and output. Advanced programming of robots, data interpretation from associated sensory and feedback systems are required to mirror human input. Using process analysis to determine stimuli, replacement of human sensory receptors with electronic sensors, vision systems and high speed data acquisition and control systems allows for the intelligent fine tuning of multiple welding parameters at any one time. This paper demonstrates the design process, highlighting interaction between robotics and experienced welding engineers, towards construction of an autonomous aerospace turbofan jet engine blade re-manufacturing system. This is a joint collaborative research and development project carried out by VBC Instrument Engineering Ltd (UK) and The University of Sheffield (UK) who are funded by the UK governments’ innovation agency, Innovate-UK and the Aerospace Technology Institute (UK).

The ongoing trend towards manufacturing of customized products generates an increased demand on highly efficient work methods to manage product variants through flexible automation. Adopting robots for automation is not always feasible in low batch production. However, the combination of humans together with robots performing tasks in collaboration provides a complementary mix of skill and creativity of humans, and precision and strength of robots which support flexible production in small series down to one-off production. Through this, collaboration can be used with implications on reconfiguration and production. In this paper, the focus and study is on designing safety for efficient collaboration operator—robot in selected work task scenarios. The recently published ISO/TS 15066:2016 describing collaboration between operator and robot is in this context an important document for development and implementation of robotic systems designed for collaboration between operator and robot.

The development of socially interactive robots is expected to have an increasing importance in everyday life for a growing number of people. For social robots to provide long-term added value to people’s lives, it is of major importance to stress the need for developing a positive user experience (UX). The human-centered view emphasizes various aspects including acceptance, usability, and credibility, as they emerge in the interaction between humans and robots. In current human-robot interaction (HRI) research, UX is reckoned to be important, but is often taken for granted. However, a positive user experience does not appear by itself but has to be systematically designed and evaluated. In this paper, we focus on the role and relevance of UX in HRI and present three challenges related to the evaluation of UX in interaction with robots, addressing the need for interdisciplinary research in order to achieve long-term success of socially interactive robots.

With this paper we provide an overview of current trends and approaches related to assistance systems in industrial manufacturing contexts. We systematically reviewed publications relevant to the domain in order to extract and describe recent developments and application scenarios. Further, we took account of current use cases, technologies, and design strategies. Having laid out the state of the art we proceeded to identify current challenges for assistive technology in the realm of industrial production. We concluded with discussing the findings and giving an outlook regarding future research questions and possible developments.

Recent productivity-oriented technologies (e.g., industrial robots, assistive wearable tools) have more focused on production capacity rather than workers roles and experiences in the manufacturing process, and as a consequence, task have become simple and repetitive which is detrimental for work motivation. Researches have been conducted to improve worker’s motivation and experience during this monotonous work (e.g., bolt tightening), and gamification has got attention as a useful way to improve worker’s intrinsic motivation by augmenting playful goal and feedback to previous demotivating context. The present study aims at examining the effect of gamification for improving the worker’s flow and emotional experience which are related with intrinsic motivation in the workplace. An empirical study was carried out by five participants. They were instructed to tighten bolts in three different interface conditions (e.g., default condition; reactive condition; and gamification condition). During the task, their flow level and emotional state were assessed by experience sampling method (ESM). The benefits of the manufacturing gamification in the worker’s flow experience and positive emotion are also discussed.

Industrial revolution which is represented by specialization, standardization, and simplification significantly improves productivity, however it makes tasks in production line more simple and repetitive. This monotonous work environment affects most factory workers to be suffered from lack of motivation and boredom, so consequently makes workers to perceive their job unsatisfied and meaningless. We believe that gamification approach can make this tedious workplace more playful and motivating. In this context, a case study was conducted for a bolt-tightening task in the automotive assembly line. Especially, we explored our five-step design framework which can be useful as a basic procedure for the manufacturing gamification: (1) target system analysis; (2) goal and constraints identification; (3) concept generation; (4) concept evaluation; and (5) scenario development. Based on this design framework, a gamified interface for a bolt-tightening task was developed. The effectiveness of gamified interface was evaluated by lab-based experiment with semi-structured interview, and lessons learnt and related design suggestions are also dealt with.

This paper provides an overview of the EU project SO SMART (Socially Sustainable Manufacturing for the Factories of the Future), a coordinated support action (CSA) project. SO SMART examined the conditions in Europe for creating socially sustainable workplaces in the manufacturing sector, where factories flourish along with their social environment. The project was international (with partners from five countries), multidisciplinary and participatory, involving participation of several science domain experts and a wider community of academic and industry beneficiaries who participated in panels, workshops, conference events and an online forum created specifically for the project.

The present research’s main purpose is to analyze and develop a table of energy expenditure (EE), for the eight principal operational jobs of the automotive harnesses industry. These are: cable cutting, pressing, manual assembly, assembly on board, taping operation, electrical testing, quality inspection and material handling. Sample size consisted of 65 workers performing similar activities from three industries. Energy expenditure in the jobs studied varies from 2.21 kcal/min ±0.965 standard deviation to 4.24 kcal/min ±1.058 standard deviation. For each job their kcal/min were calculated and a model was constructed that could be used to determinate the energy consumption for those works.

Manufacturing environments have become complex and unpredictable socio-technical systems, and now must cope with existing occupational health and safety (OHS) risks as well as anticipate emergent ones. The subject of this study is a new safety management paradigm called resilience engineering. In a dynamic and ever-changing business environment, socio-technical systems are subject to increasing variability. In this article, we propose an application of a new and innovative systemic risk assessment method for the management of emerging risks in the manufacturing environment, namely the functional resonance analysis method (FRAM). Based on the principles of resilience engineering, this method can be used to determine how variability in daily performance could affect the system and lead to desirable or undesirable events. The results showed clearly the importance of using a risk assessment method based on the variability of performance to manage risks emerging from the changing nature of today’s manufacturing companies.

In the face of increasingly fierce competition every company must make the production process efficient and continuous improvement. One of the ways to make the process efficient production by production line balancing. PT Yamaha Indonesia is a company that performing continuous improvement. The problems that still exist in this company is the balance that is less than optimal production line. Line efficiency sound board glue working group on the actual condition of 47 % and had a total time of 211.91 min idle by the number of work stations as many as 16 stations. The low value of efficiency and high idle time reflects the imbalance of production lines. To resolve these problems used two methods region approach and ranked position weight. Analysis of the balance using the region approach causes increased line efficiency by 76 %, total idle time dropped to 60.86 min and the number of work stations was reduced to 10 stations. Meanwhile, the analysis of the balance of the position ranked weight method can improve line efficiency to 84 %, lowering the idle time becomes 35.67 min and the number of work stations was reduced to 9 stations. It can be seen that the line balancing by using the ranked position weight can be applied to the company PT Yamaha Indonesia.

Information and communication technologies are the one of the key factors connecting technological progress and the globalization process in creating the knowledge-based economy, as well as in the context of enterprise development. Information and communication technologies are crucially important in achieving the concept of efficient knowledge management in enterprise. One of the main roles of information technology in knowledge management is to support the process of knowledge transfer and creation. These technologies also help the processes of collecting and organizing the knowledge in order to make this knowledge available for all potential users. This paper presents a general concept of information and communication technologies supporting knowledge management with the use of some fuzzy sets theory.

Uncertainty and volatility of the environment in which modern enterprises need to operate require management concepts and methods to be continually monitored and adjusted so that the high level of market competitiveness and attractiveness could be maintained. It is possible to attain such a state thanks to taking full advantage of knowledge contained both in an enterprise itself and its environment. Enterprises aspiring to succeed need to shape their internal structure and management mechanisms in a way which will make it possible for them to achieve the level of a knowledge-based enterprise characterized by a high level of agility. An agile knowledge-based enterprise is marked by high sensitivity and ability to seize opportunities it encounters, which stem from its internal configuration of resources conducive to such a behaviour. The aim of the paper is to define agility features of a knowledge-based enterprise and to identify mechanisms which influence the improvement of an enterprise potential in areas favourable for agility development. The paper is a collection of theoretical cogitations which have led to formulating a multi-aspect model of a mechanism used to shape agility of a knowledge-based organization.

Mass customization aim to achieve customized product at a rate similar to mass production rate. Additive manufacturing (AM), an advanced manufacturing method, is capable of producing customized product, no matter the complexity simply, by adding materials layer after layer and building of the part in one unit. Unlike in traditional manufacturing process where a complex part needs to be broken down to smaller units and then assembled at a later stage, AM produces a complex part directly from the computer aided design (CAD) model of the part by adding materials in layers as against material removal in the traditional manufacturing process. Consumer product is moving from standardized product to customized product. For manufacturing companies to be able to keep up with this demand trend; there is a need for manufacturing process that deliver. This study looks at how AM can be used to achieve customized product with mass production efficiency.

This paper focuses on an organizational structure in a context of agile enterprises with the aim of summarizing the theoretical postulates and their empirical verification. The theoretical model of agile enterprise is described in four dimensions: 1. Shrewdness of the enterprise, 2. Resource flexibility 3. Enterprise’s intelligence. 4. Smartness of the enterprise. These agile dimensions are interpreted from the “Aston concept” of five dimensions of an organizational structure: 1. Configuration, 2. Specialization, 3. Centralization, 4. Standardization, and 5. Formalization. The theoretical model of anticipated effects of agile in organizational structure has been verified as a part of two larger empirical research projects undertaken at the Faculty of Engineering Management of Poznan University of Technology. The first project from 2012, called “Adjustment of enterprises’ management systems to knowledge-based economy”, and the second one from 2014, called “Determinants of implementing modern methods and technics of management in Polish enterprises”. The both empirical research surveyed 150 of enterprises represented Polish economy.

There is an increasing recognition that the competitive advantage of firms depends on their ability to create, transfer, utilize, develop and protect the Organizational knowledge assets. Therefore, the projects context should be wisely used for properly foster the learning collection through the lessons learned gathered during project life cycle. However, organizations do not seem to learn from their mistakes, rarely exploring the reasons for their projects’ success or failure, and very rarely applying those lessons learned to the business management. In fact, there is little or no point in learning unless management adapts its behavior accordingly. Usually top management does not give sufficient resources for activities such as reflecting and learning. This research is focused on assessing the organizational environment in order to properly explore the factors and dependencies amongst the social demographic variables. The questions addressed intent to highlight the key determinants that might foresee a proper learning and knowledge management environment.

Contemporary enterprises can choose one of the two approaches to cope with the increasing changeability of environment. The first, used mostly in big sized enterprises that present high technological and organizational culture, is lean management. By implementing it the enterprise protects itself against the disturbances generated by the environment by elimination and reduction of waists. The second approach is to be agile enterprise what means to be able to identify and use short life time opportunities. One of feature of agile enterprise is its flexibility. Flexibility is meant as the ability of enterprise to extend the repertoire of undertaken opportunities (performed tasks or manufactured products and provided services). In this paper some results of research on flexibility of Polish SMEs are presented. The results include evaluation of both the environment’s changes and how Polish SME’s adopted themselves to the changes. The considered period of the adaptation is 5 years.

High work demands (WDs) usually have negative effects on employees such as exhaustion and absenteeism, whereas moderate WDs have positive effects that include work enjoyment and creativity. However, effects of WDs on clients, production processes and organizational performance are scarcely studied. This paper analyzes the effects of macro-ergonomic compatibility of work demands of employees (MCWDs), as independent variable on manufacturing system with respect to production processes, clients, and organizational performance as dependent variables. As methods, a macro-ergonomic compatibility questionnaire (MCQ) is developed and statistically validated, and a Structural Equations Model (SEM) is created to find the effects of MCWDs on the dependent variables, and also the effects among them. Results indicate that MCWDs do not have a direct effect on organizational performance, but on production processes and clients; and significant indirect effect on organizational performance. As conclusion, MCWDs represents a source of clients’ satisfaction, production processes’ reliability, and organizational performance.

In occupational practice the majority of health-related sick leave and early retirements in industrial nations is caused by musculoskeletal disorders and awkward working postures are known as whose major risk factor. In the past, many methods for identifying and assessing working postures were developed and applied in companies. The purpose of this paper is to address the ergonomic intervention process, which is also part of an ergonomic improvement of work systems. Therefore a general process for the ergonomic improvement with a range sensor-based approach and an approach to adapt the ergonomic intervention process on range sensor-based ergonomic assessment results was developed. These approaches are able to combine a digital ergonomic analysis process with a digital ergonomic intervention process in order to achieve a holistic ergonomic improvement process. The advantages and limitations of these approaches for the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders are discussed.

This paper presents the ACD3-Production framework—a two-dimensional model whose purpose is to visualize and clarify the scope, impact and organizational position of design decisions. The abbreviation stands for Activity-Centered Design Decision Determination and is based on a similar framework for product development that supports design decision-making in product design. The framework characterizes design problems along the two dimensions of Abstraction levels and Design perspectives; it is postulated that design decisions are made at the intersection of these, and that the production system’s overarching purposes will propagate coherently down to the physical detailed design level if the design work follows the top-down process indicated in the framework. ACD3-Production is visually represented in the form of a matrix that can facilitate discussions between design change agents, in order to determine where in the production system there are problems, where specific effects are desired, and where to implement a design change.

Due to the scarcity of natural resources, the high competitiveness between companies and the need to create new business opportunities, some manufacturers are becoming interested in activities that involve more complexity than conventional manufacturing of its products. This is the case of companies being the original manufacturers of a product, engaged in reverse logistics to recover it at the end of its useful life and apply remanufacturing. The main objective of this research is to identify how human factors influence the activities of planning and production control, specifically in the remanufacturing process. However, it is interesting to note that it is not possible to establish a fair comparison between the conventional manufacturing process and remanufacturing in this regard. Remanufacturing is a process with greater uncertainty, so that establishing relationships with influential human factors allows: first, to make a more realistic approach to the situation in the company; second, determine the manner in which the staff makes decisions about the process and; third, develop a strategy allowing the company to improve its key performance indicators. Remanufacturing, is a relatively new process, the papers found with this approach are scarce. So conducting exploratory, descriptive and explanatory research was considered. To start this research, a study was conducted including employees of seven companies in the auto parts remanufacturing industry. In the first place, semi-structured interviews were applied; thereby the basic information to design the survey was obtained, which prior to its implementation was validated. After collecting the data, a confirmatory factor analysis was developed. Subsequently, we proceeded with the design and implementation of a SEM (Structural Equations Modelling). This allowed proposing a theoretical model to interpret the information provided by employees in the implementation phase of interviews and surveys. The model is convincing in demonstrating that the activities of planning and production control in remanufacturing are strongly affected by the human factor and has a significant impact on its key performance indicators.

This document presents a study of human factors that influence human errors from the perspective of cognitive ergonomics. The purpose of the research is to determine the root of human errors from the perspective of the human factors that affect the quality of the product. The study of took place in the context of the Maquiladora Industry. The scientific methodology used is located in Cognitive anthropology, through the application of the theory of the Cultural consensus. The methodological approach of the study corresponds to the mixed methods. The design of the study was cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical. The population studied was that of multifunctional operators, existing in the company’s two modalities: those in manufacturing support and those in quality inspection support. With this research, it is possible to move closer to a classification of the causes root of human errors that affect the product quality in the industry maquiladora in Tijuana, Mexico. With this knowledge it is possible to propose preventive actions in Maquiladora improvement projects.

A model to predict learning time for young people was developed by Jeske. In this paper, we extended Jeske’s model by analyzing and modeling the learning time of older people. Therefore, a replication of Jeske’s study on the influence of task descriptions on the learning time was conducted. Sixty participants took part in this study. Their experimental task was a tenfold repeated assembly of a carburetor. In each trial the execution time and the number of errors were measured and analyzed with respect to the age of the participants and the task description. Furthermore, it was investigated how well Jeske’s model can be fitted to the acquired data. The results show a significant influence of the age on the learning time. Furthermore, a significant deviation between the data and Jeske’s model is revealed. Thus, a power function model fits the data of older participants in the most appropriate way.

By implementing solutions and approaches of the Industrie 4.0 the role of employee’s in-house production environments underlie a significant change. This paper begins with an introduction and basics about Industrie 4.0 and the research project “Effiziente Fabrik 4.0”. Thereafter requirements for the employee data model are presented for use in intelligent and flexible worker assistance systems. Then a concept for the employee data model is developed and described by using Unified Modeling Language (UML). The model consists of various partial models, including a newly developed qualification matrix. These partial models are all presented. Based on this, there will be a prototypical implementation of the employee data model. Thus the employee and his supervisor, for example, for human resources planning, the necessary information is always at hand ready on a tablet. Finally, an outlook on further work is given.

In this paper an adaptive, dynamic, and individualized worker allocation method is presented. The developed method is based on individual worker information, the new flexible cyber-physical production system, and the communication between the participants of such a production system. According to a communication scenario demands of a manufacturing step and a manufacturing station are compared with employee information. This provides the basis for a decision of the worker allocation. Workers are only allocated to manufacturing stations that match their qualifications and personal characteristics. For a better integration of human factors in CPPS, the job satisfaction of each worker also has to be taken into account. Therefore a satisfaction value for each manufacturing operation and manufacturing station is defined and part of the worker information. The aim of the research is to increase the productivity in the production system and the satisfaction of each individual worker.

In addition to customized products and eroding delivery times, todays volatile markets are a major challenge for manufacturing companies. Stronger and more short-term fluctuations in sales require lean production structures and, more and more frequently, the flexible use of manufacturing resources. In high-wage countries like Germany in particular, the flexible use of well-qualified manufacturing employees is a competitive advantage for manufacturing companies. This paper describes the challenges of manufacturing companies in the field of volatile markets and introduces a new method to dimension personnel-flexibility systematically.

For the purpose of manufacturing a high product variety in small production batches at low costs, cyber-physical production systems are being developed, in which cyber-physical systems consisting of sensors, actors, and communication interfaces are implemented in production systems. In order to facilitate a highly adaptive assembly process in cyber-physical production systems, an individualized worker assistance system is required. This has to take into account the different roles, qualifications, and personal characteristics of each individual worker. In this paper, a profile data model for the integration of individual worker information and the modeling of human aspects in cyber-physical production systems is developed. Based on the profile data model, an approach for the development of adaptive and individualized worker assistance systems is presented with the focus on shop-floor workers and foremen with operative planning tasks.

An increasing diversification and customization of products, lead to a broad product mix within assembly lines. These mixed-model assembly lines challenge the production planning, because of a varying capacity utilization depending on the specific mixture of variants. To prevent quality defects and productivity losses, companies implement different strategies to support their workforce—such as the integration of auxiliary workers. The paper presents an approach, which increases the coordination efficiency of auxiliary workers by using competence profiles. The changing production environment also raises the cognitive load of workers. Therefore companies need to think of new strategies to support them while learning new operations or product variants. The described approach also introduces a concept that allows qualifying people on the job by using a specific type of auxiliary worker. The question whether this concept has a positive impact on learning curves, has been examined in an empirical research study.

Despite fast technological progress, machine-oriented production solutions and more demanding customer needs still human presence in production is evident, important and needed. In quality inspection human uses own senses when deciding about products quality. Decisive step is then the most complex part of inspection with regard to big number of product attributes, variable attributes and often limited possibility to measure product characteristics. Attribute inspection is much more difficult than control based on measurements and figures. Effectiveness of attribute inspection is always lower than based on measurements due to risk of human mistake during inspection. It can appear two types of failures during inspection: defects overlooking, improper classification. Human is unreliable part of inspection. One of key factors influencing on inspection performance is motivation. Motivation types differs people. With regard to that fact it is stated that human motives investigation needs to be carried out already on personnel selection phase.

A conceptual framework of the factors that facilitate embedding useful project management improvement initiatives (PMIIs) was developed from an exploratory study. This paper aims to make some contribution to theory as well as to practice by exploring the human perspective of the framework conceptualization. The framework resulted in 15 key PMIIs and in 26 key embedding factors, that can act as levers to be used by organizations in devising strategies to promote embedding PMIIs into their systems. Almost half of each, seven PMIIS and twelve embedding factors, are directly related to Human aspects.

Collective decision-making processes require careful design considerations in organizations. On one hand, the inclusion of a greater number of actors contribute to a wider knowledge base, on the other, it can become a diffuse process and be distorted from the principles initially established. This paper observes a specific collective decision making process in organizations—technology strategy formulation—and, through a critical review of the literature, analyzes how the advances in features of group support systems support improvements in different stages of this process. This paper also discusses the implications of GSS appropriation in group dynamics.

Globalized markets, product complexity, and increased requirements on quality lead to growing complexity of business and manufacturing processes. Game-Based learning environments and business simulation games offer great potential to prepare employees the increasing complexity. As it is unclear who profits most from these learning environments, we did a study with 66 participants on a game for conveying Production Planning and Control and Quality Management. In our research model we combined personality attributes and two common technology acceptance models to determine factors projecting performance in the game and projected later use of business simulation games in general. We found that main drivers for usage are performance expectancy and transfer of skill, i.e., the perceived applicability of the learned knowledge and skills for the later work. The attained performance is unrelated to the projected use. The article concludes with guidelines to increase the likelihood for the later use of business simulation games and for increasing their overall efficacy.

The paper presents a proposal for studying seaports as an open system. The Author emphasises the specific nature of seaports, their role and intra-organisational functions, as well as their positioning in terms of location. This forms the basis of the research concept, especially the dimensions, criteria and their indicator operationalisation. The research study applies taxonomic methods to verify the assumptions based on the example of Polish seaports in the years 2004, 2009 and 2014 (static approach). The study conclusions constitute a contribution to the discussion on the current importance of organisational efficiency management and organisation’s identity, as well as the areas of development of seaports as economic nodes of social and spatial importance.