Preventing ergonomic risks with integrated planning on assembly line balancing and parts feeding

Abstract

In this paper, we advise to perform assembly line balancing simultaneously with decision-making on parts feeding. Such integrated planning may open additional potential to reduce labour costs. Additional planning flexibility gained with the integrated planning may be used to mitigate ergonomic risks at workplaces. We formulate the integrated assembly line balancing and parts feeding planning problem, propose a mixed-integer model and compare integrated planning to a common hierarchical planning approach in a detailed case study on the assembly of a self-priming pump. Our case study illustrates that workplaces with high ergonomic risks may emerge even in productions that involve handling parts and workpieces of low weights and avoid static and awkward postures. We also show that the proposed integrated planning approach may eliminate excessive ergonomic risks and improve productivity indicators simultaneously.

Challenges for the cyber-physical manufacturing enterprises of the future

“…Human characteristics, such as age, gender, cultural background, and personality of operators are often neglected in traditional decision-making models used in the design and management of production and logistic systems. At the same time, new technologies are currently being developed that assist operators in their manual tasks and interact with these human characteristics (Battini et al 2017). A specific focus is directed on collaborative control theory that opens the doors to decentralized, agent-based and bio-inspired coordination and control, adaptation and learning (Nof 2007).…”

Ageing workforce management in manufacturing systems: state of the art and future research agenda

“…Therefore, industrial engineering and production research societies, as well as policy makers at national and business levels, have to deal with the challenge of addressing these changes in the human resource markets and, above all, with their implications for the work conditions. Tackling such issues is especially needed for workplaces where employees are required to perform manual and mental tasks, involving their physical and cognitive capacities, such as in manufacturing or assembly systems (Battini et al 2011;Börsch-Supan and Weiss 2016;Battini et al 2017). For example, some years ago, BMW decided to reinvent some of its assembly lines to accommodate an ageing workforce and to facilitate the performance of the most physical tasks by improving ergonomics, introducing a variable line pace and training older workers to avoid musculoskeletal disorders (De Pommereau 2012).…”

Walking worker vs fixed worker assembly considering the impact of components exposure on assembly time and energy expenditure

“…However, these can represent a distinctive feature, especially when it has to be chosen the system to use (for example FW or WW) for a certain assembly process [24]. The consideration of ergonomics during assembly line design usually allows taking into account both the impact of the assembly tasks and the components picking [46,47]. Related to this, some researches have proposed assembly line design methods and balancing approaches considering ergonomics from various points of view.…”

“…Considering the impact of ergonomics both on assembly line balancing and on parts feeding and exposure, recent researches propose to model it with an integrated perspective. [47,63] develop an integrated assembly line balancing problem considering the energy expenditure of assembly and components picking, while [12] propose to evaluate the same aspects by using REBA method. On the other side, [64,65] consider ergonomics for both assembly line design and balancing, focusing on single-and mixed-model assembly lines.…”