This paper reports a case study on the User Experience (UX) of an industrial robotic prototype in the context of human-robot cooperation in an automotive assembly line. The goal was to find out what kinds of suggestions the assembly line workers – who actually use the new robotic system – propose in order to improve the human-robot interaction (HRI). The operators working with the robotic proto...

Ramp-up of precision assembly lines is a cost-intensive and experiencedriven task. Most of the time the knowledge how to effectively and efficiently setup an assembly line is intrinsic and is therefore neither shared nor reused by production experts. Almost no machine data is recorded until the correct functionality of the line is achieved and human problem solving tasks are not or poorly docum...

Line-integrated supermarkets constitute a novel in-house parts logistics concept for feeding mixed-model assembly lines. In this context, supermarkets are decentralized logistics areas located directly in each station. Here, parts are withdrawn from their containers by a dedicated logistics worker and sorted just-in-sequence (JIS) into a JIS-bin. From this bin, assembly workers fetch the parts ...

O way to organize workers that lies between traditional assembly lines, where workers are specialists, and craft assembly, where workers are generalists, are “bucket brigades.” We describe how one firm used bucket brigades as an intermediate strategy to migrate from craft assembly to assembly lines. The adoption of bucket brigades led to a narrowing of tasks for each worker and thus accelerated...

This paper presents 2 musculoskeletal disorders questionnaire surveys in 10 different Chinese occupational groups. Data collected from 1,603 workers using a modified Nordic musculoskeletal disorders symptom questionnaire showed that the 12-month prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders, particularly in the low back and shoulder-neck regions, was high at many Chinese workplaces. Significant diffe...

“Bucket brigades” are a way of sharing work on a flow line that results in the spontaneous emergence of balance and consequent high throughput. All this happens without a work-content model or traditional assembly line balancing technology. Here we show that bucket brigades can be effective even in the presence of variability in the work content. In addition, we report confirmation at the natio...

  Abstract   Background : Noise is the most common hazard in the workplace and noise induced   hearing loss considered to be the most common occupational disease as well.   Cigarette smoking, in some studies, has been known to induce hearing loss. The purpose   of this study was to evaluate the effect of contemporary exposure to occupational   noise and cigarette smoking on hearing.   Methods :...

This paper presents a multi-objective simulated annealing algorithm for the mixed-model assembly line balancing with stochastic processing times. Since, the stochastic task times may have effects on the bottlenecks of a system, maximizing the weighted line efficiency (equivalent to the minimizing the number of station), minimizing the weighted smoothness index and maximizing the system reliabil...

This paper presents a nonlinear mixed-integer programming model to minimize the stoppage cost of mixed-model assembly lines. Nowadays, most manufacturing firms employ this type of line due to the increasing varieties of products in their attempts to quickly respond to diversified customer demands. Advancement of new technologies, competitiveness, diversification of products, and large customer ...