Consequences of Line Balancing of an Assembly Line on the Health, Satisfaction and Performance Indicators of Assembly Line Workers in a Case Study of an Automotive Manufacturer

In assembly-line work the term cycle time refers to the period of time between the completion of one product and the completion of the next one. Against the context of work design this parameter is important as it seems to be related both to the physical and the mental well-being of workers as well as to their job satisfaction and their performance. In order to gain a better understanding of the underlying causal relationships a structural equation modeling approach was taken in this work. By this means it is possible to hypothesize on the interaction of variables and to test these hypotheses empirically. Within a field experimental study at an automobile manufacturing company it was shown that shorter cycle times lower the physical well-being of workers—but, however, this fact did not affect the overall performance outcome. Besides, it could have been shown that cycle-related working conditions in general—regardless of the length of cycle times—reduced the mental well-being of assembly workers. This result is important as the mental well-being did not only reinforce the physical conditions, but it turned out to be also relevant for the performance of the workers.