A computerized methodology and an advanced approach for the effective design and productivity enhancement of an industrial workstation

It is the intent of the research work to propose a methodology for achieving the ergonomic effective design of a real industrial workstation and an advanced approach for enhancing its productivity. In particular the design methodology is based on multiple design parameters, Design of Experiments (DOE) and multiple performance measures. The Design of Experiments supports the comparison of the actual configuration of the workstation with alternative operative scenarios (different workstation configurations). The advanced approach for workstation productivity enhancement aims at comparing different work methods in order to reduce the workstation process time. The evaluation of the process time as well as of the best work method is achieved by contemporaneously using the Methods and Tine Measurement and the Maynard Operation Sequence Techniques. Simulation, 3D Visualization and human modelling are used as support tool for recreating workstation operations, executing experiments (ergonomics effective design) and apply work measurement methodologies (selection of the best work method).