Towards an Ergonomic Assessment Framework for Industrial Assembly Workstations—A Case Study

Colim, Ana; Faria, Carlos; Braga, Ana Cristina; Sousa, Nuno; Rocha, Luís; Carneiro, Paula; Costa, Nélson; Arezes, Pedro

doi:10.3390/app10093048

Open AccessArticle

Towards an Ergonomic Assessment Framework for Industrial Assembly Workstations—A Case Study

by

Ana Colim

^1,*

,

Carlos Faria

¹

,

Ana Cristina Braga

²

,

Nuno Sousa

²,

Luís Rocha

¹,

Paula Carneiro

²

,

Nélson Costa

²

and

Pedro Arezes

²

¹

DTx Colab, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal

²

ALGORITMI Centre, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(9), 3048; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10093048

Submission received: 31 March 2020 / Revised: 19 April 2020 / Accepted: 23 April 2020 / Published: 27 April 2020

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Industrial Engineering and Management: Current Issues and Trends)

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Abstract

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) are one of the main occupational health problems. The best strategy to prevent them lies on ergonomic interventions. The variety of industrial processes and environments, however, makes it difficult to define an all-purpose framework to guide these ergonomic interventions. This undefinition is exacerbated by recurrent introduction of new technologies, e.g., collaborative robots. In this paper, we propose a framework to guide ergonomics and human factors practitioners through all stages of assessment and redesign of workstations. This framework was applied in a case study at an assembly workstation of a large furniture enterprise. Direct observation of work activity and questionnaires were applied to characterize the workstations, the process, and the workers’ profiles and perceptions. An ergonomic multi-method approach, based on well-known and validated methods (such as the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and Rapid Upper Limb Assessment), was applied to identify the most critical risk factors. We concluded that this approach supports the process redesign and tasks’ allocation of the future workstation. From these conclusions, we distill a list of requirements for the creation of a collaborative robot cell, specifying which tasks are performed by whom, as well as the scheduling of the human-robot collaboration (HRC).

Keywords: ergonomics and human factors; risk assessment; WMSD prevention; design of assembly workstations for cobots

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MDPI and ACS Style

Colim, A.; Faria, C.; Braga, A.C.; Sousa, N.; Rocha, L.; Carneiro, P.; Costa, N.; Arezes, P. Towards an Ergonomic Assessment Framework for Industrial Assembly Workstations—A Case Study. Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3048. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10093048

AMA Style

Colim A, Faria C, Braga AC, Sousa N, Rocha L, Carneiro P, Costa N, Arezes P. Towards an Ergonomic Assessment Framework for Industrial Assembly Workstations—A Case Study. Applied Sciences. 2020; 10(9):3048. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10093048

Chicago/Turabian Style

Colim, Ana, Carlos Faria, Ana Cristina Braga, Nuno Sousa, Luís Rocha, Paula Carneiro, Nélson Costa, and Pedro Arezes. 2020. "Towards an Ergonomic Assessment Framework for Industrial Assembly Workstations—A Case Study" Applied Sciences 10, no. 9: 3048. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10093048

APA Style

Colim, A., Faria, C., Braga, A. C., Sousa, N., Rocha, L., Carneiro, P., Costa, N., & Arezes, P. (2020). Towards an Ergonomic Assessment Framework for Industrial Assembly Workstations—A Case Study. Applied Sciences, 10(9), 3048. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10093048

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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Towards an Ergonomic Assessment Framework for Industrial Assembly Workstations—A Case Study

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