The impact of materials exposure on the conditions at the workstation

Paper in proceeding, 2008

The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of how the materials exposure impacts the workstation conditions, in terms of non-value adding work, the space needed and ergonomics. In a typical workstation in the Swedish Automotive industry materials for manual assembly are exposed along the line in pallets, being supplied by forklift trucks. In this study, three workstations were re-designed, using the principles of lean production, one was subsequently rebuilt and a pilot study was performed. Materials had previously been supplied and exposed in pallets and the re- design with smaller containers decreased the space needed along the line with 67%. The results included a decrease of the non-value adding work at the workstation of 23%. The walking path for the operator was decreased by 52%. Reducing picking of unbeneficial exposed materials, unnecessary movements and carrying work improved the ergonomics for the operator.