A Study of Human Performance in a Sewing Task

Abstract

A study of human performance on sewing machines was undertaken by looking at a simple straight-stitch sewing task. The primary purpose of the study was to investigate whether sewing tasks could be described by a self-paced movement control model. A sewing experiment was conducted with six female subjects. The factors considered were Subjects, Sewing zone tolerance, Fabric type, and Stitch rate. Sewing time per trial and errors were recorded. The results of ANOVA on sewing speeds showed significant effects for all the main factors. The significant sewing zone tolerance is in agreement with the results of previous studies of movement control where the tasks were line drawing, forklift truck driving, and beam walking. The relationship between the sewing speed and the sewing zone tolerance was found to be linear with ρ = 0.963, which proves the applicability of a self-paced movement control model to sewing tasks. The slope of this relationship can be viewed as a measure of task controllability as it quantifies some of the factors involved. The slope can further be used to observe the speed penalty for defining tighter and more accurate sewing tolerances.