On the Selection of Ergonomics Evaluation Methods for Human Centric Manufacturing Tasks

Abstract

The last years several methods and sensors have emerged for the assessment of the physical and cognitive loads that human workers experience during the execution of manufacturing tasks. Questionnaires, videos, simulation data, IMU sensors, etc. are some of the data collection methods that can provide important data for the physical (skeleton joint angles, perceived fatigue, covered distance, and so forth), as well as for the cognitive (e.g., perceived user experience, eye movement, latency of movement) workload evaluation. However, there is no commonly accepted method to guide the practitioners in selecting the appropriate method and means to evaluate their task of interest. This paper goes a step further from the existing formal guidelines by considering aspects such as the stage of development of the manufacturing tasks and weighting the cognitive and physical aspects as per the task’s nature. The proposed multi-criteria decision making method will map the custom requirements of each case in terms of cost, time, expertise, and available technology to the ones that each data collection method can meet in order to suggest an appropriate method. The proposed approach is applied in a case study coming from the bus and coach sector, where a mixed task (cognitive and physical effort) is assessed using video recordings and interviews.