Quality improvement in manufacturing through human performance enhancement

Abstract

In the increasingly competitive global economy, survival of an industry depends on catering to customer needs by quickly producing quality products and providing quality service at an affordable price. In production, or in service, ergonomic considerations have manifested themselves in two distinct, yet related, domains. Focuses on the humans who contribute to product manufacture/service. It is frequently advocated that since humans are unreliable and less consistent, compared to machines, they are primarily responsible for lowering product and service quality. Ergonomic considerations, which, ironically, can improve human performance, are paid lip service during manufacturing system design. Compounding the problem is the current inability of most ergonomists to make ergonomic recommendations that do not run counter to the productivity and quality goals of system designers. Addresses these two issues by illustrating, through four case studies, the relationship between quality and variables that affect human performance.