Assembly Jobs Research Articles

Advanced manufacturing technology and work simplification: An empirical study

AbstractThis paper is concerned with the effects of advanced manufacturing technology on shopfloor operator jobs and work attitudes. A strong line of argument from labour process theory suggests that such technology will simplify and deskill jobs, and reduce the quality or working life. This proposition was explored within a large electronics company which assembles computer boards, where two different applications of information technology have been experienced. These were compared with two traditional manual assembly jobs. Assessment of job content, perceived job characteristics and operator work attitudes, showed no uniform deskilling effects of advanced manufacturing technologies. Much larger differences existed both between the different new technology applications and between the traditional jobs. This demonstrates that choice of technology is important to skill use and employees' attitudes, as are the choices for the organization of work around it. These are not uniform processes even within a single organization. Experience of operating advanced manufacturing technology was also accompanied by more positive views concerning its impact on the shopfloor.

Exposure to ergonomic stressors in the garment industry: application and critique of job-site work analysis methods.

Recently developed work analysis techniques permit the quantitative description of job demands such as force and non-neutral postures on a continuous basis. Such characterization of workplace exposures facilitates the identification of highly stressful work elements. It is also a necessary tool for the epidemiologic study of occupational musculoskeletal disorders and their risk factors. The methods were applied to the analysis of 14 garment assembly jobs, employing 151 women, among whom an elevated prevalence of upper limb musculoskeletal disorders had previously been found. The goals of the job analyses were to document the biomechanical features of the jobs and to evaluate the work analysis methods for the characterization of ergonomic exposures in an epidemiologic study. The cycle lengths of the 14 jobs ranged from 9·5 seconds to 3·4 minutes. Wrist and hand postures that were used frequently included finger pinches, wrist extension and ulnar deviation. The methods were extremely time and labour-intensi...

A comparative study of priority dispatching rules in a hybrid assembly/job shop

SUMMARY This paper reports on research conducted on the use of priority dispatching rules in a hybrid assembly/job shop which manufactures both single-component and multiple-component products. A simulation model was constructed and a large stale experiment performed. Statistical analysis of the simulation results indicated significant impact of both the priority rules tested, and the product-mix considered on shop performance. Among the 12 priority rules tested, the SPT (shortest processing time) rule and the ASMF-SPT (assembly jobs first with SPT as tie-breaker) rule performed very well with respect to measures like lateness, flow time, tardiness, staging time, and percent of jobs tardy. These findings lead to further investigation of a combined priority rule, MIXED, which implements the ASMF-SPT rule at all machine centres that process components of assembly jobs, and the SPT rule at the remaining machine centres which process non-component jobs. The additional research results yielded evidence that the MIXED rule can reduce the staging time of the SPT rule, and yielded betrer results than the ASMF-SPT rule with regard to other performance measures. The most interesting finding, however, was the small variation in flow time distribution resulting from use of the MIXED rule when there were more assembly jobs. In an MRP environment, it is especially desirable to have a priority dispatching rule resulting in minimum variation in individual flow times which allows the replenishment lead times to be estimated with greater accuracy.

拘束のある物体の能動弾性指によるあやつりとその組立作業への応用

拘束のある物体の能動弾性指によるあやつりとその組立作業への応用