Decision support system for designing and assigning ergonomic workplaces to workers with disabilities

Smart and Sustainable Human-Centred Workstations for Operators with Disability in the Age of Industry 5.0: A Systematic Review

“…Herzog and Harih's work [49] can be deemed as a noteworthy outlier among the presented research bracket. The authors have attempted to promote the inclusion of individuals with physical disabilities by devising an assistance system grounded in ergonomic decision making.…”

“…The proposed platform permits task-reassignment by matching the operator to a pre-available workstation that would cater best for the user's physical limitations, strengths, and abilities (with emphasis on ergonomics). Despite such an innovative approach, a point of contention with this work is that the only "restrictions" captured by the tool are those related to lifting, movement and "other restrictions" such as hearing [49] (p. 228), with no mention of, say, intellectual or cognitive limitations. Another dispute is that despite the proposed system being simple and straightforward to use (thus can be used by any designer); choosing an individual from a database containing only "the most common disabilities that are relevant to a manufacturing environment" [49] (p. 227) could, in hindsight, be perceived as setting a hindrance to the operator's ability to work.…”

“…Despite such an innovative approach, a point of contention with this work is that the only "restrictions" captured by the tool are those related to lifting, movement and "other restrictions" such as hearing [49] (p. 228), with no mention of, say, intellectual or cognitive limitations. Another dispute is that despite the proposed system being simple and straightforward to use (thus can be used by any designer); choosing an individual from a database containing only "the most common disabilities that are relevant to a manufacturing environment" [49] (p. 227) could, in hindsight, be perceived as setting a hindrance to the operator's ability to work. Nonetheless, Herzog and Harih's approach [49] has laid a foundation for future research in this direction and should not be undermined.…”

“…Another dispute is that despite the proposed system being simple and straightforward to use (thus can be used by any designer); choosing an individual from a database containing only "the most common disabilities that are relevant to a manufacturing environment" [49] (p. 227) could, in hindsight, be perceived as setting a hindrance to the operator's ability to work. Nonetheless, Herzog and Harih's approach [49] has laid a foundation for future research in this direction and should not be undermined.…”

“…On the one hand, every operator is a learner in their own right and follows a unique pedagogical journey to comprehend how, say, a new task is to be executed. This upholds instruction delivery as crucial especially for individuals with disabilities, yet in doing so, academia fails to weave in other aspects of workstation design that are vivid in manufacturing [49]. Research within this remit should thus point towards accommodating for ergonomics after multimodal adjustments are made, understanding how to cater for fixed production times and quotas, and in general, what the role of an inclusive workstation entails for assembly line balancing [46].…”