Factors impacting manual picking on assembly lines: an experiment in the automotive industry

Abstract

Manual picking on assembly lines is an important part of the assembly operator's work. In the automotive industry, alternative material exposure strategies are continually evaluated in order to facilitate the assembler's work and minimise non-value-adding time, resulting in increased use of smaller bins or containers at workstations, instead of large pallets. The assembly operator's retrieval of components from bins, containers or pallets is known as manual picking. Previous work in this area has focused on picking from pallets placed on the floor; therefore, there is a need to include other forms of material exposure. The purpose of this paper is to explain what material exposure factors have an impact on manual picking times on assembly lines. A full factorial experiment, testing seven factors in 128 experiments, was conducted in an automotive assembly line setting. The factors with the greatest impact on manual picking time were packaging type; angle of exposure; height of exposure; and part size. This study contributes by addressing the importance of six factors influencing manual picking times, enhancing knowledge derived from MTM and elsewhere. The results from this study can be useful for designing manual picking operations, not just at assembly lines but also other situations where discrete manual picking occurs such as at workstations or bench assembly. Managerial contributions are evident in the examination of factors important in designing new production systems, including materials supply processes and assembly processes. A further managerial application is the use of the results in managing assembly lines.

Modeling and solving assembly line design problems by considering human factors with a real‐life application

“…The authors showed on a case study that materials exposure impacts workstation performance in terms of non‐value‐adding work, space requirements and ergonomics. Finnsgård and Wänström () presented a full factorial experiment in order to state the factors that impact manual picking on automotive assembly line setting. Bautista, Batalla, Alfaro, and Cano () presented a time‐and‐space‐constrained ALBP with ergonomic risk restrictions.…”

Man-hour efficiency of manual kit preparation in the materials supply to mass-customised assembly

“…The reviewed literature included studies focussed on kitting and on the choice between kitting and other materials feeding principles (Bozer and Limère, Van Landeghem, and Goetschalckx 2015; Sali, Sahin, and Patchong 2015; Sali and Sahin 2016; Caputo, Pelagagge, and Salini 2018). The literature dealing with picking activities was also reviewed, including literature on picking at assembly work stations (Finnsgård and Wänström 2013;Boysen and Emde 2014) as well as literature on warehouse order picking (Petersen 1999;Roodbergen and De Koster 2001;Bozer and Kile 2008;Chan and Chan 2011;Battini et al 2015b;Calzavara et al 2017;Chabot et al 2017;Grosse, Glock, and Neumann 2017). Four of the reviewed papers focus explicitly on the performance of kit preparation with regard to the design of the picking systems (Brynzér and Johansson 1995;Hanson, Johansson, and Medbo 2011;Hanson, Medbo, and Johansson 2015;Hanson, Falkenström, and Miettinen 2017).…”

“…For each case, an initial analysis was made utilising a method which was described by Engström and Medbo (1997) and which has been applied in several subsequent studies (e.g. Kazmierczak, Neumann, and Winkel 2007;Finnsgård and Wänström 2013;Hanson and Brolin 2013). Using elementary software, the researchers thoroughly reviewed each video recording and logged which of a number of predetermined activities were performed and when each of these activities started and stopped.…”

Effect of horizontal pick and place locations on shoulder kinematics

“…Hence, workstation engineering and behavioural factors determine the intensity and temporal aspects of the biomechanical load on the upper extremities, and thereby determine the risk of developing neck and shoulder injury (e.g. Finnsgård and Wänström 2013;Baril-Gingras and Lortie 1995). Therefore, the aim of the study was to assess the effect of bin location, in a one-layer design order picking workstation, on upper arm and trunk kinematics; and on hand use.…”