Ergonomics study on an assembly line used in the automotive industry

Abstract

Today, for the enterprises, the competition is more and more intense and more competitor try to satisfy their customers. In the field of automotive industry, the demands for the product increase and the company need to satisfy the demand. As the demands increases, the company should produce more product than usual. In the same time the comfort and health of the workers should be consider. Some factors such as workstation design should take into consideration in order to increase the productivity and at the same time protect workers from accidents and health problem. Therefore, the workstations need to be redesign by applying the ergonomics principles. This paper presents the combined application of Artificial Neural Networks and the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) Analysis in the process of redesign ergonomic workstations. Artificial Neural Networks excel in gathering difficult non-linear relationships between the inputs and outputs of a system. We used, in this work, a feed forward neural network in order to ranking a workstation. The neural network is simulated with MATLAB. The experiment presented in this paper was realized at University of Piteşti, Faculty of Mechanics and Technology, Department of Manufacturing and Industrial Management, using CATIA V5 software.