Improving Operator’s Performance in a Repetitive Assembly Industrial Task

In addition to efforts to increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve the quality of final products, modern organizations are increasingly oriented towards operators and increasing their satisfaction and well-being. Respecting ergonomic principles and lean manufacturing principles contributes to increasing efficiency and productivity in assembly workstation. 5 respondents participated in the study, performing assembly activities in two scenarios—ergonomic and non-ergonomic. In the non-ergonomic scenario, assembly activities were performed at a traditional workstation under conditions similar to those in a real industrial environment. The ergonomic scenario involved the execution of assembly activities at the proposed new workstation, within the golden zone where the effectiveness of workers is the highest. The ergonomic assembly workstation was designed in accordance with ergonomic and lean principles. The paper provides a comparative statistical analysis of the results in both scenarios. The main goal of the research paper is to show that the proposed newly designed modular assembly workstation has increased operator productivity, reduced the number of defective products and increased operator satisfaction. The contribution of the paper is reflected in the case study showing increasing efficiency the assembly process, reducing errors and increasing operator satisfaction. The obtained results represent the starting point for conducting advanced research in the coming period with the aim of improving the effectiveness of production processes and improving the satisfaction of operators who perform repetitive assembly tasks.