The Effect of Ergonomics in an Assembly Line System’s Work Environment - A Literature Study

Abstract: The purpose of this literature study is to explore the most important ergonomic factors that play a role in shaping the work environment of assembly line systems. Since the subject of ergonomics in production systems has continuously gained great interest in the past years, it was decided to conduct research around this topic. The literature study type was chosen to answer the research questions. This was done because even though various articles discuss the mentioned areas, they usually still have a specific focus. For example, human errors, automation, simulation, virtual reality, etc. Therefore, it was decided to carry on with a more comprehensive review that takes into account the most important ergonomic factors in general and how they influence assembly workstations both positively and negatively. Thus, two research questions were explored: Research question:  What are the most important ergonomic factors that influence an assembly line system’s work environment? Sub-research question: What are the positive and negative effects and what causes them? In order to proceed with the study, a systematic literature review and thematic analysis were conducted through the use of secondary data only. This was done by searching for different articles through two academic databases; ScienceDirect and Scopus. Lastly, the words that were used to search for articles were highly relevant in terms of the research questions. In regards to the analysis and conclusion, different factors were found including automation and cobots, job rotation, the implementation of human factors, and repetitive manual tasks. The results showed that all these factors can affect an assembly line system’s work environment to a great extent, both positively and negatively. First of all, cobots contribute by helping human operators with difficult tasks, yet, the collaboration of humans and robots is viewed as risky to some extent. Furthermore, the level of the implementation of ergonomics at workplaces is crucial to provide a healthy work environment. Ultimately, repetitive tasks can have a great impact on workers, and thereby the whole work environment becomes affected. Therefore, convenient training sessions are highly important to ensure safety in such cases.