Work Standardization and Anthropometric Workstation Design as an Integrated Approach to Sustainable Workplaces in the Manufacturing Industry

Arturo Realyvásquez-Vargas, Karina Cecilia Arredondo-Soto, Julio Blanco-Fernandez, Joanna Denisse Sandoval-Quintanilla, Emilio Jiménez-Macías and Jorge Luis García-Alcaraz
Additional contact information
Arturo Realyvásquez-Vargas: Department of Industrial Engineering, Tecnológico Nacional de México/Instituto Tecnológico de Tijuana, Calzada del Tecnológico S/N, Tijuana 22414, Baja California, Mexico
Karina Cecilia Arredondo-Soto: Chemical Sciences and Engineering Faculty, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Calzada Universidad #14418, Parque Industrial Internacional, Tijuana 22390, Baja California, Mexico
Julio Blanco-Fernandez: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of La Rioja, 26004 La Rioja, Spain
Joanna Denisse Sandoval-Quintanilla: Department of Industrial Engineering, Tecnológico Nacional de México/Instituto Tecnológico te Tijuana, Tijuana 22414, Baja California, Mexico
Emilio Jiménez-Macías: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of La Rioja, 26004 La Rioja, Spain
Jorge Luis García-Alcaraz: Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua 32310, Mexico

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-22

Abstract: Poor workstation designs represent a risk factor for operators in assembly production lines. Anthropometric design of workstations facilitates the sustainable development of the workplace. This paper proposes a novel integrated approach about work standardization and anthropometric workstation design as a strategy to increase human factor performance as well as the productivity index in manufacturing companies. The integrating approach is presented through a case study in a publishing press company with operators who perform manual and mechanical tasks in production lines in the box assembly department. Currently, the company’s production capacity is below demand, and in order to satisfy customers’ requirements, the company pays a lot of overtime to operators. In order to solve this problem, the integrated approach was applied. The findings indicated that inefficient movements and body postures in operators decreased from 230 to 78, and the standard time was reduced from 244 to 199 s for each assembled box. In addition, the production rate increased by 229 units per assembly line per day, and overtime was eliminated. Therefore, the novel integrated approach allows the increase of sustainability in the company and the operators’ well-being by making a better use of the human factor, eliminating overtime, and increasing production capacity.

Keywords: work standardization; human factor; anthropometric workstation design; optimization of productivity; inefficient movements; line balancing; sustainable workplaces (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3728/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3728/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:9:p:3728-:d:353954

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().