Time efficiency and physical workload in manual picking from large containers

Robin Hanson, Lars Medbo, Majeed Assaf and Patrik Jukic

International Journal of Production Research, 2018, vol. 56, issue 3, 1109-1117

Abstract: A common task in both trade and manufacturing, manual picking from large containers often involves considerable physical workload, as well as low efficiency and varying picking times. With quantitative evidence from an industrial setting, the paper provides detailed insights into how physical workload and picking time vary in picking from large containers. Components at a short horizontal distance from the picker and at the top instead of the bottom of the pallet are associated with shorter picking time and lower physical workload. Moreover, pallets tilted 45° towards the picker are associated with picking times that are significantly shorter on average and display smaller variations than horizontal pallets. The effects that the tilting of the pallets has on physical workload differs depending on component characteristics and from which section of the containers picking was performed. In the study, the greatest values of physical workload were observed for the tilted pallets.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00207543.2017.1371352 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:tprsxx:v:56:y:2018:i:3:p:1109-1117

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/TPRS20

DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2017.1371352

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Production Research is currently edited by Professor A. Dolgui

More articles in International Journal of Production Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().