Reviewing the Effects of Integrated Lean Six Sigma Methodologies with Ergonomics Principles in an Industrial Workstation

2nd International Conference on Engineering Sciences

Alsaffar, I.^1 ; Ketan, H.^2

Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq^1

Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Warith Al-Alanbiyaa, Kerbala, Iraq^2

关键词: Continuous improvements;    Ergonomics principles;    Health and safety issues;    Integrated modeling;    Physiological strains;    Problem solving tool;    Psychological stress;    Quantitative assessments;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/433/1/012060/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1757-899X/433/1/012060

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

This work presents the importance of a combination of three approaches: the Lean idea of waste to be eliminated, the Six Sigma concept of variance to be reduced, and Ergonomics approaches that play an important role in maintaining workers' productivity. Improper workstation layout conditions lead to excessive stress, reduced performance, and physical burdens. This leads to increases in waste indicators such as loss of time, poor space, and low quality levels. A single-minded focus on productivity may neglect health and safety issues and, worse, changes introduced by Lean may lead to additional risks. Muda is a term in Lean referring to any action or process that doesn't add value within processes, such as physical waste of time or safety violations. Job Rotation as a problem-solving tool refers to the structured interchange of workers between different jobs that are recognised as problem or high-risk jobs. The methodology of this research work proposes an integrated model combining Lean as represented by reducing Muda or waste that does not add value to both process and workers, previewed by means of the DMAIC Six Sigma stages, with job rotation used as an efficient measurement tool to observe jobs that may be identified as overly stressful. A computerised worksheet tool was used to perform a semi-quantitative assessment process for rating a job's Exertion Index (IE), which can be used to determine the best arrangement of Job Rotation schedules. The work aims were: I) Rearrangement of jobs according to risk level of producing non-well-being to reduce additional psychological stress on workers and to II) reflect this by achieving continuous improvement by eliminating waste, decreasing activities that are Non-Values Add, and thereby creating good quality levels. The findings showed enhancement of current safety and productivity levels from evaluating the Exertion Index and swapping some workstations with unacceptable indices. This offered a reduction in physiological strain, stress, and fatigue on various muscle sets. The case study for this research work was implemented in the General Company for Hydraulic Industries/Damper factory.