Effect of human factor performance on the productivity of a manual assembly line

Abstract

To improve the reliability of the discrete event simulation model, it is necessary to represent, the best way possible, the operator behaviour and his subsequent performance. Deterministic simulation models often overestimate the production capacity of manufacturing systems since they don´t consider some key relationships, such as the impact of human factor performance on productivity. This paper, with the aid of statistical techniques, analyses the total of boards produced, taking into consideration different periods of work shifts to apprehend the variability of human performance at different points throughout the day. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the impact of human performance on the work shift and, hence, on the computer model’s validity. Results reveal that human performance has a significant impact on the productivity of the assembly line investigated and affected the reliability of production forecasts through stochastic simulation.