Taking Into Account Workers’ Fatigue in Production Tasks: A Combined Simulation Framework

Abstract

In manufacturing systems, workers are often subjected to arduous working conditions, such as heavy loads and discomfort postures, which induce fatigue. Because of the effect of fatigue on workers' well-being, as well as on their performances, managers would need to understand the evolution of operators’ fatigue during their work, in order to make relevant decisions (e.g. work schedule, facility layout decisions, and rest periods). In this context, we present a simulation modeling framework to evaluate manufacturing systems, which takes the workers’ fatigue into account. The suggested framework combines several worldviews: Discrete Event modeling, multi-agent and System Dynamics. Discrete Event concepts are used to describe the manufacturing system dynamic behavior and agents are used to model workers. One important characteristic of agents’ behavior on which emphasis is put is fatigue, which is modeled using System Dynamics concepts. The proposed approach is implemented using the Anylogic simulation software.