An Empirical Approach to Workload and Human Capability Assessment in a Manufacturing Plant

The Human Factors contribution in the scope of the industrial process optimization presented in this case study had to deal with considerations regarding the physical and mental workload requirements of different workstations and the capabilities of the operators assigned to them. The scope was to provide the industrial management with a better way to allocate human resources to tasks requiring different operational skills. The model developed and customised showed promises results for the case study in which it was applied but offers also a generalizable feature that can extend to other contexts and situations. The assessment performed can contribute to consider necessary areas of improvement in terms of technical measures, procedure optimizations and improved work organization, to reduce defects and waste generation. The paper presents a brief description of the theoretical and empirical approach used to assess the workload of complex tasks in assembly lines and the matching operators’ skillsets; furthermore, it also discusses some of the preliminary results of its application.