Integration of simulation and manufacturing engineering software - allowing work place optimization based on time and ergonomic parameters

There is a constant strive in industry to be competitive on the market, to manufacture with quality and productivity. At the same time, it is important to offer workers a sustainable work life. Research has shown a clear relationship between poor ergonomics and productivity losses and quality deficiencies, e.g. due to assembly errors, which also causes large costs for companies. In spite of the above-mentioned relationship, productivity, ergonomics and quality are commonly treated separately in factory, line and workstation planning. To improve the factory, line and workstation planning, make it more efficient, ergonomic and to improve quality this paper proposes a concept that enables line balancing that considers two parameters in parallel, assembly time and ergonomic load as well as add possibility for mathematical optimization. The concept has been developed in a participative and iterative process. Two software tools and a simulation platform, the digital human modelling tool IPS IMMA, the balancing tool AVIX and the optimization platform EPP, have been used to demonstrate the concept. An integrated solution is formed. The integrated demonstration tool shows promising results. The demonstrator provides the possibility to manually optimize ergonomics and time in parallel, a relatively unique functionality.