Effect of quick response manufacturing towards ergonomics in automotive assembly line / Nelfiyanti

Faculty of Manufacturing & Mechatronics Engineering Technology

Thesis (Doctor of Philosophy) -- Universiti Malaysia Pahang – 2023

Includes bibliographical references

The assembly line is one of the most critical activities in making an entire product unit. The assembly line is an activity that unites or combines one component with other components to form a whole product unit in sequence from one station to the next. In the process, this line uses humans as the primary energy source to produce product units manually and repeatedly during working hours. Delays in meeting the production unit according to the target often occur on this line, so it requires more time to complete it. The delay was caused by workers complaining of pain in some parts of the body while working, thus making the production process not run smoothly. The complaint is an abnormality in the muscles, bones, joints, ligaments, tendons and connective tissues of the body called MSD. So, this study aims to produce a framework of QRM-Ergonomics for identifying work risks that can be used in the process of minimising perceived work complaints in the hope of increasing the production quantity of each worker without overtime. The stages consist of collecting data on complaints felt by automotive assembly line workers to identify and analyses ergonomic work risk categories through observations, interviews and filling in NBM questionnaires by workers. This process is done by observing the workers while working from the posture, manner, workload and layout of the existing design, which is then in the analysis using the help of OWAS form, REBA and CATIA V5 software for RULA. Next process is to develop and simulate the QRM-Ergonomics Framework produced to address employee grievances. The framework was developed using the four main principles of QRM combined with ergonomic variables in each section which were further simulated from the results of its application. The last process is to validate the framework using the Delphi method to assess whether or not it is feasible to be applied in the Trim and Final assembly line based on the process performed. The results, which are in the category of "very high", require improvement solutions to reduce the MSD complaints due to the impact on non-fulfilment of the target quantity following the current process time. The proposal is to incorporate an ergonomic working chair design that follows the movement of the workers' limbs used while working to provide comfort. The design was simulated using CATIA V5, and the results show that the category of employee complaints decreased to "low". This means that this design is very effective, comfortable and safe for workers so that it can increase the production quantity by 24.75%, which is 499 units/ 8 working hours from 400 units/ 8 hours (which requires overtime). Furthermore, a final validation was performed for the QRM-Ergonomics Framework, which was created by using 15 expert respondents with the results obtained "valid" and suitable for application in the automotive industry, especially in the line assembly. So, it can be concluded that the QRM-Ergonomics Framework can help companies identify perceived work complaints from the root cause to find and simulate the solutions before implementing them directly. So, the results of this study provide a good impact for automotive companies because it can improve performance and reduce the expected costs of production time.