Performance Heterogeneity Within a Group: An Empirical Study

摘要

Due to a change in the manufacturing paradigm, manual work is often preferred to automation while assembling products. Nonetheless, the human performance is variable by nature and from worker to worker there can be considerable differences in performance, which are commonly disregarded for the sake of simplification when analysing system performance. Heterogeneity of performance has been pointed out in earlier studies. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding the heterogeneity of performance quantification and systematization, which both researchers and industry can refer to for a more accurate assembly system performance prediction. With the objective of contributing to the knowledge on heterogeneity of performances within a group, a laboratorial experiment was set up. Several subjects were evaluated assembling LEGO parts simulating a product for the automotive interiors, based on an actual product produced by a supplier of the Automotive Industry. The results of this experiment show that the performance varies significantly from subject to subject in terms of speed and variability. A mapping approach is proposed to systematize the quantification of those differences, as well as the identification of the most typical types of performances, contributing to the knowledge on the human factor.