Structural Equation Modelling of Human Factors and Their Impact On productivity of cellular manufacturing

摘要

As production paradigm shift from mass production to lean manufacturing, more and more attentions have been paid to cellular manufacturing. Cellular manufacturing have the flexibility to produce a high variety of low demand products, but quality and productivity of cell production systems depends largely on operators' skill and other human factors. Although a few efforts have been made to the human factors in cell production systems, there are still many issues to be addressed. Here, we apply Structural Equation Modeling to analyze the impact of human factors on productivity of cellular manufacturing. A covariance structure model is constructed based on the measurement data and the answers of a questionnaire obtained during an experimental lesson in Fukushima University entitled as Industrial System Laboratory. Our results have showed that operators' aptitude has significant effects on cell's efficiency and the impact of operators' aptitude is largely stronger than the learning effect.