Automation, Stress and Performance in Industrial Inspection

摘要

The study was conducted to define job functions and allocate them between humans and machines in Industrial Quality Control with its range of demands from psychomotor through cognition. Quality control inspections in industry have been of two types, inspection by variables and inspection by attributes. In order to successfully perform an inspection task, an inspector must use senses, a search procedure, and decision making. Each can be related to task stress. Job stress may be evident among these workers due to poor person/environment fit, high job demands, lack of social support, and lack of participation in decisions. In the study of 48 subjects it was determined that the allocation of function between human and machine did produce differences in performance levels, almost all in the direction which would cause a system designer to prefer more manual functions. During a study of the free inspection condition it was determined that no worse performance levels were attained than when using automation and that the stress level was considerably lower among the less automated system. The measures used for those easiest to relate to stress such as heart rate were sensitive enough to find batch and period effects but showed little in the way of Automation Level effects.