Purificación Castelló Mercé; Luis Sánchez Palop; Mercedes Sanchis Almenara; José S. Solaz Sanahuja; José Laparra Hernández; Alberto Ferreras Remesal; Elisa Signes i Pérez; Raquel Ruiz Folgado

Instituto de Biomecánica (IBV). Universitat Politècnica de València. Edificio 9C. Camino de Vera s/n (46022) Valencia. Spain

Workers must be conceived as the essential element in the factory environment. From this perspective, both the job and the production planning must be adapted to the skills, knowledge and characteristics of each worker so as to maximize the knowledge and potential of workers in all age groups and in different functions, which simultaneously promotes greater safety in their workstations. On that basis, the “MANufacturing through ergonoMic and Safe Antrophocentric aDaptive workplaces for context aware factories in EUROPE. MANMADE” project encourages the implementation of new models of jobs that are suitable for workers in terms of accessibility, inclusiveness, efficiency and job satisfaction. This approach enhances worker performance and, consequently, increases enterprise competitiveness.

INTRODUCTION

Between the years 2013 and 2016, the Instituto de Biomecánica (IBV), developed the MANMADE project, together with their partners from Europe and Mexico:  ALSTOM (Spain), Whirpool (Italy), SUPSI (Switzerland), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), SYNESIS (Italy), TTS (Italy), ITESM (Mexico) and FRAMOS (Germany). This project has received funding from the Seventh Framework Program for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities of the European Union through contract nº 609073.

MANMADE was created to define a new model of jobs that is socially sustainable and where people are the cornerstone. Currently, many workstations are designed without considering the workers, their abilities and limitations, or the problems that such workstations may cause. The objective of MANMADE is to develop a series of tools and protocols that help companies to create adequate work environments for their workers, which will allow them to enhance performance and, therefore, increase business competitiveness.

DEVELOPMENT

The MANMADE project consists of various work stages, which are specified in the four pillars on which the results obtained are based and to which the members of the consortium have contributed their experience and knowledge. These pillars are:

1. Knowledge of the worker, their circumstances, capabilities and limitations; knowledge of the context, including factors such as the socio-economic or environmental factors; and knowledge of the work, with the characterization of the conditions and distinctive features of both the company and the work performed.

2. Design and development of workstations from an anthropocentric perspective, putting the worker first to achieve safe and ergonomically favorable working conditions.

3. Planning and organization of production, taking into account the limitations and possibilities of the worker and the context when configuring workflows.

4. Production in a responsible and sustainable way, becoming aware of the environment in which production takes place and the needs of society.

The IBV has notably worked on the development of tools to characterize workers capabilities and their anthropometric conditions (Physical Worker Profiler and Anthropometric Scanning Tool), on the definition of the requirements and characteristics associated with a certain job (Factory Description Tool), and on the development of the methodology to reconfigurate jobs from an anthropocentric perception.

Capabilities and anthropometric dimensions of the worker

In order to adapt a job, a product or an environment to a person, it is essential to know the capabilities and limitations of such person. In a work environment, this knowledge allows us not only to design workstations correctly, but also to better assign tasks among workers, help in the recovery from some types of injury or design a gradual return to work after a sick leave. It is therefore vital to have a tool to assess the capabilities of the workers.

When developing a tool to clearly define the capabilities of the worker, it was important to meet three essential requirements: have low cost—simple measuring equipment—ease of use in real work environments—which makes it completely adaptable to the idiosyncrasy of each job—and be computerized—in order to facilitate the processing of the data generated.

The result was the Physical Worker Profiler software that has different indicators: general aspects such as gender, age or medical history, physical abilities, sensory and communication skills, intellectual abilities and tolerance to environmental conditions. A detailed profile of each worker is generated on the basis of all those indicators, from which subsequent analyses to optimize task distribution are created.

Figure 1. Physical Worker Profiler. Worker capacities assessmentWorker capacities assessment

To continue with the analysis of the worker, it was also necessary to have a way of quantifying the anthropometric measurements in order to assess their suitability for the different jobs. In this respect, considering that the tool should be easy to use and adaptable, and minimize measurement errors of the meter itself, we chose a system based on shooting images with cameras. The anthropometric measurements of the workers are automatically obtained from their images using the Anthropometric Scanning Tool.

Figure 2. Anthropometric Scanning tool

Requirements of the workstation

In addition, in order to correctly assign a job, it is essential to have an accurate diagnosis of the requirements and specific features of the different tasks to be carried out in a company. Knowing these features and the capabilities of the workers makes it possible to optimally assign them to the jobs available.

The IBV has developed a tool within the MANMADE project, the Factory Description Tool, which allows us to assess in detail the different tasks to be performed within a productive process. The operation is similar to that of the Physical Worker Profiler, with a software that, on the basis of the task characteristics, determines: functional demands; knowledge and skills required; ergonomic risks; external factors of the work environment, and critical dimensions of the physical workstation.

Figure 3. Factory Description Tool

RESULTS

The objective of MANMADE is to create a new paradigm that achieves a symbiosis between the capacities and limitations of the workers and the requirements and specific features of the different workstations. The idea underlying MANMADE is to provide society with a set of effective tools to improve work well-being by defining sustainable work environments where people and the environment are the cornerstones.

Figure 4. Final demonstration at Whirpool

The main result of this initiative is a solid and adaptable set of tools that has been made available to companies, which makes it easier to design workstations (CAD Plugin), design tasks (Job Designer), assign workers to jobs (Job Allocator), as well as detect current and future training needs (Training Needs Detector), which promotes a more efficient production planning and, of course, greater worker satisfaction and safety. All this takes into account the skills, knowledge, characteristics and experience of the workers, characterized by a set of specific tools (Physical Worker Profiler, Scanning Tool and Knowledge, Skills and Personal Needs Worker Profiler), as well as the features of the tasks and the workstations (Factory Description Tool) developed in this project in order to characterize them.

The work performed by the IBV has been essential to develop tools such as the Physical Worker Profiler (to characterize workers), the Factory Description Tool (to characterize workers tasks), and the Anthropometric Scanning Tool (to measure the relevant anthropometric dimensions) that may be used in the future.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project has received funding from the Seventh Framework Program for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities of the European Union through contract nº 609073.