Ergonomics assessments and improvements in automotive manufacturing

The automotive industry has often been claimed to be “the industry of industries”; hence, the world’s largest manufacturing industry is a pioneer in many aspects of industrial development, and ergonomics is no exception. The automotive field well represents the great challenge faced today by job organization to meet productivity and legal requirements. Global markets have increased competition and caused more rapidly changing and turbulent marketing conditions. Shortened product life cycles, decreasing delivery times and customer-oriented production require enterprises to improve adaptability to changing conditions. New production systems need to be planned in more detail in order to avoid changes in the production phase due to insufficient planning. This is true not only for the planning of a new factory rather also for the reorganization of existing work systems. Digital human modelling tools have been introduced in industry to facilitate a faster and more cost efficient design process. Computer-aided ergonomics allows to perform virtual builds and the rapid adoption of these tools poses an opportunity to integrate ergonomics considerations into early design stage.