Consideration of workers' differences in production systems modelling and design: State of the art and directions for future research. Issue 11 (3rd June 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Katiraee, Niloofar; Calzavara, Martina; Finco, Serena; Battini, Daria; Battaïa, Olga
• Is Part Of: International journal of production research. Volume 59:Issue 11(2021)
• Page Start: 3237
• Page End: 3268
• Publication Date: 2021-06-03
• Subjects: Human differences -- human factors -- production system -- assembly system -- literature review; Factory management -- Periodicals; 658.57
• DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2021.1884766
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0020-7543

Abstract

Abstract : The effects of workforce differences on manufacturing systems have attracted the attention of a wide range of researchers in recent years. The differences between workers in terms of skills, age, gender and anthropometric measures have a large impact on production system performance. In this study, the workforce differences factors in production system design and modelling were investigated, with the aim of understanding how the differences between workers could influence a production system and how they had been considered in previous studies. The papers selected from the Scopus database were categorised based on whether how human factors are incorporated into manufacturing system optimisation and design approaches is discussed therein or is not. To find relevant papers, two sets of keywords were defined: (1) keywords relating to the differences between workers and (2) keywords relating to the kind of problem under study. Furthermore, the investigated papers helped highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the existing literature and derive a discussion on the possible future research steps.