Ergonomics and quality in paced assembly lines

The aim of this industrial study was to measure relationships between workstation ergonomics and product quality. Quality on two paced manual assembly lines for disposable cameras was measured by the number of defects per week at each workstation. Two ergonomic variables, the time required for the task and the postural deficiencies, were together able to predict over 50% of the quality variance on each assembly line. This study shows the direct effect of ergonomics variables on quality results. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.