The effect of job rotation during assembly on the quality of final product

In this study, the effect of job rotation techniques on the final product's quality is investigated in the case of human based assembly environments. High product diversification challenges the limited human capabilities by exposing them to an environment of high fatigue accumulation and high task repetitiveness. The result is a reduction in the final product's quality due to human errors during the assembly. This paper investigates the effect of applying job rotation techniques for the derivation of the operators' schedules. In this case, the fatigue distribution and the enrichment of the working environment can lead to the reduction of assembly errors. Human error probability quantification techniques have been applied to predict the performance of the assembly line, under a given workload in both cases - with and without job rotation. The approach takes into consideration the characteristics of the operator, the product as well as the assembly environment in order for the probability of error occurrence to be calculated for each assembly task. The method is applied on a case study, involving the assembly of heavy vehicles. The findings indicate that the adoption of job rotation techniques can significantly enhance product quality by drastically reducing the total number of assembly errors. (C) 2013 CIRP.