Interactive design of storage unit utilizing virtual reality and ergonomic framework for production optimization in manufacturing industry

Abstract

The primary goal of this research is to apply principles of ergonomics using virtual reality to develop an integrated approach to provide interactive designing and evaluating of production in a manufacturing cell. One of the most common parts of every cell is storage unit, while, studies have been done on it is not sufficiently considered the importance of the design based on human labor ergonomic. Thus, the objective of this study is to improve the design of a common storage unit used in the assembly process for pen production utilizing the RULA method for improving the ergonomic posture. The significance of this research is to investigate the interaction between a labor and a product often involves ergonomic elements. The developed method decreases the production time, reduces the fatigue on worker, mitigates the risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, and consequently improves the productivity. The pen production assembly line is chosen as a case study for the design of the storage units is in direct interaction with human ergonomic and performance consequently. DELMIA human activity analysis is used to study the fatigue in a virtual environment. The comparison of the real time and simulation, experimental results show that the modification of storage unit could decrease the fatigue by 42.5%. It is demonstrated that the interactive design of a storage unit based on proposed technique improves the productivity and efficiency of the workstation.