Development of metric method and framework model of integrated complexity evaluations of production process for ergonomics workstations

Staff in manufacturing sites not only need certain physical requirements for their allotted tasks but also utilise a large amount of information processing in the looming industrial age 4.0. This work established the Principles of Information Processing Economy in the production process and proposed a framework model of integrated complexity evaluation method for the production process, which combines both physical and cognitive loads while accounting for the effect of time stress. The method proposed in this study can be used for ergonomics evaluation of workstations. Compared with traditional evaluation methods, this method has good flexibility to account for the changes in labour loads in the industrial 4.0 eras and the role of various intelligent auxiliary systems. The proposed operational framework model can provide useful information for task assignment, operator selection and training, work organisation, and performance prediction.