A suitable working environment is crucial in achieving your production goals.
A poorly planned workstation can have a significant negative impact on any of the following:
- Workplace health and safety
- Quality control
- Productivity
- Profit margin
What to look for in a well planned and designed workstation
1. Correct work height
An operator’s arms should be below shoulder level
Precise tasks: 50mm below the elbow
Light assembly: 50 -100mm below the e
Heavy work: 100 – 200mm below the e
2. Equipment adjusted to suit the task
All aspects of the workstation; seat height and angle, footrest height and angle, should all be adjusted to correct values. So too, work pieces, parts containers, and tools should all be in their correct places.
3. Well laid out workpieces and parts containers
Optimise container layout to reduce wasted motion and speed up throughput. This includes ensuring the heaviest and/or most used parts are placed in the closest containers. Optimal container layout is within a 400mm radius, as measured from each shoulder
4. Correct working area size
Maximum grab area: 540mm radius, measured 160mm to the left and right from the centre line and the front edge of the worktop. Optimum grab area: 280mm radius, measured 160mm to the left and right from the centre line and the front edge of the worktop.
5. Consider the operators’ field of vision
Operators should be able view the
6.Select suitable light intensity for the task
Standard assembly tasks: 500 — 750 lux
Complex tasks (e.g. electrical assembly): 1000 — 1500 lux
Delicate and/or critical work: 1500 — 2000 lux
7. Do not work above the heart
Work tasks are best kept at a height below the operator’s heart. This is to avoid undue restrictions on blood circulation.
Keep static holding during assembly to a minimum as it increases muscle fatigue, and, can sometimes lead to blood circulation problems.
8. Load bearing capacity
This may seem such an obvious consideration, but it is surprising how often a new bench or workstation starts to buckle or fail under the load of the new work process.
9. The durability of the work surface
Another seemingly obvious one, but again there are more than a few workstation benches out there with a sheet of stainless steel screwed down to the original particle board bench top. More expensive as an add-on than if part of the original design.
In order to make the most of available space and resources, it is also important to consider if it would be beneficial to integrate one or more of the following into your workstation system.
- Power and data
- Lifting units
- Mobile parts shelves and trolleys
- Drawers and storage compartments
- Parcel chutes
- Lighting
- Linear rails and guides
- Adjustable footrests
- Monitor arms
- Compressed air outlets
- Shelving systems
- Tote bins
- Integrated machinery such as robots or conveyors
- Safety guarding
Contact us if you require assistance in selecting the best solution for your requirements.
