The Library
An experimental investigation on the relationship between perceived assembly complexity and product design complexity
Tools
Alkan, Bugra (2019) An experimental investigation on the relationship between perceived assembly complexity and product design complexity. International Journal of Interactive Design and Manufacturing, 13 (3). pp. 1145-1157. doi:10.1007/s12008-019-00556-9 ISSN 1955-2513.
|
PDF
WRAP-experimental-investigation-relationship-perceived-assembly-design-Alkan-2019.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (12Mb) | Preview |
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12008-019-00556-9
Abstract
Complexity is one of the main drivers inducing increased assembly cost, operational issues and increased lead time for product realisation, and continues to pose challenges to manual assembly operations. In the literature, assembly complexity is widely viewed from both objective and subjective perspectives. The objective perspective relates complexity directly to the characteristics of a process without accounting the characteristics of performers, whereas, subjective perspective considers complexity as a conjunction between process and performer characteristics. This article aims to investigate the link between perceived assembly complexity and product complexity by providing a prediction model relying on a series of natural experiments. In these experiments, the participants were asked to assemble a series of ball-and-stick models with varying degree of product complexity based on a clear 2D assembly work instruction. Complexity of each model was objectively estimated by considering structural properties associated with handling and insertion of assembly parts and their connectivity pattern. Moreover, perceived complexity is approached based on the subjective interpretations of the participants on the difficulty associated with the assembly operation of each model. The results showed that product complexity and assembly time is super-linearly correlated; an increase in the product complexity is accompanied with an increase in assembly time, rework rate and human errors. Moreover, a sigmoid curve is proposed for the relationship between perceived assembly complexity and product complexity indicating that human workers start to perceive assembly operation of a particular product as complex if the product complexity reaches a critical threshold which can vary among individuals with different skill sets, experience, training levels and assembly preferences.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HF Commerce T Technology > TS Manufactures |
||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Engineering > WMG (Formerly the Warwick Manufacturing Group) | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Product design, Manual work , Technological complexity, Environmental psychology, Manufacturing processes | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | International Journal of Interactive Design and Manufacturing | ||||||||
Publisher: | Springer | ||||||||
ISSN: | 1955-2513 | ||||||||
Official Date: | September 2019 | ||||||||
Dates: |
|
||||||||
Volume: | 13 | ||||||||
Number: | 3 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 1145-1157 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1007/s12008-019-00556-9 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in International Journal of Interactive Design and Manufacturing. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12008-019-00556-9 | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 12 February 2019 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 2 March 2020 | ||||||||
Related URLs: |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year