A Study on the Relationship Between Operators' Behavior and Work Performance in Man-Robot System

Research Project

Project/Area Number	01530065
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	商学・経営学
Research Institution	Takasaki City University of Economics
Principal Investigator	KISHIDA Koya Takasaki City University of Economics, Faculty of Economics, Professor, 経済学部, 教授 (00106262)
Project Period (FY)	1989 – 1990
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1990)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000) Fiscal Year 1990: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000) Fiscal Year 1989: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Keywords	Man. Robot system / Subsidiary behavior / Flicker value / Paced work / Negative feeling / Work efficiency / Cycle time / Monotonous work / マンーロボットシステム / フリッカ-水準 / 規制度 / 残業 / 単調感 / ネガティブ感情 / マン-ロボットシステム / 労働負担
Research Abstract	A study on the relationship between operators' behavior and work performance in man-robot system was studied. The field researches were conducted in two plastic products manufacturing factories in November 1989 and 1990 respectively. Workers in both factories have been working in man-robot system. Nine subjects in A factory were all female. Seven subjects in B factory consisted of six male workers and one female worker. Research methods used were flicker test, time study, subsidiary behavior observation and several worker's feeling surveys. The results were as follows : (1) Flicker value of operator working with robot in compact assembly line was low after work because of highly paced work. This result was suggested that workload level of operator was high. (2) Subsidiary behaviors of workers in the afternoon were frequently observed. Workers intended to maintain their activation level during work. After rest period, subsidiary behaviors of workers decreased. These phenomena mean that subsidiary behaviors reflect variation of the worker's physiological and psychological phases. (3) From the work efficiency point of view, the correlation coefficient between cycle time and machine operating ratio was -0.823. This value was statistically significant in the 1% level. This result shows that operations work was paced by machine. (4) Negative feelings of workers increased day by day and also increased from morning period to afternoon period. These results suggested that workers strongly felt monotony and fatigue. The fatigue feelings seem to be cumulative. (5) From the results of this survey, it seems severe for workers to work with robot. More severe work still exists in the factory. Total working time of thirteen hours affected workers' health. One of young workers felt overfatigue and he quit from the factory after our survey.