from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Ergonomic rationalization of workplaces and the creation of optimal conditions for work performance have a positive impact on worker satisfaction, thereby enhancing efficiency and productivity at work and reducing employee turnover. Therefore, for manufacturing companies where human labor is the dominant factor, efficiency gains are very important for ergonomic rationalization. The trend in projection of layouts is using the simulation software to move from classical design to digital and virtual design. A great advantage of such applications is that, they allow creating visual space of workplace with taking into account the ergonomics requirements on workplaces already in the process of design. The article is focused on the application of simulation tools in the creation of the casting process model and the simulation of technological operations on the workplace of casting processing. The goal is to optimize the workplace layout in terms of ergonomics by using the Tecnomatix Jack software module and the Microsoft Kinect. Linking Tecnomatix Jack with Microsoft Kinect creates area for simulating work movements right at their performance. Creating a static model of the work position in Tecnomatix Jack and then placing a person in the digital model and moving it through Microsoft Kinect allow moving real worker movements into the virtual environment and evaluating the worker's current workload. The advantage of simulation modelling in the selected software is to propose an ergonomic design before the implementation phase, thereby avoiding back-ups and the need to make changes later, at a time when corrections are more complicated and costly. The results from realized ergonomics analyses were used to improve the ergonomic conditions of selected workplaces like casting and inspection of castings.
Keywords: Simulation, process, casting, ergonomics, TX Plant Simulation© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.