ABSTRACT
About the chapter This chapter focuses on improving the methods followed when people perform tasks such as manual assembly, material handling, or even service tasks such as customer support. The purpose of the chapter is to familiarize the reader with a number of principles and techniques for designing and improving work. Specifically, the reader will be familiarized with motion analysis and learn principles for methods improvement, work physiology, and manual assembly. In addition, the reader will learn how to analyze lifting tasks using methods from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The chapter then describes learning and provides methods for modeling learning. Last, the chapter covers time studies, where the reader will learn to conduct time studies and interpret the output in a practical way.
