Human Factors in Production System Design and Quality Performance – A Systematic Review

A systematic review of studies providing evidence of the linkage between human factors (HF) in the design and management of operations to production quality performance was conducted. 71 peer reviewed research papers were found to provide evidence of the HF-Quality relationship. These studies identified 178 design factors relating to quality. These included 1) Product Design (54), 2) Production Process Design (75), and 3) Workstation Design aspects (49). In addition 26 Individual quality risk factors were identified. Of the studies identified, about half studied the effects on the human finding associations with the operator workload and fatigue indicators and quality performance. These intermediary variables may provide insight into the mechanism by which HF flaws in the design of production lead to quality deficits in running manufacturing. These results provide useful information for operations managers and production system design teams to secure higher quality performance in their systems by applying human factors.