Criteria for Assessment of Basic Manual Assembly Complexity

Tough competition force companies to develop and increase their product assortment in order to maintain their market share. This has resulted in numerous product variants with more features and build options. The complexity and risk of quality errors will increase. Managing complex product and installation conditions will result in distinct competitive advantages. Research has shown that sustainable and more cost-efficient assembly solutions can be obtained by proactive improvement of the working environment and installation conditions for the operators. Significant reduction of costly corrective measures can be made. The objective of this paper was to demonstrate criteria for proactive assessment of manual assembly complexity, which have been developed and verified in several studies. A further objective was to clarify and quantify included criteria as far as possible to enable a more general application in manual mass production of complex products.