Evaluation of Subjective Workload Using NASA-TLX and Heart Rate in Order-picking Operations

Authors

  • Kirika Matsuda Tokyo University of Science
  • Yurika Ono
  • Aya Ishigaki

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52731/lbds.003.146

Abstract

In recent years, the increase in "staying at home and spending" and the expansion of the e-commerce market due to the spread of COVID-19 have led to a serious labor shortage in the logistics industry as a whole. Therefore, it is expected to promote the employment of elderly and female workers as potential labor force, and to create a comfortable working environment that takes into account the burden on workers. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the burden on workers who perform order picking, which is the core of the supply chain, from both physiological indices and subjective workload, and to clarify the correlation between these two indices. Furthermore, we estimate the values obtained by the subjective workload evaluation method from physiological indices with high correlativity. In the present study, we conducted an experiment that reproduced the order-picking process in an actual logistics warehouse. The NASA-TLX was used as the subjective burden evaluation method, and the Poincaré plot, a type of heart rate variability analysis, was used as the objective burden evaluation method. As a result, the combination of the burden indices of the Poincaré plot and the burden factors of NASA-TLX that showed significant correlations were  m and physical demands, σ_(-x) and time demands.

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Published

2023-09-12