Citation

Garrett SK, Melloy BJ, Gramopadhye AK. Int. J. Ind. Ergonomics 2001; 27(5): 291-302.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Inspection is a necessary activity in manufacturing to ensure process and quality control. Since some type of pacing is generally incorporated into the manufacturing setting, discovering how the speed and rigidity of pacing affect inspection accuracy is essential. In the context of this study, the level of rigidity is defined by either a maximum inspection time per item or a maximum time per lot of items (equivalent to the product of the number of items and the maximum per-item time). This study was conducted using 10 subjects on a simulated visual inspection task under varying degrees of pacing speed and rigidity. Although pacing speed was found to affect accuracy, rigidity did not. Overall, per-item inspection was found to be the most applicable to the majority of industrial inspection tasks.Relevance to industryThe research conducted here is applicable to inspection tasks in manufacturing for both paced and unpaced inspection. The results obtained reveal the relative effectiveness of per-item and per-lot pacing on inspection quality. These results can be used by practitioners to enhance inspection performance and ultimately inspection quality.