Industry 4.0 introduces smart solutions throughout the company's supply chain, including manual assembly, where the goal is to ensure a shorter work cycle time, increase productivity and quality, while minimizing costs. Following the principles of this paradigm, the doctoral dissertation proposes a newly developed human-centered smart manual assembly system that considers ergonomic recommendations and reduces the risk of musculoskeletal disorders. The smart system includes a smart manual assembly workstation with implemented smart tools and technologies to self-configure the workstation, i.e., the height of the workbench, the distance and inclination of the grab containers, the intensity and direction of the lighting, and the rotation of the assembly nest. The entire manual assembly workstation is controlled by a smart algorithm that adapts the manual assembly workstation according to the gender and anthropometric data of the individual worker, the complexity of the assembly process and the characteristics of the product. The algorithm guides the worker through the assembly structure of the product using interactive digital instructions and a laser pointer that shows the worker the necessary components for each assembly step. The efficiency of the proposed smart assembly system was verified in a laboratory environment with time and error analysis and ergonomic suitability in a virtual environment, where we performed a simulation of the assembly process for the individual worker for each configuration of a smart assembly system, focusing on forward reach and reach range. The results of the proposed assembly system support the (redesign) of the manual assembly process with the aim of providing an efficient and ergonomically suitable workplace for each worker, thus increasing the productivity and efficiency of the production process.
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