A Study on the Human Factors for an Advanced Picking Station

Picking activities are usually repetitive and backbreaking physically. Awkward postures can result in muscle fatigue and injuries. For these reasons, Goods to Destination System(GDS) was developed in order to improve traditional picking devices. But there have been almost no researches on the design of picking station considering human factors. Thus we performed picking tests in-person and did descriptive survey with 30 people to study the impact of picking station design on the worker’s human factors. Among 30 people, 10 people participated Electromyograph(EMG) test for proving subjective results. As a result, in case of the LED indicator location of DPS 66% of participants felt comfortable when the LED was located between the waist level and the eye level while in case of button location of DPS, 70% of participants felt comfortable when the button was located at waist level. Moreover, the higher the angle of picking station was, the more participants felt comfortable. Lastly, most participants felt comfortable when tote was placed 5-10cm higher than general work station. This study shows various options for designing picking station. We believe that this research will provide a good guideline for picking station design which could lead to increase in productivity and workers’ convenience.