Manual Picking from Large Containers – Time Efficiency and Physical Workload

Paper in proceeding, 2016

Picking of components from large containers is common both within trade and industry, but is often associated with poor working conditions in terms of ergonomics, as well as with low time efficiency. Providing quantitative evidence from an actual industrial setting, the paper shows how both the picking time and the physical workload varies depending on the position of each component within the container picked from. It is clear that there are considerable differences between the front and the rear sections of the pallet, as well as between the top and the bottom sections. Moreover, the paper shows that picking from a large container that is tilted is significantly better from a perspective of time efficiency. In contrast, the difference in terms of physical workload between picking from a horizontal and a tilted pallet is relatively small for most pallet sections.