THE EFFECT OF HUMAN FACTORS ON JOB PERFORMANCE AMONG WORKERS IN A SMALL MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISE

Abstract

In most small manufacturing enterprises, production planning and production scheduling are the two most important operational management tasks required in a job shop. A typical make-to-order company is plagued by frequent absenteeism, abrupt resignation of skilled workers and workers not being diligent in data entry. These lead to an increase in late delivery of jobs to customer and often a rework of returned jobs. This thesis studied a make-to-order company that manufactures hydraulic cylinders. The effects of some human factors in a job shop environment, such as job skill, job satisfaction, job rotation, and job fatigue, on workers job performance were studied.

Questionnaires were designed to identify human factors and measure the insignificance on job performance on the shop floor. Statistical analysis methods were used to test for validity, reliability, and correlation of the data. The null hypotheses of the study were stated as: (1) There is no significant relationship of each of the variables including job rotation, job fatigue, job satisfaction and job skills with respect to the job performance of the shop floor workers; (2) There is no significant combined effect of the variables on the job performance of the shop floor workers; (3) There is no significant individual contribution of each of the variables on the job performance of the shop floor workers. An experiment was designed and conducted to test these hypotheses.

The results obtained showed that job skills and job fatigue have a significant relationship on job performance and job performance on the shop floor can be predicted from these human factors considered. These results are expected to improve production planning and production scheduling when making decisions in a real-life manufacturing environment.

The main contributions of this thesis are summarized. First, in decision-making for manufacturers in the field of operation and supply chain management, this thesis work has improved the current understanding of human factors and their significance in production planning and scheduling process. Second, in designing a manufacturing scheduling process, this work has also improved the knowledge in the use of various enterprise resource planning tools.