Noise abatement on automotive manufacturing sites and ergonomics improvement

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The automotive industry has evolved at an extraordinary rate in recent decades. Modern vehicles incorporate unprecedented advances in occupant safety and comfort, and integrate a range of new technologies such as electronic stability control, radar-based cruise control, and sophisticated onboard diagnostics that will one day lead to autonomous driving. As a result, automotive production is higher than ever before, with Ontario alone producing over 2.3 million vehicles each year. By contrast, the manufacturing environment for the automotive industry has seen only moderate improvements over the years since Ford's historical development of the assembly line almost a century ago, with the ergonomic motion studies of the 1940's to improve worker efficiency and reduce risk of repetitive strain injury. Limited consideration has been given to human ergonomics, health and safety issues for those working on the assembly lines. Workers on these sites are increasingly experiencing discomfort and health issues due to several environmental factors, most common of all is exposure to excessive noise of periodic nature over extended periods of time. Transporting carts at the manufacturing plant for Honda Canada have been identified as a major source for noise levels higher than the allowable limits by health and safety standards. Therefore, a major objective of this research focuses on new cart designs to help improve the acoustic environment and ergonomics for the Honda of Canada Mfg. plant. It is expected that the developed knowledge and methodologies throughout this research significantly benefit other manufacturing sectors and industries such as aerospace and military and, therefore, will have great impacts on both the Ontario and Canadian economy.************