MENTAL WORKLOAD CALCULATION USING VACP METHOD AND DISCRETE EVENT SIMULATION

Abstract

VACP stands for visual, auditory, cognitive & psychomotor. It is used to calculate the mental workload of different personnel at work. It was initially implemented by the US Armed forces. They started from the air force crew to check and reduce their workloads. VACP method is based on these four demands, and they equally contribute to predict the workloads of the specific individuals or crews. For VACP method, the environment is completely observed, and all attributes of the environment are created in the simulation software i.e., IMPRINT, IPME. The evaluation of VACP method is done based on the tasks and subtasks. The actual tasks are sub-divided into secondary tasks and every subtask has a rating from 0 to 7, where 7 being the highest. These subtasks are detailed steps being taken by the operator in connecting rod manufacturing process. Numerical values are rated considering the intensity of subtasks in the manufacturing of connecting rod and the workload experienced by the operator using the VACP standard chart. The ratings are separate for all four demands of the forty-two subtasks. The sum of all four demands is taken and is analyzed in the IPME software. Workload of three subtasks were found critical i.e., more than 27. The critical subtasks included holding heated metal with the help of tong, peel off extra corners and edges, and the grinding subtask. These critical subtasks were reduced using the workload reduction techniques i.e., parallel tasks, parallel operators, and automation. Workload of the subtasks were reduced using the techniques along with the reduced times and cost. Total workload of the tasks was reduced 15% and the time reductions was 30% using these techniques.