Investigating the productivity in different assembly system configurations for a better inclusion of disabled workers

One of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals is focused on decent work and growth which aims to reduce and, finally, remove all barriers for people with a form of diversity like disability. In such a context, manufacturing and production systems should be adapted by adopting specific equipment to help workers with disability while executing jobs according to the type of disability they report. Jobs must be properly planned since disabled workers have physical or cognitive disabilities and specific rights to work. Further, aiming to guarantee a real inclusion of workers with disability production systems should be designed to include these workers in the same working environment as workers without disability. This paper focuses on assembly systems, and it aims to investigate how different designs could impact both the productivity and inclusion of disabled workers. Then, due to the higher variety of products belonging to the same family mixed model assembly systems are consi...