Current industrial production systems allow assembly of customised products which include additional elements distinguishing them from a reference model. This customisation can result in significant additional time constraints which compel workers to complete their tasks faster, which may pose problems for older workers. The objective of this laboratory study was to investigate the impact of restrictive or flexible pacing during assembly of customised products among groups of younger and older participants. The data gathered were used to analyse cycle-time, assembly performance, muscular load, and kinematic adaptations. The flexible pacing condition was found to improve production performance, increasing customised assembly cycle-time and reducing biomechanical load, for both young and older participants. However, as the task required fine manual dexterity, older participants were subjected to a higher biomechanical load, even in the flexible pacing scenario. These results should encourage assembly-line designers to allow flexible time constraints as much as possible and to be particularly attentive to the needs of older workers.

中文翻译：

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暂时的回旋余地：它可以帮助减轻执行重复的轻型装配任务的老年工人的生物力学负荷吗？

当前的工业生产系统允许组装定制产品，该定制产品包括将它们与参考模型区分开的附加元件。这种定制可能导致大量的额外时间限制，迫使工人更快地完成任务，这可能给年长的工人带来麻烦。这项实验室研究的目的是调查在定制产品组装过程中，年龄较小的参与者和较年长的参与者对限制性或灵活起搏的影响。收集的数据用于分析周期时间，装配性能，肌肉负荷和运动学适应性。研究人员发现，灵活的起搏条件可以改善生产性能，增加定制的组装周期并减少生物力学负荷，无论是年轻参与者还是老年参与者。然而，由于这项任务需要良好的手动技巧，即使是在灵活的起搏场景下，年龄较大的参与者也承受着更高的生物力学负荷。这些结果应鼓励流水线设计人员尽可能地允许灵活的时间限制，并特别注意年长工人的需求。