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The growth in flexible working by employees in many office‐based organisations means that workstation sharing at the employer's premises is increasingly attractive. However, because of peaks and troughs in demand it is difficult to decide how many workstations should be provided. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the cost‐effectiveness of alternative workstation sharing strategies.

The study used an agent‐based simulation model with two input variables: the employees' reaction if they are blocked (i.e. they find that all workstations are already occupied), and the number of workstations at the employer's premises. The simulation was run for 56 scenarios. The results were evaluated by assigning cost penalties for workstations, blocking and displacement; there were eight cost regimes reflecting different organisational characteristics.

The simulations showed trade‐offs between the activity and space variables, in terms of utilisation, blocking and displacement. When costs were applied the output of the simulation runs, the most cost‐effective scenarios varied markedly with the different cost regimes.

The variation in optimum strategies with different model input values suggests that cost‐effective workstation sharing strategies must be developed on a case‐by‐case basis. The simplifying assumptions in the model must be considered when applying the findings to real organisations.

Quantified analysis of the cost‐effectiveness of workstation sharing strategies has not been found previously in the literature.

From the moment the ASU Libraries migrated from dumb terminals to PC workstations for access to electronic resources, there was great concern that these workstations would be used “inappropriately”. Whether students should be allowed to check their e‐mail from the workstations was debated, as was the need to restrict access to the Internet. The Information Technology division at the University was concerned with how the Library would provide accountability for anything that happened at a public workstation. After much discussion, it was decided that the Library PC workstations would provide unrestricted access to the Internet. Telnet access was limited to library‐related resources requiring Telnet, in an effort to keep students from doing computing assignments and personal e‐mail on these workstations. The systems department developed an approach to data collection that included both an observational system and an electronic data collection system, using sampling techniques, to collect data on the use of the PC workstations at the main library (Hayden) at Arizona State University. This presentation will describe the data collection techniques, the results of data analysis, and how the results of data analysis are being used to better manage the PC workstations in the Library.

Academic libraries that are replacing the traditional card catalog with the online public access catalog (OPAC) are faced with a number of complex and difficult decisions regarding the shape and design of the OPAC workstation. This article provides guidelines and recommendations for an OPAC workstation that will support the terminal, printer, and other peripherals. Emphasis is placed on the library's commitment to flexibility when designing a workstation that will serve the needs of users for several years.

Investigates the trade‐off between the average throughput rate and the average systems time using kanban discipline. Considers a multistage serial production line system with materials in the system controlled by kanban discipline. Presents simulation results to evaluate the production system performance in terms of the average throughput rate and the average system time for a fixed total number of kanbans over a given number of serial workstations. Constructs and compares efficient allocation sets for three and four workstations that are generated by kanban discipline for two processing time distributions, namely, uniform and exponential distributions. Based on the simulation results from three and four work‐stations, develops a general design rule to maximize the average throughput rate and to minimize the average system time. Analyses five and six workstations using the general design rule. Tests the validity of the general design rule by considering five and six workstations with a different number of kanbans. The results show that most of the efficient sets generated by the design rule are identical to those generated by enumerating all combinations of kanban allocations. However, using the general design rule reduces the simulation work tremendously.

Production planning using simulation has been gaining popularity as manufacturing routings become more complicated. However, a detailed simulation model that contains hundreds of machines and thousands of operations is far too large and complex to work with. The thesis in this research is that production planners at plant level do not need to see all the details of the shop floor to develop an effective production plan. Simulation model used for production planning can be simplified to ensure maintainability and manageability of the model. Model simplification is done in two stages, namely aggregation and condensation. Model aggregation reduces the number of routings in the model by using representative flows, whereas model condensation reduces the number of elements in a model by eliminating high throughput rate workstations. Both strategies reduce the complexity of a simulation model without sacrificing its accuracy. Experimental results using real‐life data indicate that the simplified model is a valid representation of the detailed model, and can be used for high level production planning. t‐Tests are used to compare the results of the detailed and simplified simulation model. Finally, rules of thumb are developed to standardize the simplification strategy.

It has been three years since an OPAC workstation at Indiana State University Libraries (ISU) was designed and constructed. During the planning stages, two surveys helped determine user preferences at the time. More recently, a third survey was conducted. The purpose of this survey was two‐fold: to assess how well the workstation was actually meeting users' present needs, and to provide guidance in the construction of future OPAC workstations. In particular, the survey sought ideas both on what new equipment should be purchased for a future workstation and how to better arrange the equipment that is already part of the present workstation.

This paper proposes a new metric, named Operational Space Efficiency (OpSE), intended to diagnose and quantify the inefficient use of floor space for stocking materials in industrial workstations. OpSE presents a formulation analogous to the well-known Overall Equipment Effectiveness and can be obtained as the product of three distinct indicators: Standard Compliance Effectiveness, Standards Selection Effectiveness and Design Space-usage Effectiveness.

This indicator scrutinizes how usefully floor space in workstations is used to temporarily stock materials in the form of raw materials, semi-finished products, parts and components. It is suited for analyzing fixed-position layouts as well as product layouts typical of repetitive manufacturing settings, such as assembly lines in the automotive sector. The proposed indicator leverages an appropriate loss structure that features those factors affecting floor space utilization in workstations with regard to supplying and stocking materials.

An Italian manufacturer in the field of electro-technology was used as an industrial case study for the application of the methodology. The application shows how the three indicators work in practice, the effectiveness of OpSE and the methodology as a whole, in diagnosing floor space usage inefficiencies and in properly addressing improvement actions of the internal logistics in industrial settings.

The paper scrutinizes some important Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) dealing with space usage efficiency and identifies some significant drawbacks. Then it suggests a new, inclusive structure of losses and a KPI that not only measures efficiency but also allows to identify viable countermeasures.

Corporations balancing real estate holding (CRE) costs with recruitment-retention increasingly use activity-based flexible offices (AFO) to right-size environments for a mobile workforce. In this layout, workers have the option to select between a mix of unassigned workstations and alternative work settings (AWS) that support autonomy and mobility. The open layout encourages visibility and access to colleagues to enhance communication and collaboration. Nevertheless, studies into the effects of AFO environment attribute effects on worker needs and work outcome are sparse. Therefore, this study aims to focus on understanding how environmental features and psychological or job needs impact observed and perceived satisfaction, communication, collaboration and perceived productivity.

Data were collected in a case organization piloting an AFO before implementation across their CRE portfolio. A mixed-methods approach was used, including systematic observations, space syntax and surveys collecting information on the observed and perceived satisfaction, communication, collaboration and productivity.

Collaboration instances were higher in AWS, especially more visible and accessible open areas, supporting higher impromptu interactions and enhanced perceptions of productivity of team members and cross-team members. Privacy requirements linked to a greater demand for enclosed AWS. Team communication satisfaction depended on how easily teams were located. Almost half of the user teams clustered within workstation zones corresponding to territoriality needs. Job autonomy satisfaction depended on the availability of preferred workstation or AWS, enabling private, uninterrupted work that enhanced perceived productivity.

The case study findings indicated a correlation between the AFO environment and worker needs impacting workplace satisfaction, communication, collaboration and perceived productivity.

The findings form this case study indicated that a fit between the AFO environment and needs impacted workplace satisfaction, communication, collaboration and perceived productivity.

In the automotive industry, the high process complexity becomes an important issue because of the increased number of product and process variants demanded by the customers. To avoid quality defects in assembly and losses in such a complex manufacturing environment, new predictive support systems are required. This study aims to develop a multiple attribute decision support system (DSS) for the prediction and quantification of the risk of failures on the workstations of a leading Turkish automotive manufacturing company.

Initially, the factors affecting the failures in workstations and the attributes to evaluate the factors are identified. Subsequently, the relations among the attributes are specified and priorities of them are calculated. Finally, the risk of failures is calculated and tested in a pilot study and validated with real production data.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is a unique study that computes the risk scores on the workstations via DSS. The DSS has various advantages for improvements of the manufacturing quality: the risk of failures can be detectable and comparable, the effect of changes in the design of new workstations can be observed. Stations that have medium or high complexity scores demonstrated strong correlation with failure rates. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to predict the effect of improvement actions on the riskiness of the workstations.

High level of production complexity becomes a crucial issue for companies that use various production processes. Considering this fact, it is a requirement for companies to observe and monitor the risk factors, especially in the assembly lines to be able to eliminate failures derived from complexity. Accordingly, to measure risk scores of the workstations in the assembly lines, a decision support for companies aids executives to manage the complexity level in a reliable and effective way. In this study, the authors develop such a DSS for TOFAS, a leading Turkish automotive company. The proposed DSS is verified and applied through a pilot study on a specific basic production unit. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted to see the effects of potential improvements on the risk scores. Additionally, the trend of risk scores for the stations can also give valuable information for tracing the changes in the time horizon. The proposed DSS also enables an opportunity for the executives in their decision of design processes of new production lines by allocating limited resources in an appropriate way based on the risk scores of possible workstations. The proposed DSS is the first and unique proactive failure prevention model developed in a Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) plant across the world. TOFAS executives also plan to introduce and enlarge the usage of the model to other FCA plants. It may also be possible to apply the model to other assembly lines in any sector. Another plan of the executives of TOFAS is developing a software, which manages each parameter, to constitute data to the DSS to run this system more instantly and effectively. Moreover, they can take integration actions of the software with world-class manufacturing problem management system that is currently in use in TOFAS.

The cataloger’s job and work environment have changed considerably during the last three decades. One of the major factors contributing to these changes is the transformation of the cataloger’s workstation from dumb terminals (OCLC M100) to multipurpose workstations (new generation of PCs). The evolving technologies of microcomputers, CD‐ROMs, networks (LAN, Intranet, and Internet) are the major attributes of today’s cataloging workstation. Intel chips, Pentium processors, and Microsoft Windows have provided a higher level of computing platform to the cataloger’s workstation enabling catalogers to perform multiple tasks on their desktops, such as accessing the local system, bibliographic utilities, online cataloging documentation and publications, authority work, and OPACs of other libraries, and communicating with colleagues, etc. This article discusses the general principle of the cataloger’s workstation, its configuration, the electronic versions of cataloging tools, the workstation’s impact on productivity, and the difficulties in implementing or maximizing the use of the workstation technology in the Arabian Gulf libraries.