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Industrial Engineering & Manufacturing vocabulary · Shop Floor and Maintenance

Workstation

Meaning in industrial engineering & manufacturing, with examples

/ˈwɜːrksteɪʃən/nounCore term

In industrial engineering & manufacturing, workstation means: One place on a line or in a work area where a worker or machine carries out a set group of tasks, with the tools and parts needed for them.

In Turkish: iş istasyonu, istasyon, çalışma noktası

How it is used

Common in line balancing, layout and ergonomics work. Engineers design, number and balance workstations, and assign tasks to them. In offices the word can also mean a desk with a computer, so the context decides.

Example sentences

  1. Workstation 4 is overloaded, so we moved the labeling task to workstation 5.

  2. Every workstation should have its parts within easy reach of the operator.

Common collocations

  • workstation design
  • assign tasks to a workstation
  • manual workstation
  • bottleneck workstation
  • line balancingDividing the tasks on a production line among the workstations so that each station has about the same amount of work and none is over takt time.
  • ergonomicsThe study and design of work so that it fits the human body and mind, reducing strain, injury and errors while improving comfort and performance.
  • assembly lineA production line where parts are added to a product step by step, with each worker or robot doing one fixed task, as in car and appliance plants.
  • cycle timeThe time it takes to complete one unit or one full round of a task at a machine or workstation, from start to finish.

More terms: Shop Floor and Maintenance

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