Evening people do not belong in the morning shift

Scientific work provides new insights into what employees in production

The performance of people is changing during the day. As a scientific work of the Institute of Integrated Production Hannover shows the variations depend greatly on the type: Morning people show thus much more consistent performance than evening people. This type-dependent power fluctuations could prove in his doctoral thesis for manual assembly activities the engineer Jens-Michael Potthast.

Morning people are particularly active and efficient in the early hours of the day. Popular Scientifically they are therefore often referred to as larks. Evening people contrast run - like owls - in later hours in top form. So far, so familiar. A scientific work that has been recently established at the Institute of Integrated Production Hannover, now provides additional insights: Accordingly, the performance highs and lows of the morning and evening people are less pronounced. Morning show people that the investigation over the day more consistent performance. The performance of owls fluctuates compared to the larks much stronger and reaches at night its nadir.

Found out has the Jens-Michael Potthast, a former researcher at the IPH, in his doctoral thesis. It has (ie, power fluctuations during the day) deals with circadian fluctuations in performance during maintenance engineer. Potthast asked to 24 employee of an automotive supplier and recorded performance through machine data. The volunteers worked in assembly; their work included both mental as well as physical components. In his research, Potthast focused on in the person justified factors. These intrapersonal factors include gender, age, biorhythms, professional experience, the satisfaction and the tiredness of the employee.

Potthast was able to prove that the influence factor biorhythm in assembly workers has a significant influence on the circadian fluctuations in performance. In addition, it was found that purely spiritual activities are subject to greater fluctuations than activities that include both mental as well as physical labor. This finding extends the research work of physiologists Otto Graf, who examined purely spiritual activities with the reading of the gas meter stalls and had introduced the notion of the power curve.

Interesting is the result of research especially for manufacturing companies. Because in the planning of the morning shift, evening shift and night shift, according to the thesis, a type-specific classification of employees could increase the level of performance. Morning people are in the morning shift 4% more efficient than evening people. Evening people turn 8% longer afford the late shift. Only the night shift there is little difference between larks and owls. At night, the efficiency decreases in both groups.

That the productivity of people during the day varies, researchers already in the fifties. then the scientist Count examined power fluctuations throughout the day. Thus, people are especially powerful in the morning, as they pass through an energy slump in the afternoon. The variations depend on different factors. So for example, have the age, sex, health status and satisfaction of the employee influence on the performance. The scientific work of Potthast is the first in which the biorhythmusbedingten differences between morning and evening people were detected.

Source: Hannover [IPH]