A position control system for a manual picking workstation having a plurality of component bins, comprising: a light device operable to project a light beam along a fixed plane; and a process controller in communication with the light device, wherein the process controller includes a processor and memory containing a calibrated assembly sequence and predetermined bin coordinates for each of the plurality of component bins, and is programmed to: detect, via the light device, an instance of beam breakage wherein the light beam is interrupted or broken; characterized in that the fixed plane is located between an operator and the plurality of component bins, wherein the fixed plane is divided into a virtual grid in which each segment or pixel has a corresponding two-dimensional, 2D, coordinate pair, and the process controller is programmed to: determine 2D coordinates of the beam breakage as one of the 2D coordinate pairs; determine corresponding 2D bin coordinates of an expected bin via the calibrated assembly sequence; compare the determined 2D coordinates of the beam breakage to the corresponding 2D bin coordinates of the expected bin; and execute a control action with respect to the manual picking workstation when the determined 2D coordinates of the beam breakage do not match the corresponding 2D bin coordinates of the expected bin. a light device operable to project a light beam along a fixed plane; and a process controller in communication with the light device, wherein the process controller includes a processor and memory containing a calibrated assembly sequence and predetermined bin coordinates for each of the plurality of component bins, and is programmed to: detect, via the light device, an instance of beam breakage wherein the light beam is interrupted or broken; detect, via the light device, an instance of beam breakage wherein the light beam is interrupted or broken; characterized in that the fixed plane is located between an operator and the plurality of component bins, wherein the fixed plane is divided into a virtual grid in which each segment or pixel has a corresponding two-dimensional, 2D, coordinate pair, and the process controller is programmed to: determine 2D coordinates of the beam breakage as one of the 2D coordinate pairs; determine corresponding 2D bin coordinates of an expected bin via the calibrated assembly sequence; compare the determined 2D coordinates of the beam breakage to the corresponding 2D bin coordinates of the expected bin; and execute a control action with respect to the manual picking workstation when the determined 2D coordinates of the beam breakage do not match the corresponding 2D bin coordinates of the expected bin. determine 2D coordinates of the beam breakage as one of the 2D coordinate pairs; determine corresponding 2D bin coordinates of an expected bin via the calibrated assembly sequence; compare the determined 2D coordinates of the beam breakage to the corresponding 2D bin coordinates of the expected bin; and execute a control action with respect to the manual picking workstation when the determined 2D coordinates of the beam breakage do not match the corresponding 2D bin coordinates of the expected bin.