The basic conditions of working in a healthy and safe workplace are to design the job in accordance with the anthropometric measurements, body strength and personal characteristics of the person, to ...ensure that the materials, machinery and equipment used in the working process are suitable for the employee's capacity, and to provide an environment that will produce positive psycho-social results. Correct analysis methods should be used and evaluated in order to meet this basic requirement. Identifying the negative effects of working postures, taking corrective measures and improving them is a critical step of an efficient working environment. Working postures that are not properly analyzed cause strain on workers and even discomfort. It provides important contributions in the field of analyzing and improving working postures with scientific methods, controlling work performance and reducing musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). OWAS (Ovako Working Posture Analyzing System) and RULA (Rapid Upper Limb Assessment) are successfully applied in various fields in the analysis of working postures. In this study, it was aimed to determine the MSDs risk levels of the workers working in the rubber industry by OWAS and RULA methods and measures were proposed for these risks. While OWAS analysis was obtained by using expert opinions in the study, CATIAV5R20 program was used for RULA analysis. The study includes the examination of 5 different postures in total. In the OWAS and RULA results of the study, it was seen that the most risky postures are attach the rubber hose to the cores and to place the rubber hoses attached to the cores in the autoclave. The results of the analysis showed that the RULA method is more suitable and reliable than the OWAS method for the analysis of the tasks in the vulcanization process workstations.
Musculoskeletal complaints are complaints on the parts of the skeletal muscles that are experienced by a person with different levels ranging from very mild to very severe complaints. Musculoskeletal ...complaints cause pain, numbness, soreness, stiffness, tingling, swelling, tremors, sleep disturbances, as well as decreased work productivity and lost work time. This study aims to analyze the factors associated with the occurrence of musculoskeletal disorders in Batik Craftsmen. The population in this study were all 30 batik artisans in Danau Teluk District and were also used as research samples. Data will be analyzed using the chi-square test with (p = 0.05). The results showed that age (p=0.023), years of service (p=0.004), and work attitude (p=0.002) were significantly associated with complaints of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in batik craftsmen. And there is no relationship between gender (p = 1.000) with complaints of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in batik craftsmen. The conclusion in this study is that of the four variables studied, the variables associated with complaints of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in batik craftsmen are age, years of service, and work attitude.
Keywords: Musculoskeletal Disorders, Work Attitudes, RULA
This paper discusses workstation design based on ergonomics using Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA). The workstation was designed and the RULA was performed using CATIA software. This study focuses ...on personal experience when using the chair and desk during online learning, studies, conducting assignments, and reports, therefore, the initial data was derived from this experience then the data was analyzed using RULA to achieve a better score with an acceptable level of Musculoskeletal-Disorder risks. Then, only the chair was optimized to obtain a final score of 1 (best posture) from a score of 3.
An ergonomic study is conducted on postural analysis of the vendors selling edible items at various railway stations and in trains in Northern India. It has been observed that they attain a definite ...posture infinite number of times to perform a particular task for whole life. It depends upon the number of passengers whom they interact for selling edible products in the trains and at the railway stations. It has been observed that about 20-25 vendors are working at one railway station and +7000 railway stations in Indian railway network therefore at national level these are large in numbers. The RULA and REBA analysis are performed on the eight different vendors who were selling various types of eatable products at the railway stations and in the trains. The results of RULA analysis score is 100% score (7-high risk) was obtained for each vendor which indicates that there is a very high risk and further investigation is required on their working postures and implement change soon. On the other hand REBA analysis showed that 50% score (5- has medium risk, further investigate and change soon and remaining 50% score (8-9), pointed out that these postures have high risk, further investigate and implement change. The average of REBA score of all 8 vendors is 6.75 which showed that the working postures have high risk, further investigate and implement change soon. Further, QEC analysis also revealed that there is a high risk as per the assessment scores. Almost every vendor‘s shoulder score lies (31-40) which means high risk, also back score, wrist score and neck score showed high risk in QEC assessment scores. On the basis of results and succeeding discussions conclusions has been drawn.
This study conducted an ergonomic evaluation of the working posture of workers engaged in various processes in the packaging section of a food manufacturing company. Workers in the packaging section ...of the food manufacturing company were divided into operating, folding, packing, carton wrapping and palletizing. Forty of the workers in the packaging section were placed under observation through video recording of their daily activities for a period of three months to obtain their working postures. Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) was used to analyze the working postures in order to obtain their ergonomic risk levels. Computer codes for RULA were written for quick and easy evaluation of upper arm, lower arm, wrist, wrist twist, neck, trunk and leg postures. The results from RULA indicated that 25% of the workers in the operating and folding units were exposed to medium ergonomic risk level; 30% of the workers in the packing unit and 10% of the workers in the carton wrapping unit were exposed to high ergonomic risk level while 10% of the workers in the palletizing unit were exposed to a very high ergonomic risk level. The study concluded that workers in the packaging section of the food manufacturing company were exposed to between medium and very high ergonomic risk levels of working posture necessitating the need to change the conditions of their workstations.
Introduction and purpose: Musculoskeletal disorders are currently among the most common occupational diseases in the healthcare system. The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence of ...musculoskeletal disorders among employees of Shahid Shukri Dental Hospital using ROSA and RULA methods. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in Shahid Shukri Dental Hospital in 2022. The sample size was considered a census of all employees. Fifty-five computer users and 42 dentists were included in the study. Data were collected by two posture assessment methods, RULA and ROSA. The collected data was analyzed in SPSS software (version 26) and with the help of descriptive statistics and statistical t-test, Fisher's exact test, and logistic regression. Results: Based on the scores obtained from the ROSA method, the risk of musculoskeletal disorders was in the warning zone, and according to the RULA method, all the employees’ postures were at the priority levels of 2 and 3 of corrective measures. In addition, more work experience and high number of working hours per day were effective factors in the occurrence of symptoms in the neck and wrist/hand areas. Conclusion: Findings of the present study revealed that the current conditions in Shahid Shukri Dental Hospital are not suitable, and changes and improvements of conditions and workstations are required. To reduce and prevent the spread of musculoskeletal disorders, it is recommended to eliminate deficiencies through designing and implementing an educational intervention program combined with engineering interventions.
Bài báo trình bày nghiên cứu đánh giá gánh nặng tư thế lao động của công nhân giết mổ heo khi sử dụng hai kỹ thuật đánh giá quan sát: OWAS và RULA. Kết quả đánh giá của hai phương pháp được so sánh ...trên cơ sở phân hạng mức độ hành động của 118 tư thế lao động quan sát được ở 8 trại giết mổ heo khu vực miền Trung. Các tư thế lao động được khảo sát tại nơi làm việc của hai loại hình giết mổ: Thủ công và tập trung. Kỹ thuật quan sát được thực hiện với công cụ hỗ trợ là máy quay phim, máy chụp ảnh Sony, điện thoại Iphone. Kết quả cho thấy, trong khi chỉ 34,7% động tác được xếp loại 3 hay 4 bởi OWAS thì con số này lên đến hơn 61,1% khi sử dụng kỹ thuật RULA. Độ tin cậy tương quan giữa hai kỹ thuật này xấp xỉ 30%. Kết quả so sánh chỉ ra rằng, so với RULA, thì OWAS thường dự báo thấp hơn gánh nặng tư thế lao động trong tất cả các so sánh đã thực hiện.
U tehnološkim procesima proizvodnje odjeće često dolazi do opterećenja i zamora radnika zbog rada u nepovoljnom radnom položaju uz ponavljajuće izvođenje radnog zadatka, pri čemu je prisutan visok ...stupanj motoričke koordinacije tijela, ruku i nogu, prisilni položaji tijela i glave kao posljedica neusklađenosti dimenzija radnog prostora, nepovoljne radne metode te nepovoljnih stanja radne okoline. U radu je dan pregled karakteristika rada u procesima proizvodnje odjeće, uzroka opterećenja radnika kao i posljedice koje nastaju zbog opterećenja te kako djeluju na zdravlje radnika i produktivnost rada. U radu su prikazani rezultati istraživanja opterećenja radnice pri izvođenju tehnološke operacije u realnom proizvodnom procesu korištenjem RULA, REBA i SMART metode. Analizom rezultata utvrđeno je operećenje radnice te su dane smjernice za smanjenje radnog opterećenja.
Technological processes in the garment industry cause strain and fatigue as workers assume improper postures to maintain the motor co-ordination of the body, arms and legs, with forced posturing of the body and head. All this is due to the unfavourable work method and poor working environment. The paper presents the characteristics of the work process, the causes of strain and the consequences of the strain on the health and productivity. The results of the study illustrate the strain in the actual work operation using the RULA, REBA and SMART methods. The analyzed results indicate the level of strain and offer guidance on how to reduce the strain.
Observational ergonomic postural assessment methods have been commonly used to evaluate the risks of musculoskeletal disorders. Researchers have proposed semi-automatic methods using Kinect, known ...for limitations with body occlusions and non-frontal tracking. Meanwhile, new human pose estimation methods have been actively developed, and a popular open-source technology is OpenPose. This study aims to propose the OpenPose-based system for computing joint angles and RULA/REBA scores and validate against the reference motion capture system, and compare its performance to the Kinect-based system. Recordings of 10 participants performing 12 experimental tasks under different conditions: with/without body occlusions and tracked from frontal/non-frontal views were analyzed. OpenPose showed good performance under all task conditions, whereas Kinect performed significantly worse than OpenPose especially at cases with body occlusions or non-frontal tracking. The findings suggested that OpenPose could be a promising technology to measure joint angles and conduct semi-automatic ergonomic postural assessments in the real workspace where the conditions are often non-ideal.
•This study proposes RULA/REBA ergonomic postural assessments using OpenPose.•Joint angles and RULA/REBA scores from OpenPose were validated against reference.•OpenPose-based ergonomic assessments were robust to non-ideal task conditions.•Kinect-based assessments were less accurate at non-frontal or occluded conditions.•OpenPose is promising for ergonomic postural assessments in the real workspace.
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