A Study on Ergonomic Workstations for Standing Operators at a Manufacturing Factory in Malaysia

Ergonomically designed workstation is vital towards improving health and safety of operators. This study was carried out at the assembly department to assess female operators effectiveness at standing workstations during assembling different components and parts for making electronic product in a manufacturing factory. Long working hours with static standing postures can lead to musculoskeletal disorders. The study main objectives are to assess, identify risks and body parts complaints with respect to standing workstation. The methodology use in this study includes anthropometric data measurements of female operators, standing risk assessment and body parts symptoms survey. One hundred female operators working at standing workstations took part in the study. This study revealed three major types of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) observed in this factory, they are pain at the shoulder region, pain at the leg region and pain at the upper back region. Based on the findings from this study, the authors have proposed a standing workstation designs that overcome the MSDs.

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STUDY ON OCCUPATIONAL AND NONOCCUPATIONAL RISK FACTORS AND HEALTH OF MOTOR TRANSPORT WORKERS

Transport ◽

10.3846/16483840.2003.10414093 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 189-192 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Vytautas Obelenis ◽

Daiva Gedgaudienė

Keyword(s):

Musculoskeletal Disorders ◽

Work Experience ◽

Healthy Lifestyle ◽

Working Hours ◽

Work Conditions ◽

Long Working Hours ◽

Motor Transport ◽

Central Nervous System Dysfunction ◽

Transport Workers ◽

Noise Vibration

The study on work conditions, lifestyle, psychosocial factors and health was carried out in three different urban motor transport companies. 788 workers of the main occupations were interviewed using a questionnaire. The main occupational hazards are low air temperature, draughts, exposure to diesel fuel, cooling oil, noise, vibration, musculoskeletal exertion. Workers do not lead a healthy lifestyle: 46,0 %-are smokers, 83,0%-use alcohol, 53,0% are physically inactive, 82,0% lead a malnutrition regimen, 27,0% experience stressful situations at work every day. Musculoskeletal disorders make up 46,2 %, respiratory 22,2 %, gastrointestinal 17,3 % and central nervous system dysfunction 32,2 %. Musculoskeletal disorders are related to poor ergonomic and workplace design, long working hours, senior age and long professional work experience (p<0,05-0,002).

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Conceptualization of Aviation Cabin Crew’s Fatigue Risk Assessment

Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications - Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases XXXII ◽

10.3233/faia200837 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Irem Çevik ◽

Bibek Bam ◽

Ajantha Dahanayake ◽

Kalle Elfvengren

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Working Hours ◽

Air Travel ◽

Aviation Industry ◽

Long Working Hours ◽

Alarm Fatigue ◽

Design And Implementation ◽

Transportation Sector ◽

The Relationship

Airlines are of great importance to the transportation sector. With the increase in commercial air travel, airlines require extra flight crews. Aviation industry’s cabin crewmembers are faced with working overtime, working in shifts and long working hours. The shift system causes fatigue for flight crews. Fatigue is of critical importance in the aviation industry. Depending on the physical and psychological fatigue, explicit or implicit results appear. There are a number of approaches in the aviation industry to prevent fatigue. When previous studies are examined, there are few studies examine in the general, and aviation crew’s fatigue treat both pilots and cabin crew alike. The relationship between cabin crew’s fatigue-to-fatigue risk management systems, key fatigue-causing factors, tools to alarm fatigue, and outcome assessments are non-existent. However, various difficulties are encountered in measuring the cabin crews fatigue levels and measurements and are often subjective and not reliable. Therefore, the aim of this study is to create a concept map to be integrated into the aviation cabin crew’s fatigue risk assessment application design and implementation in order to arrive at a comprehensive fatigue risk assessment tool for the aviation industry.

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Risk Assessment for Hydrocarbon Fuel Storage and Handling Facilities at Gaili Area, Khartoum North-Sudan

IRA-International Journal of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2455-4499) ◽

10.21013/jas.v10.n2.p2 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 18

Author(s):

Mohieldeen M.A. Ahmed ◽

Muzmmel M.M. Ibrahim ◽

Omer M.A. Al Ghabshawi

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Health And Safety ◽

Working Hours ◽

Hydrocarbon Fuel ◽

Steering Committee ◽

Hazard Identification ◽

Environmental Health And Safety ◽

Work Activities ◽

Fuel Storage ◽

Electrical Shocks

This study focused on evaluating the concepts of risk assessment associated with unsafe acts according to hazard identification at Gaili Area, Khartoum North, Sudan. Approaches used in this study; Research tools: Interviews, definite questionnaire & computer program for descriptive statistics – statistical package for social science (SSPS/version 22 – 2014). The study of risk assessment is conducted for workers in fuel terminals at Gaili area and analyzed using environmental health and safety concepts for eight jobs. Risk is associated with Job (driver, electrician, pump attendant, etc.), after hazards to be identified (natural, environmental, technological, biochemical, etc.). Fuel truck drivers at Gaili area showed the most highly risk job. The result showed that 60% of the incidents were caused by the hydrocarbon fuel transport drivers at the study area as the most highly risk job, followed by the electricians being the most affected job by electrical shocks during working hours followed by the pump attendants then welders followed by mechanics; including fatalities, restricted work activities, injuries, first aid and property damage. The study recommended to formulate of temporary committees such as autumn committee is not efficient in solving the problem, HSE steering committee should be a permanent committee to direct the emergency planning according to risk based assessment for identified hazards.

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Risk Assessment In The Military: A Work/Rest Schedule-Based Tool For The Usn Surface Fleet

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/1071181321651077 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 65 (1) ◽

pp. 1588-1592

Author(s):

Ana Veronica Y. Badua ◽

Nita Lewis Shattuck ◽

Panagiotis Matsangas

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Human Performance ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Working Hours ◽

Data Driven ◽

Long Working Hours ◽

Performance Risk ◽

Safety Risks ◽

The Military ◽

Scheduling Management

Long working hours, 24/7 shift work, restricted sleep opportunities, and circadian misalignment all lead to degraded human performance and impairments in decision making. After several mishaps involving U.S. Navy warships in 2017, renewed attention was devoted to optimizing warfighter performance and reducing safety risks associated with crew endurance and fatigue issues. This paper summarizes the development and initial evaluation of the Scheduling Management Aid for Risk Tracking (SMART) prototype. SMART is a human performance risk assessment tool designed to help the U.S. Navy systematically assess and mitigate risk due to crew fatigue during in port and at-sea operations. The heuristics underlying the prototype are selected to identify and quantify human performance risk based on a Sailor’s work and rest patterns. The results are designed to enable data-driven crew resource management decisions, take targeted fatigue mitigation actions, and rapidly calculate human performance risks.

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Health and safety problems associated with long working hours: a review of the current position.

Occupational and Environmental Medicine ◽

10.1136/oem.54.6.367 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 54 (6) ◽

pp. 367-375 ◽

Cited By ~ 244

Author(s):

A Spurgeon ◽

J M Harrington ◽

C L Cooper

Keyword(s):

Health And Safety ◽

Working Hours ◽

Current Position ◽

Long Working Hours

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Ergonomic evaluation of the risk factors causing pain in the upper part of the body among IT professionals in India

Work ◽

10.3233/wor-203349 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 67 (4) ◽

pp. 993-1005

Author(s):

Mona Sahu ◽

Darius Gnanaraj Solomon ◽

Santhiyagu Joseph Vijay ◽

Jayaseelan Clement Sudhahar

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Working Hours ◽

The Body ◽

Body Parts ◽

It Professionals ◽

Online Questionnaire ◽

Long Working Hours ◽

Lower Back ◽

Workstation Design ◽

Prevalence Of Pain

BACKGROUND: In developing countries, the recent increase in computer-related work has considerably increased the occupational complaint of pain. OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of workstation design, posture and ergonomic awareness on the prevalence of pain for a year in the upper part of the body (eyes, hands, arms, shoulders, lower back, and upper back) among IT professionals in India. METHOD: To investigate the association of risk factors with the prevalence of pain in different body parts, a newly designed online questionnaire titled “A Questionnaire based on ergonomics for IT Professionals” was developed. The psychometric properties of this questionnaire were tested. 110 computer office workers were recruited from IT companies from major cities in India. RESULTS: The confirmation of reliability and lack of redundancy of items was provided by the calculation of internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha 0.804) and cross-validation. 60% of participants was male. Mean age was 29.73±6.09 years. The prevalence of pain for a year in the upper part of the body was 38.2%. The frequently reported pains were in the neck (22.7%), lower back area (22.7%), and eye strain (21.8%). CONCLUSION: It was identified that long working hours, excessive usage of smartphones, lack of exercise, incorrect workstation adjustments, and incorrect posture were the risk factors for the prevalence of pain.

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Conflicts between employee preferences and ergonomic recommendations in shift scheduling: regulation based on consent is not sufficient

Revista de Saúde Pública ◽

10.1590/s0034-89102004000700010 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 38 (suppl) ◽

pp. 65-71 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Johannes Gärtner

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Decision Making ◽

Health And Safety ◽

Working Hours ◽

Exploratory Analysis ◽

Decision Making Process ◽

Shift Scheduling ◽

Works Council ◽

Assessment Procedures

OBJECTIVE: Contribution to the discussion of the role of participation/consent of employees in working hours regulation. METHODS: Exploratory analysis of conflicts between preferences of employees and ergonomic recommendations in shift scheduling by analysing a large number of participative shift scheduling projects. RESULTS: The analysis showed that very often the pursuit of higher income played the major role in the decision making process of employees and employees preferred working hours in conflict with health and safety principles. CONCLUSIONS: First, the consent of employees or the works council alone does not ensure ergonomically sound schedules. Besides consent, risk assessment procedures seem to be a promising but difficult approach. Secondly, more research is necessary to check the applicability of recommendations under various settings, to support the risk assessment processes and to improve regulatory approaches to working hours.

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