Manual material handling (MMH) is the most common cause of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and low back pain (LBP). It involves manual lifting, lowering, carrying, pushing and pulling loads. This study has three main objectives, first: to identify ergonomics awareness towards MMH activities amongst the workers; second, to identify the body discomfort or body pain of the workers using Body Parts Symptom Survey (BPSS); and third to study the LBP and MSDs risk exposure in reference to MMH practiced by the workers using RULA. The respondents for the study were selected from the production area. There were 32 respondents who answered questionnaires regarding ergonomics awareness and reported their body pains through Body Parts Symptom Survey (BPSS) included in the 5-scale Likert questionnaires. Based on the self-reported survey, 7 subjects were chosen to be observed through Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA). Evaluation of ergonomic awareness on MMH amongst workers on research area shows that they possess a moderate ergonomics awareness level (mean score 2.97). The BPSS used in this research provides the insight of discomfort issue amongst workers. Nine workers who are working at loading and collection bay were detected to have LBP and MSD problem symptoms. Based on RULA observations on work stations and MMH motions, it was found that the MMH methods used is on level 4. This means that the current method employed should be investigated and immediate changes should be applied. It is recommended that the management should put more effort to increase workers ergonomics awareness especially during MMH activities, to re-examine the MMH activities and redesign the work flow or the workstations.
Problem statement:The purposes of this study are twofold: First, to recommend a range of angles for driving posture comfort from measurement of participants and second, to investigate the relationships between drivers' anthropometric characteristics, comfortable postural angles and seat adjustment. Approach: Forty five participants were involved in the study. Both anthropometric data and postural angles were measured and recorded by using the photographic technique and analyzed further using software. During the study, each participant was required to sit on the driver's seat in his or her preferred comfortable driving postures. Images of the participant's driving posture were taken after 5 min he or she has been in the driving position to allow him/her to adapt with the seat environment and fabrics. The seat adjustment data were measured manually after the seat is adjusted for comfort by the participant. Prior to that, 10 anthropometric data of each participant was measured and recorded. Data on comfortable driving postural angles, anthropometry and seat adjustment were analyzed statistically with Pearson correlation using the SPSS software. Results: From the study, a range of angles are proposed based on the participant's perception on comfort. The ranges of comfortable angles for Malaysian citizen proposed shows significant different between Caucasian and Korean populations. The relationships between the comfortable postural angles, anthropometric data and seat adjustment were analyzed and discussed with several outcome shows that taller participants preferred a driving posture with their arms outstretched in order to achieve comfort, participants with bigger body dimension have a tendency to sit farther back from the steering wheels and smaller participants prefer to sit closer to the steering wheels with a slightly greater trunk thigh angle. Conclusion: The result obtained and discussed in this study can be applied in the driver's car seat design and construction to ensure comfort and safety.
Problem statement:The study investigated the prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD) among workers who perform the Manual Material Handling (MMH) task in an automotive manufacturing plant in Malaysia. A cross sectional study was carried out among the workers in an automotive manufacturing plant. Approach: Respondents were selected through random sampling. Then, a Body Parts Symptoms Survey (BPSS) data sheets were given to the workers to obtain the prevalence of MSD among them. Later, a few workers were selected based on the In-House Clinic (IHC) visitations data for interviews. Results: Five hundreds workers showed that the highest prevalence of MSD was Low Back Pain (LBP). It was found from interviews of 17 workers who had 3 or more visitation times to the IHC that the main reason of the ergonomic risk comes from the task that they perform. It was found that the highest prevalence of MSD was lower back pain, followed by pain at feet/ankle and pain at upper back regions. Almost one third of the study populations claimed to feel uncomfortable to their upper back and lower back. Conclusion: It was concluded that the back pain the workers are experiencing may be a result of their ignorance in the correct and ergonomic techniques in materials handling.
An ergonomically designed driver's seat is crucial in ensuring quality, comfort and safe driving. The increase in road accidents every year is mostly linked to drivers' fatigue. Therefore, posture comfort is an important aspect in driver's seat design. The aim of this study is to design a driver's seat which is suitable for Malaysians. There are three main objectives in this study; firstly, to investigates the comfort level and safety system of the existing driver's seat, secondly, to identify and determine parameters which may affect comfort and the driver's seat safety system, and lastly, to develop and design an ergonomic driver's seat. Anthropometric data of drivers should be used during the driver's seat design stage. Critical dimensions of the driver's seat and anthropometric data must be taken into consideration in order to optimize the comfort level and safety of the seat. Previous studies showed that the evaluation of driver's seat discomfort should include both objective and subjective evaluations. The seat discomfort will negatively affect the driver's performance. All information pertaining to the driver's seat design was obtained through research on the related subjects. In the data collection phase, the objective evaluation method was used in determining the seat's dimension while subjective evaluation was used to gather information on the drivers' experience. Anthropometric data from 1405 male and female subjects were collected and stored in a database. Meanwhile, subjective evaluation on driver's seat discomfort was conducted on 100 male and female respondents. The SPSS software was used to analyse the data. Every parameter that affects the safety and comfort of the driver's seat were then used to design a new driver's seat. The parameters that were taken into account are backrest height, cushion width, cushion length and adjustability. These parameters were then matched with the Malaysian drivers' anthropometric data. Finally, the dimensions of the new driver's seat were determined: 520mm cushion width; 380mm cushion length, 480mm backrest width, 407.5mm backrest height and 180mm adjustability.
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