An Overview of REBA Method Applications in the World

Abstract

The objective of this work is to review literature, worldwide, in which the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) ergonomic assessment method was applied and count the number of times that REBA was applied together with other methods and subsequent incidence. The database used was the “Web of Science—Core Collection”. Only scientific articles and bibliographic reviews were included, analysing a total of 314 documents and selecting only 91. The use of the REBA method is indicated in terms of knowledge, country, year and journal sectors. It was most used in the knowledge areas of “Manufacturing” (24.18%), “Agriculture, forestry and fishing” (21.98%) and in “Other activities” (19.78%). One of the benefits of REBA is that it evaluates different body parts: upper limbs (arm, forearm and wrist), lower extremities, trunk and neck. It is a useful method to identify the forced postures adopted by workers to thus develop improvement measures if necessary. It is concluded that REBA method use has increased over the last decade, probably due to the digitization of knowledge. It is almost always applied in combination with other methods, and its use can be a positive indicator of company sustainability.

Forces: A Motion Capture-Based Ergonomic Method for the Today’s World

“…In this case, a double-entry table is used, with the angles of elevation and anteroposterior rotation. The AngleScore graphs are inspired by the tables of the main postural loading methods: ISO 11226, REBA [ 10 , 11 ], RULA [ 12 ], and OWAS [ 13 ]. However, unlike these methods, Forces interpolates between the different points and does not score the angle in steps.…”

“…Typically, different observational methods or indices have long been applied to assess musculoskeletal disorder risk and conduct ergonomic evaluations. For repetitive work, Occupational Repetitive Action (OCRA, cited in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 11228-3) [ 8 ]; for load manipulation, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) equation (cited in the ISO 11228-1) [ 9 ]; for posture load assessment, the method in ISO 11226 or other prestigious methods, such as the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) [ 10 , 11 ], Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) [ 12 ], or Ovako Working Analysis System (OWAS) [ 13 ]; finally, for more general purposes, such methods as the European Assembly Worksheet (EAWS) [ 14 ] or Postural Ergonomic Risk Assessment (PERA) [ 15 ]. These observational methods are useful in industrial environments because they do not require too much instrumentation—usually just a camera and a predefined template to take handwritten notes.…”

Ergonomic Evaluation of Working Conditions in Orthotists and Prosthetists by Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA)

“…as work experience and the dominant hand were added to address the study purpose. Postures were evaluated with the scores of the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), which is a useful tool to analyze whole-body static, dynamic, or unstable modes [10,11]. This method was developed by Hignett and McAtamney, in 2000.…”

Application of AULA Risk Assessment Tool by Comparison with Other Ergonomic Risk Assessment Tools

“…Rapid upper limb assessment (RULA) [ 12 ], rapid entire body assessment (REBA) [ 13 ], and the ovako working posture analysis system (OWAS) [ 14 ] are widely used as ergonomic risk assessment tools to analyze various tasks in the industrial sector. However, each assessment tool has a different purpose and background of development, so the risk assessment is diverse depending on the type of task being analyzed [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ].…”