Development of Fruit Harvest Basket and Assessment of its Effectiveness

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study is to develop products that prevent muscular skeletal disease of farm workers, which would bring improvement for an efficient harvesting work.<BR><BR> Background: A pretest for product development and a survey research was carried out to inspect the problems of current harvesting work procedure. The product was developed and assessed based on ideas to supplement and improve these weak points.<BR><BR> Method: A total of twenty men were recruited to evaluate the effects of harvest baskets on the upper-limb muscle activity, working hours. For the usability evaluation, electromyogram and working hours of previous working method (disuse of harvest basket, one-hand carriage of the basket) and new working method with the usage of newly-developed harvest basket was examined. The whole anterior deltoid, biceps brachii and erector spinae on both sides, which make a total of six muscle parts, were used for this experiment. The results were analyzed using ANOVA with muscle activity (%MVC) of each three forms of work and required work time from SPSS 18.0.<BR><BR> Results: According to the test result, all muscles did not demonstrate any statistically significant difference, with an exception of the backbone erector (right). The muscle activity of backbone erector (right) in the work method that uses the harvest basket developed in this study was detected to be approximately 23% less than that of the previous working method. Moreover, compared to the previous working method, the required work time decreased to a statistically significant degree.<BR><BR> Conclusion: As such, the decrease in the amount of waist muscle usage at harvesting work would enable the prevention of muscular skeletal disease and stabilization of lumbar spine.<BR><BR> Application: Which in turn would increase the effectiveness and reduce personnel expense (labor costs) while enhancing productivity with a decreased working hours.