Ergonomics elements and their influence in the garment industry

Abstract

Apart from the strict elements related to the organization of the work place of the equipment and operated machines, the productivity of an operator or factory is addiction on other elements of ergonomics such as: temperature and relative humidity of the air, speed of air currents, noise level, level vibrations and their directions, CO2 level, brightness, radiation level, chromatic from the production hall, ambient music and its volume. In this paper we analyzed the influence of light intensity and ambient music on productivity in a clothing section in which 70-80 workers manufacture sports equipment in which dark colours predominate, for children, women and men. Some levels of light intensity were chosen, different from those provided in standards (400 lx for light colours and 700 lx for dark colours), and for ambient music we chose as a volume level, with 5-10 dB above the average noise level in the production hall. We mention that in this section is not used ambient music currently. We mention that all the laboratory equipment used are in the SIProM laboratory, (study, hygiene and labor protection ), within the Faculty of Engineering, and the collective of this study was an interdisciplinary one formed by researchers from the Textile Industry field and a researcher from the Accounting field. Initially, timings were made to determine the execution times for certain technological phases, namely: the overlock machine, the elastic applicator machine and the simple machine, for zipper application. These measurements were made under the usual working conditions in this hall production, for lighting levels of 550-750 lx and without ambient music. At the end of the study, data on labour efficiency were processed and calculations were made regarding labour costs for workers who served the three types of machines. For a complete image of the activity of the entire section, production department, the information was processed for the entire section, both in terms of productivity per worker, for each machine, and the costs for manpower were calculated for the nine weeks of the our study. For a more complete information of the activity of the whole section, the results were extended for the whole section, both in terms of efficiency per worker, for each machine and the costs for the work of the entire group of workers were calculated.