Evaluation of Repetitive Lifting Tasks Performed in Brick and Concrete Block Factories in Pakistan

Abstract

Repetitive manual lifting and lowering tasks exposes workers to a high-risk musculoskeletal disorder. This paper aims at the assessment of postures of workers during the piling up process of a Concrete Block and Bricks (CB&B) at CB&B manufacturing factories in Pakistan and to study the effect of different risk factors such as contact force, stresses, and repetition of jobs that put muscles under redundant physical forces, which causes musculoskeletal disorders. The lifting indices (LI) of concrete blocks are 1.57 at the origin and 2.04 at the destination similarly LI for the bricks were 0.60 at the origin and 0.77 at the destination using the NOISH equation. For this purpose, the anthropometric data of 103 workers, working in 33 different factories, was collected. The postures were simulated and analyzed, using a human modelling solution HumanCAD software, with an objective to minimize the risk of work-related injuries, and stresses on the different parts of body was calculated. The results showed in current work environment, 38.83% of workers have lower back musculoskeletal disorder, followed by 31.06% with upper back, 29.12% with thorax and 24.27% with neck. Therefore, re-design the lifting methods of CB&B factories are essential in order to reduce the work-related injuries. The reports were shared with the CB&B industries.