Investigation of Magnitude of Musculoskeletal Disorders Among Cotton Spinning Operators

Abstract

Cotton spinning on charkha is observed to be an important operation in small-scale cottage textile industries in India. The majority of women workers in these industries performs cotton spinning task adopting an uncomfortable posture. A survey was conducted to assess the effect of bad postures on the operator. A Dutch Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (DMQ) was used to evaluate 40 operators regarding work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). DMQ was categorized in background variables, physical complaints attributed, repetitiveness and exertion associated with work and force exertion. After statistical analysis using SPSS, it was observed that 50% operators were suffering from musculoskeletal pains in different body regions due to working conditions and ergonomic environment. Musculoskeletal loads have also evaluated with the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) techniques. It is revealed that the health of spinning operators was highly affected due to improper body postures and workload. Twisting, bending and over reaching were the resultant of poorly designed workstations. These postures force them to work in a non-neutral position that increases the overall discomfort and pain in the lower back, neck and shoulder. An exponential model is developed based on response data from DMQ and also validated using ANN Simulation.