Research regarding works ergonomics in automotive repair shop

Abstract

Prevention of muskuloscheletal disorders is very important worldwide. Both governments and companies are very interested in reducing the risk of their occurrence because the process that occur in the illness of an employee are long and very expensive. Muskuloscheletal disorders exists in all area of activity and in all occupations cause physical and economic consequences for both the worker and the company. They are generally found where the activity involves repetitive actions with awkward workstations or when the individual human operator has to lift weights above or outside the ergonomic workspace of the upper limbs. The most common musculoskeletal disorders occur mainly in two areas of the human body, namely: the back and the upper limbs, respectively, because the activities take place with the help of muscle groups in these areas. For this reason, they are most affected. Paper carries out a study on the activity of a car service and the exposure of the human operator from a certain workplace. It aims to highlight modern methods for preventing musculoskeletal disorders, generated by repeated and long exposure to emerging risks in the automotive industry. The semi-direct OWAS method will identify the areas where possible stress points may appear in the muscles, as a result of repeated exposure in a short time to risk factors but will be studied also NIOSH and RULA methods. Through Process Simulate software we try modeling such an activity, around which musculoskeletal disorders can occurs. It must be taken into account that here the mechanical stress generated at the level of the human operator cannot be visualized, because they depend on the prolonged, repeated exposure of the risk factors and on the large volume of work in a certain period of time.