Selection of Alternate Work Systems to Improve Occupational Health of Indian Construction Workers: A Design of Experiment-Based Approach

Abstract

From ergonomic point of view, work capability, efficiency, and performance of the workers may substantially decrease as they involve themselves in critical man-machine interactions during construction-related manual material handling tasks. Therefore, to improve the existing ergonomic performance of the work system as a whole with respect to a given MMH task, a number of alternatives are required to be developed to minimize latent risk factors and reduce their impact significantly on the performance of the workers, in relation to biomechanical or physiological parameters. In this chapter, a design of experiment-based comprehensive methodology is proposed and applied for a select critical MMH task with observations from a real construction site in India for identification of alternate work systems that are considered superior from biomechanical point of view through biomechanical assessment for calculating the reaction forces for a number of relevant joints and segments in human body, keeping occupational health of the workers as a major priority. The study may help to develop appropriate guidelines for workers which may reduce the occupational hazards and improve health, safety, and performance of workers under prevailing construction work environment in India.