Stress screening procedure for the automotive industry: Development and application of screening procedures in assembly and quality control

Abstract

Assembly work and inspection and testing tasks tend to be combined nowadays in the automotive industry as a way of achieving job enrichment. Workers inspect and test parts manufactured or assembled by them. This is in addition to routine quality assurance activities. As well as introducing new sensory demands into the jobs, this integration of assembly and inspection activities also brings with it significant additional motor components, which lead to musculo-skeletal strains. No empirical studies of the superimposed stresses involved in this type of job has been performed to date in the automotive industry. A ergonomically representative sample of work at 22 work stations shows that, whilst most of the work is performed close to the body and involves a substantial proportion of standing positions and strenuous forced postures, only relatively low levels of forces have to be applied. In contrast, tasks requiring the use of testing tools have to be performed farther from the body and higher forces have to be applied. The findings reported from this study led to the design of a screening procedure for the predominantly physical stresses arising in assembly and inspection work in the automotive industry.