Ergonomic Study Research Articles

PENGEMBANGAN MEJA LIPAT BELAJAR MULTIFUNGSI MENGGUNAKAN METODE QUALITY FUNCTION DEVELOPMENT (QFD)

Study table is one of the supporting learning activities but the current study table design is not in accordance with consumer needs, especially for children. The development of this study table product is expected to answer the needs of custumers or consumers and produce an ergonomic study table. This multifunctional learning folding table product uses the parameter measurement of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD). The result obtained based on the customer show that there are 7 attributes (customer requitment) and 4 technical parameters ( technical response). In this regard, the product development of a multifuntional folding study table uses the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method using teak wood. This table also has several features, namely a reading light feature, a glass holder, a storange feature, equipped with a simple design, attaractive practical colors and ideal dimensions so as to increase comfort inusing the folding study table product.

Design of a Transformable Furniture: A Necessary Innovation for a Growing Population with a Fixed Land Mass

The objective of the research was to develop a furniture set that consists of a multifunctional bed, study table and a cabinet. A room at Adeniyi hostel of Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria was used as case study. A pre-study was performed to define the problem area and to set the requirements for the furniture. The pre-study included: studies and discussions with students, literature review within the field, user survey, market search and ergonomics study. When the specification was set and clarified, the concept generation phase was started. Design methods were used to structure and support the design activity. In addition, principles of inclusive design were followed in order to end up with a design that would fit a larger part of the targeted customer group. The generated design concepts were assessed according to fulfillment of set requirements. One final concept was chosen for further development in the following detail design phase. This activity included specifying the design in detail, e.g. related to materials, colors and accessories. The collaboration with the supervisor was essential during the whole project for getting inspiration, feedback and important inputs to the design activity. Hence, the supervisor’s opinion was continuously considered along the design process. A prototype was made of the final design and tests were performed to assess the design and to get input for further development. The motive behind the research is to improve comfort of a growing population with a minimum cost and optimizing space.

Evaluating the Current State of Ergonomics Education Offered to Students in US Medical Students.

The high rate of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) among surgeons is well-documented and found to factor into medical students' interest in surgical specialties. Ergonomic techniques can reduce musculoskeletal pain in surgeons. Access to ergonomics education in residency is minimal and the ergonomics education offered in medical school has not been characterized. An anonymous, online survey was distributed to 210 administrators in medical education and curriculum at all accredited US allopathic medical schools. They were asked about their knowledge of ergonomics, assessment of potential benefits of ergonomics education to their students, and the ergonomics education offered at their institution. A total of 71 surveys were completed (33.8% response rate). 82% of schools reported familiarity with the study of ergonomics and 81% thought it would be beneficial to the future careers of their students to receive ergonomics education. Respondents estimated 43% of surgeons experience WMSDs and those that did not think ergonomics education would be beneficial to their students' future careers had a statistically significantly lower estimate of WMSD burden amongst practicing surgeons. Only one respondent reported that students at their institution receive greater than three hours of ergonomics education, while 98% reported their students will receive less than three hours. Considering this, 81% of respondents reported that students do have access to other resources that encourage ergonomic practices, such as gym access, yoga classes, and surgical simulation labs. Medical schools should increase access to ergonomics education and integrate it into their curriculum as early as possible.

Vegetable Waste Pellet Making Tool Design for Catfish Farmers

There are two types of catfish feed, namely pellets and vegetable feed. Vegetable waste can be used as catfish feed because it still contains the nutrients needed by catfish. Processing vegetable waste into catfish feed consists of several processes, including sorting, washing, chopping, drying, mixing, and forming. Currently, vegetable feed is still made manually with simple tools so that it takes a long time to process, especially for small-scale catfish breeders. The existing pellet-processor is still on an industrial scale which is not suitable for small-scale catfish breeders. The data were obtained from field surveys and interviews. The data were analyzed through the research board analysis method. The results of the analysis become a flow scheme for making feed with the designed tools. The design process includes configuration studies, anthropometric and ergonomic studies, and physical form conducted through analytical prototyping methods. The success of the product is evaluated through a comparison of several variables related to product functions between existing products/tools and the designed product. The design results show an increase in the productivity of making pellets from vegetable waste but the washing and sorting process cannot be accommodated by the tool.

EARLY STAGE ERGONOMICS STUDY TO ENSURE SAFER MANUFACTURING WORK PLACE IN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY- A CASE STUDY

— Workplace ergonomics plays an important role in an automotive industry as quantum of work is done manually. Good ergonomically designed processes are key to employee’s safety, good product quality and productivity. Organizations are working continuously to improve their processes in order to improve the workplace ergonomics. Acquiescent the importance and benefits that can be reaped from good ergonomically designed processes and for healthy and motivated workforce organizations are working proactively to identify the potential improvement areas. For automotive OEM’s having large number of processes, it is difficult to identify ergonomics issues at early stages of new process design during launch of new products. Therefore, systematic approach along with effective management of study data is required for result oriented ergonomics improvement on large scale. An apt ergonomics study of processes will help to identify key ergonomics issues and also to sort them for prioritizing actions based on key studied parameter values. This paper presents methodology of early stage ergonomic study to ensure safer work place. This methodology is combination of existing ergonomics study methods which are integrated with process engineering software tool and uses 3D simulation tool for ergonomics posture analysis and improvement plan analysis. This integration is providing numerous benefits such as quick and systematic study, digitally managing information, automated results and reports of study for analysis. This detailed early stage analysis lead to root causes of ergonomic issues which is shown with the help of sample case of an assembly line.

Assessment of muscle activity and fatigue during laparoscopic surgery.

Cumulative musculoskeletal stress during operative procedures can contribute to the development of chronic musculoskeletal injury among surgeons. This is a concern in laparoscopic specialties where trainees may incur greater risk by learning poor operative posture or technique early in training. This study conducted an initial investigation of the physical stress encountered during the conduct of foregut laparoscopic surgery. Subjects were divided into two groups based on their surgical experience level, high experience (HE), consisting of two attending surgeons, and low experience (LE), consistingof two fellow surgeons and a surgical chief resident. Nine distinct foregut laparoscopic procedures were observed for data collection within these groups. Electromyographic (EMG) activity was collected at the bilateral neck, shoulders, biceps, triceps, and lower back for each procedure. Physical workload was measured using percent reference voluntary contractions (%RVC) for each surgeon's muscle activities. Fatigue development was assessed using the median frequency of EMG data between two consecutive cases. Subjects completed a NASA-TLX survey when surgery concluded. LE surgeons experienced higher levels of %RVC in the lower back muscles compared to HE surgeons. LE fatigue level was also higher than HE surgeons across most muscle groups. A decrease in median frequency in six of the ten muscle groups after performing two consecutive cases, the largest decrements being in the biceps and triceps indicated fatigue development across consecutive cases for both surgeon groups. Surgeons developed fatigue in consecutive cases while performing minimally invasive surgery (MIS). HE surgeons demonstrated a lower overall physical workload while also demonstrating different patterns in muscle work. The findings from this study can be used to inform further ergonomic studies and the data from this study can be used to develop surgical training programs focused on the importance of surgeon ergonomics and minimizing occupational injury risk.

Potential Determinants of Manual Lifting: Validation of Ergonomic Assessment by Scoping Review Applying Meta-analysis Approach

Introduction: Despite automation, manual load lifting is unavoidable in occupations like Industry, healthcare, defence, etc. Ergonomics studies on manual lifting conducted across the globe explored few aspects of biomechanical and physiological responses. It was hypothesised that, ‘holistic ergonomics approach’ involving simultaneous recording of these responses under single study, would elucidate potential injury causing factors more effectively and results could be validated by applying meta-analysis technique of literature review. Aim: To identify the potential determinants of manual lifting by applying multivariate statistics to existing data and correlate the results with determinants as per literature review applying meta-Analysis. Materials and Methods: Clustering and principal component analysis tools of factor analysis was applied on the data obtained under the pilot study (n=11) undertaken by same authors previously on manual lifting that assessed 26 dependent parameters simultaneously for load magnitudes (10 kg, 20 kg), lifting heights (floor-knuckle, knuckle-shoulder and floorshoulder) and lifting frequencies (1lift.min-1, 4lifts.min-1). Further, extensive scoping literature review on determinants of manual load lifting was done applying text mining tool of meta-analysis technique on R software platform using 921 pubmed abstracts published between 1991 and 2018. Results: Salient findings of factor analysis corroborated with that of scoping literature review. Accordingly, dependent variable ‘Vertical Ground Reaction Force (VGRF)’ and independent variable ‘vertical height of lift’ changed most significantly during manual lifting, showing significant positive correlations. Newton’s third law of motion states that while bipedal standing/walking/running on floor, two forces (with three vector components) are acting upon a person: the force of gravity (downward force, equivalent to body weight) and the Ground Reaction Force (GRF, an equal upward force exerted by floor). However, while standing still at one place for lifting load, only the largest vector component of GRF, i.e., VGRF acts on the body (=‘body weight’+‘load magnitude’) through the vertical height of lift. Conclusion: It may be concluded that ‘vertical height of lift’ and VGRF are possible indicators of injury potential of manual lifting. However, studies on larger sample size and meta-analysis of relevant full papers instead of abstracts need to be done in future.

Aircraft final assembly line planning with staircase makespan and equity criteria

The ergonomic aspect in the assembly lines has become very important to consider nowadays. Its study helps improving operator's environment and life quality at work. This ergonomic study in aircraft assembly lines showed that some tasks increase the risks of musculoskeletal disorders. In order to help industrial managers to reduce these risks, a novel ergonomic index for task scheduling has been developed. This index has the objective of improving the solution quality in terms of ergonomic fairness by balancing difficult tasks between each operator. This criterion has been used in a model that has then been tested on real-life instances of aircraft assembly line to witness its efficiency.

Tractor Cab Ergonomics Optimization Based on the Simplified Model of Upper Limb from the Perspective of Public Health.

The study of tractor ergonomics is both an essential part of public health and a very significant part of the scientific community's focus at the moment. It offers a foundation for the layout design of the tractor cab, making it possible to effectively avoid occupational diseases, minimize the number of safety accidents, and enhance the comfort of operation. Devices are categorized as control rod devices, knob-type devices, and steering wheels according to the various modes of operation of the tractor cab. Steering wheels are also included. The ease of handling of a number of different components was ranked according to how well they performed on the fast evaluation approach for the upper limbs. After that, in accordance with the concept that underpins this evaluation approach, the comfortable range of motion of human upper limb joints is evaluated while undergoing a variety of manipulation modalities. In conjunction with the structure of the human body and the characteristics of its movement, a streamlined point-line structure model of the human upper limb is constructed, with the H-point serving as the reference point. The problem of figuring out how to distribute the control components in the best possible way has been solved, and the optimal distribution range diagram of the steering wheel has been obtained. The ideal height for the distribution of control rod devices is around 300–400 millimeters, whereas the ideal height for the distribution of knob-type devices is approximately 200–500 millimeters. In conclusion, the cab design of the KAT2204 tractor is improved upon thanks to the analysis done in this study, which can be found above. The legitimacy of the research conclusion is confirmed by the fact that the RULA value is lower than 2, which is proved by the fact that the design findings are validated by the Creo Manikin module. The ergonomics of the tractor cab were taken into consideration when using this research approach as a reference.

Cadaveric study of ergonomics and performance using a robotic exoscope with a head-mounted display in spine surgery

Cadaveric study of ergonomics and performance using a robotic exoscope with a head-mounted display in spine surgery

Cadaveric study of ergonomics and performance using a robotic exoscope with a head-mounted display in spine surgery

Cadaveric study of ergonomics and performance using a robotic exoscope with a head-mounted display in spine surgery

A preliminary study of environmental risks through the gut matrix: application in an industrial kitchen

The lack of effective preventive measures can lead to occupational diseases and accidents at work. For the correct identification and treatment of these risks, the GUT matrix is a tool for prioritizing problems and risks by attributing notes for the aspects of gravity, urgency, and tendency. This work elaborated a particularized matrix for prioritizing the environmental risks raised in a university hospital's industrial kitchen. The work was developed in a Food and Nutrition Unit (FNU) of a University Hospital in Rio de Janeiro-RJ, in the industrial kitchen. Initially, a brainstorming session was held with all those involved to obtain an overview of the health and safety culture in the work environment. Additionally, observational analysis and the weekly verification guide or checklist were performed. The GUT matrix was used as a prioritization tool for identified risk sources. 4 physical, 4 chemical, 6 biological, 6 ergonomics, and 8 accident risks were identified. Therefore, it is concluded that the environmental risks in industrial kitchens are generated most of the time by materials, obsolete equipment or without maintenance, lack of ergonomic study of the workstations, lack of training, and deficit in supervision.

MODELING FORM OF THE INSOLES AS A RESULT OF THE STUDY ABOUT LOAD DISTRIBUTION DURING HUMAN MOVEMENT

The article discusses one of the directions of the joint Japanese-Ukrainian cooperation project of Toyo University in Tokyo and the National Aviation University in Kyiv. As a result of cooperation, NAU student from the Department of Interior Design took part in the project of the Department of Design in Human Life and Environment from Toyo University dedicated to the development of insole design. The impact of shoes on the health of the feet and the entire human body was analyzed, the criteria for creating insoles and manufacturing a real product were considered. Headache, pain in the neck, spine and lower back, discomfort in the joints – these and many other problems can be the result of wearing uncomfortable shoes. The foot is a person's support, on which the main load falls during walking, running and even in a quiet position, when the weight of our body falls entirely on the lower limbs. Not only the health of the feet, but also the joints, spine, blood vessels and even internal organs depends on the condition of the foot. Comfortable shoes allow a modern person to move freely in the right direction. An important element of comfortable shoes is the insole. There is a great variety of them. In order to choose the most practical type of insoles, it is necessary to understand the difference between them, their features. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of insoles on human health, experimental studies of the distribution of load on human feet, selection of the appropriate form and material, and, most importantly, practical manufacture of insoles taking into account the results of research and analytical activities. A perfect analysis of the manufacturing materials, the shape of the insoles was conducted and a number of practical advantages were revealed, which play an important role in choosing the most optimal option. It was found that special shoe inserts, which support our feet in the correct position, perform an additional cushioning function and contribute to the even distribution of the load over the entire leg. By appointment, they are curative and prophylactic. The first ones, as a rule, are selected by an orthopedic doctor and are used to correct certain pathologies of the feet. As for preventive ortho insoles, they are recommended to be worn even by those who have not yet had time to face any diseases of the musculoskeletal system, but have a tendency to them or feel heavy loads on the lower limbs. Depending on the purpose, such inserts in shoes will differ in design, degree of rigidity, material of manufacture and other specific features.The insoles, modeled according to individual parameters directly on the leg, will repeat the relief of the foot as accurately as possible, and therefore will help to achieve a positive effect much faster and better. Thus, Japanese specialists from the Department of Design in Human Life and Environment from Toyo University include in the training program of their students: 1) ergonomic studies of human movement and load distribution; 2) on the basis of the conducted research, development of the optimal form of the product; 3) production of the designed product using innovative technologies, in this particular case using a 3D printer; 4) checking the effectiveness of the developed product; 5) creation of an advertising prospectus for the developed product.

Characterizing the Work Environment of Skidder Operators: Evaluation of Temperature and Relative Humidity Conditions

Skidding is one of the commonly used technical options to extract wood from felling to landing. As such, several studies have been carried out to evaluate its effectiveness in terms of economics, environmental impact, and ergonomics. Most ergonomic studies have addressed the exposure to noise and vibration, and less effort has been devoted towards the evaluation of the skidder operators’ working environment. To our knowledge, the exposure to variability in temperature and humidity has not yet been studied for skidding operations. This study aimed at evaluating the variability of such microclimate parameters and at comparing them to their counterparts recorded in the forest environment. Based on comparative datasets collected in November 2020, our results indicate that skidder operators might endure a significant variation in temperature and relative humidity during operations, which in turn may affect their health. Compared to the forest environment, the differences in temperature and relative humidity were evident, contrasting and occurred in short periods of time, as an effect of the skidding operations and mobility on increased distances and of a considerable altitudinal range. It is likely for such variability to also come from the work behavior of different operators. Given the results and the season in which the data was collected, as well as other constraints of the study, further studies should be carried out to separate the operation time from the rest and meal breaks, to evaluate the variability in microclimate throughout all seasons, to control the state of the cabin doors, and to solve the problem of control data mobility so as to accurately reflect the outdoor conditions for each location a skidder may work on during skidding operations.

Validation of a Novel Wearable Multistream Data Acquisition and Analysis System for Ergonomic Studies.

Nowadays, the growing interest in gathering physiological data and human behavior in everyday life scenarios is paralleled by an increase in wireless devices recording brain and body signals. However, the technical issues that characterize these solutions often limit the full brain-related assessments in real-life scenarios. Here we introduce the Biohub platform, a hardware/software (HW/SW) integrated wearable system for multistream synchronized acquisitions. This system consists of off-the-shelf hardware and state-of-art open-source software components, which are highly integrated into a high-tech low-cost solution, complete, yet easy to use outside conventional labs. It flexibly cooperates with several devices, regardless of the manufacturer, and overcomes the possibly limited resources of recording devices. The Biohub was validated through the characterization of the quality of (i) multistream synchronization, (ii) in-lab electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings compared with a medical-grade high-density device, and (iii) a Brain-Computer-Interface (BCI) in a real driving condition. Results show that this system can reliably acquire multiple data streams with high time accuracy and record standard quality EEG signals, becoming a valid device to be used for advanced ergonomics studies such as driving, telerehabilitation, and occupational safety.

Ergonomic study on the openness of aluminum pouch of PTP (Press Through Package)

Ergonomic study on the openness of aluminum pouch of PTP (Press Through Package)

Caregiver development of activity-supporting services for smart homes

Older adults often need some level of assistance in performing daily living activities. Even though these activities are common to the vast majority of individuals (e.g., eating, bathing, dressing), the way they are performed varies across individuals. Supporting older people in performing their everyday activities is a major avenue of research in smart homes. However, because of its early stage, this line of work has paid little attention on customizing assistive computing support with respect to the specific needs of each older adult towards improving its effectiveness and acceptability. We propose a tool-based approach to allowing caregivers to define services in the area of home daily living, leveraging their knowledge and expertise on the older adult they care for. This approach consists of two stages: 1) a wizard allows caregivers to define an assistive service, which supports aspects of a daily activity that are specific to an older adult; 2) the wizard-generated service is uploaded in an existing smart home platform and interpreted by a dedicated component, carrying out the caregiver-defined service. Our approach has been implemented. Our wizard has been successfully used to define existing manually-programmed, activity-supporting services. The resulting services have been deployed and executed by an existing assisted living platform deployed in the home of community-dwelling individuals. They have been shown to be equivalent to their manually-programmed counterparts. We also conducted an ergonomics study involving five occupational therapists, who tested our wizard with clinical vignettes describing fictitious patients. Participants were able to successfully define services while revealing an ease of use of our wizard.

Ergonomics study on pivot-type trailer operation for two-wheel tractor on sloping land

The operation of the pivot type trailer on a two-wheeled tractor on flat land shows that it is more ergonomic than conventional trailers, but for testing on sloping land it has never been tested. Therefore, this study aims to analyze ergonomics, especially the operator’s workload on the operation of a pivot-type trailer on a two-wheel tractor on a sloping land. The calculation of the operator’s workload is based on heart rate measurements, where three operators have their heart rate data taken during the activity of operating a two-wheeled tractor in pulling a trailer. The workloads analyzed are qualitative and quantitative workloads. The results showed that the operation of conventional trailers for land slopes of 0°, 10°, and 30° respectively showed IRHR values of 1.23, 1.24, and 1.31 or the level of work “light”, “light”, and “light”. While using a pivot type trailer, the IRHR values are 1.20, 1.27, and 1.55 or the work levels are “light”, “light”, and “medium”. The average energy consumption rate of operating a conventional trailer is 2.54 kcal/hour.kg-bb (kilocalories per hour per operator’s weight), while using a pivot type trailer 2.60 kcal/hour.kg-bb. The high level of operator workload is largely determined by the skill of the operator in operating the trailer, which requires training in its operation. This causes the operator’s workload to operate on pivot type trailers higher than conventional trailers. However, from the aspect of operator comfort and safety, pivot-type trailers are superior, especially when turning.

Ergonomics study on work related musculoskeletal disorders and discomfort feeling among bi-cycle garage workers

Keeping in view, the present scenario regarding Musculoskeletal Symptoms (MSSs) and Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) in many organized and unorganized sectors, the present study has been undertaken on bi-cycle garage workers. Through Standardized Nordic Questionnaire, the discomfort feeling in different body parts, pain sensation in different systems and pain feeling at different time of the day have been taken. Besides these parameters, physical and physiological parameters have also been taken of experimental as well as control subjects were also taken. Body postures during work were taken by three separate methods such as Ovako Working Posture Assessment System (OWAS), Rapid upper limb assessment (RULA) and Rapid Entire body assessment (REBA). Body weight as well as BMI and BSA in experimental group were significantly lower than control subjects. Headache, neck pain and lower back pain were significantly predominant among the experimental workers than control group. As per report of body posture analysis by OWAS, RULA and REBA; no major threat was found as per the development of MSDs are concerned. To reduce the impairment found in this study among experimental subjects; proper training, ergonomics awareness and implementation of work rest cycle may be recommended.

Modern trends in the formation of occupational pathology when working on mobile agricultural machinery

Introduction. There are currently several works in the scientific literature devoted to studying the influence of working conditions on mobile agricultural machinery on the occupational morbidity of workers on the example of individual regions. Still, Russian Federation did not conduct such studies before. The study aims to analyze working conditions and current trends in the formation of occupational pathology when working on mobile agricultural machinery in the Russian Federation. Materials and methods. The paper uses the results of long-term sanitary-hygienic and ergonomic studies of working conditions when working on mobile agricultural machinery and data on the level of occupational morbidity (PZ) of farmworkers of the Russian Federation in 2011-2017. Results. Microclimatic discomfort, dustiness and gas contamination of the working area air, industrial noise, general and local vibration, physical overload, forming harmful operating conditions (classes 3.2-3.4), occupational risk categories from medium to very high characterize working on mobile agriculture machinery. From 2011 to 2017, researchers have identified 960 agricultural machine operators with 1052 occupational diseases in the Russian Federation, formed mainly under the influence of physical factors and physical overloads. In the nosological structure of occupational diseases (OD), the first place is occupied by vibration disease (VD), the second by radiculopathy (RP), and the third by sensorineural hearing loss. Researchers characterize the current trends in the nosological structure by a significant increase in the prevalence of radiculopathy against the background of a decrease in diagnosis cases of vibration disease. Conclusions. Working conditions when working on mobile agricultural machinery remain harmful and pose a high risk of developing occupational radiculopathy, vibration disease and sensorineural hearing loss. It should be taken into account when developing measures to prevent occupational pathology for agricultural machine operators.