• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.165-172
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate the ergonomic verification of suitability of the 4-wheeled hand cart to prevent musculoskeletal problems in the firing test range. Because of the increasing amount of firing test, the needs to develop a projectile transferring device such as 4-wheeled hand cart has been increased. For the 4-wheeled hand cart, the lifting and carrying activity in the manual handling method were transformed to pushing activity. The risk of low back pain for lifting and carrying the projectile by manual was estimated by NLE and 3D SSPP. On the other hand, the risk for pushing the 4-wheeled hand cart was estimated by psychophysical and biomechanical method such as Mital's equation, Snook's table and 3D SSPP. It was shown that the 4-wheeled hand cart reduced the risk of low back pain drastically with higher efficiency and design compatibility.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.161-171
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• 2006

The objectives of this study were to ergonomically evaluate varying tasks performed in a general hospital and to propose their improving measures based on the evaluation results. The tasks found in the hospital were largely classified into two groups of manual materials handling and awkward posture related tasks. Ergonomic tools of NLE, 3-D SSPP and RULA were used for evaluating workload of the tasks. The major findings are: 1) L5/S1 compressive force of patient transferring by one person exceeded the maximum permissible limit(6,400N) by NIOSH. The L5/S1 compressive forces for most of the patient transferring tasks by 2-4 persons were larger than the action limit (3,400N), and the tasks by five persons were analyzed to be safe in the view of L5/S1 compressive force; 2) patient repositioning tasks by 2-3 persons were hazardous on the basis of L5/S1 compressive force, while most of the tasks by 4-5 persons were safe; 3) many tasks performed in wards were found to be stressful, most of which resulted from improper heights of their working tables or working points. Of varying tasks in general hospitals, patient transferring was the most stressful. Based on the results of this study and high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders from other studies, it is recommended that the ergonomics program be introduced and enforced for doing improving activities systematically