• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.153-159
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to assess the ergonomic risks of lifting tasks in a marine diesel engine manufacturing industry using the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health(NIOSH) Revised Lifting Equation(NLE). Average Lifting Index(LI=Weight of Load/Recommended Weight Limit) of a total number of 45 lifting tasks was $1.6{\pm}0.7$. The LIs were above 1 at 34 tasks(75.6%), and above 2 at 11 tasks(24.4%). Parts management showed the highest average LI value (LI=2.3) in all departments, which resulted from high frequency and heave load of lifting. The common and significant ergonomic risk factors in the processes were the heavy weight of diesel engine parts and the long horizontal distance. In addition, some lifting tasks had such potential risk factors as the long vertical distance, the high frequency of lifts or the long work duration.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2008

The purpose of this survey was to identify ergonomic risk factors of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) and understand the current MSD risk status in the wholesale/retail industry. The field survey was conducted at 120 wholesale/retail establishments, and the cause of MSD occurred from the national industrial accident statistics by the Ministry of Labor in 2006 was analyzed in terms of company size, a term of work, job title, and cause of occurrence. The numbers of disasters on MSD were 602 which were included 432 disasters who met with low back pain by incident. A checklist was developed by KOSHA to use for the field survey. A total of 419 tasks were identified at the 120 establishments surveyed. The highest frequency was Task 2(45%) which was mostly observed in repetitive work (e.g. displaying, scanning, cutting or wrapping of goods). The second and third were Task 9(34%) and Task 8(14%) which were identified in manual materials handling (e.g. lifting, lowering, carrying or stocking of goods). The results suggest that the three Tasks should be first considered for the control in wholesale/retail industry and that exposure to MSD risk factors in those Tasks should be primarily addressed in order to reduce MSD risk in that industry.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.131-140
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• 2012

Though there might exist not a few differences between cyclic works and atypical works, many researchers have applied the same assessment techniques that used for repetitive works, which may result introduce bias in their conclusions. This research aimed to verify whether there exist non-negligible work characteristics and/or dissimilarity among works with different work nature and whether one of the most prevalent assessment techniques for assessing ergonomic hazards of musculoskeletal disorders, REBA, can be applied to atypical works. For a general hospital, an automobile repair shop, and two auto-part assembly plants which manufactures quite different parts, a questionnaire survey and field investigation and ergonomic assessment were carried out and analyzed statistically with reference to the 3rd Quantification technique. The results showed that there exist remarkable difference between physical factors in cyclic works and atypical non-cyclic works. As for repetitive work, body posture was significant factors affecting on musculoskeletal disorders while atypical works seemed to have none which implied that the necessity of taking psychosocial factors into account for assessment of hazards. Complain rate in repetitive works was highest shoulder, back, and neck or wrist in sequence. However, there existed no consistent trend in complain rate in atypical works. And, though weight of manufacturing objects was a common factor that can partly explain musculoskeletal complain, time duration was significant in atypical work whereas repeatability and body posture were significant in repetitive works. As being the results, to summarize, it could be said that application of conventional ergonomic assessment techniques regardless of repetitiveness would be fruitless, and that the necessity of a unique methodology focused on atypical non-cyclic works should not be neglected.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.371-382
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• 2014

Objectives: This study was undertaken in order to examine how musculoskeletal disorder(MSD) symptoms were affected by particular factors and then to explore control strategies to prevent MSDs in general hospital nurses. Materials: This, as part of a large study, was conducted using a set of information on literature review, questionnaire survey and focus group interview. It obtained prevalence and factors of MSD symptoms and examined how MSD symptoms were distributed and affected by the factors in nurses working at 15 general hospitals across Korea. The factors were personal factors, work organization, nursing tasks, physical factors and psychosocial factors. Results: A total of 501 nurses were determined as subjects. The highest MSD symptom prevalence was 61% for the shoulder, among body parts, followed by leg/feet(55%), low back(51%), neck(42%), wrist(38%), and elbow(21%). Prevalence for the whole body was 80%. Odds ratios ranged from 0.4 to 22.4 in logistic regression analyses. The symptoms were significantly attributed to factor variables such as body mass index, current health status, daily work time, nursing task, pooled-physical factors, ergonomic factors, work load, interpersonal conflict, and job insecurity. Conclusions: Two or more factor variables were significant, depending on body part, for MSD systems in the general hospital nurses. It was noticeable that physical factors, such as pooled-physical factors, ergonomic factors or work load, were selectively significant for MSD symptoms in all body parts, indicating that such information should be used for prevention of MSDs in the hospital sector.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.59-67
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• 2009

The goal of this study is to propose the effective method of investigating the injurious factors and making improved plans that prevents the workers against musculoskeletal disorders at an diesel engine manufacturing company and the same business field with similar working conditions and process. A questionnaire were adopted to analyze the symptoms of workers' musculoskeletal disorders, and an ergonomic assessment method such as RULA, OWAS were performed to find out harmful factors of workplace and working posture. Based on the result of the evaluation, to enhance the working environment, improvement of worktable, working space, tools, and outfit was suggested, and induction of mechanical system was also suggested. It can be concluded that the method and process described in this paper could be helpful for diagnosing the musculoskeletal disorders and making improvement plans to the diesel engine fuel injection system manufacturing company and the same business field with similar working conditions and process.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.110 no.2
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• pp.210-216
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• 2021

Musculoskeletal disorders affect workers' safety in most industries, and forest operations are classified as a musculoskeletal burden according to the Occupational Safety and Health Act in South Korea. In particular, felling and delimbing operations are mainly conducted by manpower, and then, it is necessary to evaluate ergonomic risk assessment for safety of felling and delimbing workers. Three ergonomic risk assessment methods, such as Ovako Working posture Analysis System (OWAS), Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), are available for assessing exposure to risk factors associated with timber harvesting operations. Here, three ergonomic risk assessment methods were applied to examine ergonomic risk assessments in chainsaw felling and delimbing operations. Additionally, exposure to risk factors in each method was analyzed to propose an optimal working posture in felling and delimbing operations. The risk levels of these operations were evaluated to be highest in the RULA method, followed by the OWAS and REBA methods, and most of the exposed working postures were examined with a low-risk level of two and three without requiring any immediate working posture changes. However, two significant working postures, including the bending posture of the waist and leg in felling operation and standing posture on the fallen trees in delimbing operation, were assessed as the high-risk level and needed immediate working posture changes. Low-risk work levels were examined in the squatting posture for felling operation and the straightened posture of the waist and leg for delimbing operation. Moreover, the slope in felling operation and the tree height in delimbing operation significantly affected risk level assessment of working posture. Therefore, our study supports that felling and delimbing workers must operate with low-risk working postures for safety.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.525-534
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• 2011

This paper describes the current status of musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) and its ergonomic risk factors, including the preventive intervention in terms of the working conditions and health promotion among agricultural workers. Korean agricultural workers have been exposed to the poor working condition. They have suffered from a variety of work-related injury and diseases more than the general population or the other occupational group. MSDs are one of the most prevalent problems threatening the agricultural worker's health and quality of life. Low back pain, osteoarthritis of hip and knee joint and carpal tunnel syndrome are well known MSDs that was found easily and frequently among agricultural workers. MSDs are worsened by poor ergonomic working conditions such as heavy weight lifting, repetitive movement and awkward posture which involves squatting with long sitting work on the ground, long working hours and heavy workload which are inherent in the greater part of agricultural works. Even though Korean agricultural workers are very weak population in terms of occupational safety and health, no many studies were conducted in the past and no many social and institutional supports were provided sufficiently. We need more interests and efforts in agricultural fields to improve its working condition and to promote health status of agricultural workers.

• Archives of design research
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• v.21
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• pp.123-136
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• 1997

The work of design needs not only a lot of scientific information, but also a artistic sensitivity. Designers require abundant imagination to translate the information of the design, into the Gestaltung. Particularly, the translation of ergonomic information into the elements and grammar of the Gestaltung needs an interface. In order to consider the theoretical possibility for this, a view of fundamental notions, the function of design semantics and ergonomic problems in the design process were analyzed. The purpose of this study is the exploration and relevance of the theoretical model for human factors and design semantics, to see if they could be harmonized as a system of a new design method.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.216-222
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• 2002

The ergonomic human model can be considered as a tool for the evaluation of ergonomic factors in vehicle design process. The proper anthropometric data on driver's postures are needed in order to apply a human model to vehicle design. Although studies on driver's posture have been carried out for the last few decades, there are still some problems for the posture data to be applied directly to the human model due to the lack of fitness because such studies were not carried out under the conditions for the human model application. In the traditional researches, the joint angles were evaluated by the categorized data, which are not appropriate for the human model application because it is so extensive that it can not explain the posture evaluation data in detail. And the human models require whole-body posture evaluation data rather than joint evaluation data. In this study a postural evaluation function was developed not by category data but by the concept of the loss function in quality engineering. The loss was defined as the discomfort in driver's posture and measured by the magnitude estimation technique in the experiment using a seating buck. Four loss functions for the each joint - knee, hip, shoulder, and elbow were developed and a whole-body postural evaluation function was constructed by the regression analysis using these loss functions as independent factors. The developed postural evaluation function shows a good prediction power for the driver's posture discomfort in validation test. It is expected that the driver's postural evaluation function based on the loss function can be used in the human model application to the vehicle design process.

• Archives of design research
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• v.19 no.3 s.65
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• pp.195-206
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• 2006

Design for improved usability is to understand products from the user's point of view so eventually to enhance the pleasantness users by reflecting it into the design. The philosophy of user-oriented design is an essence of human-centered product planning, and its application is more important for railway vehicle design, which is closely connected with everyday life. This study focused to define basic elements of train interior design concept, which considers convenience and comfort for passengers, by extracting and interpreting ergonomic requirements, as usability factors, of train toilet design. The study on user-oriented design of trains consists of the practice of sensibility engineering for the management of customers' emotions and its harmonious use on design, and aims on the embodiment of new ergonomic design. In the center, it has analyzed the criteria and characteristics of the user-oriented design and has concluded the design direction and components to a concrete idea and proposed prototypes, which may become a good example for train interior design later on. In addition, it proposes a direction, which may become a guideline of ergonomic design, to secure competition capacity. Moreover this study is concentrated on the physical environment and human behavior of train toilet users, on the analysis of factors necessary for adequate toilet design, and on the understanding of interface between its users. What is more, it proposes a module of development process and methods of approaching the interface. The study presents a design standard, under which the concrete data of the characteristics and practicable range and the convergent demands accelerate to the module could be confirmed and criticized. The study on the usability is going to contribute to more pleasant and comfortable train environments and consequently, it's going to create new values of increased railway competitiveness by design.