• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.105-111
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• 2006

This paper summarizes the ergonomic risk assessment of hotel chef. The cooking operations were observed in order to determine sources of ergonomic stress and make recommendations to reduce the risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in Korean, Japanese, and western style cooking. We used interviews, document analysis, video analysis, and risk assessment to identify and quantify ergonomic risk factors. The results indicate that the cooking operations have some ergonomic problems. These findings identified in this study can be used to reduce the risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in food service areas.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.185-189
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• 2012

Objective: The aim of this paper is to introduces Hyundai Heavy Industry's ergonomic risk assessment tool, H-OWAS, which is considering work load and frequency compared to the OWAS. Background: As prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs) in ship building industries has been much higher than that in other industries, most of the large scaled corporations have implemented their own prevention program since legislation on the prevention of WMSDs had introduced in 2003. Method: This paper introduces WMSDs prevention program, HEMP(HHI Ergonomics Management Program) which consists of risk assessment, improvement efforts of working environments, medical treatment and training/evaluation and describes how to operate the program. We also describe application of OWAS method considering work load and frequency for risk factor analysis(H-OWAS) and shows methodology for assessing the ergonomic risk factor. And comparison of the assessment results between OWAS and H-OWAS is carried out by statistical analysis. Result: There was statistically significant difference in the assessment results between OWAS and H-OWAS, and regression shows H-OWAS explains the borg's scale of perceived exertion more clearly than OWAS. Conclusion: H-OWAS has been proved more effective tool than OWAS to evaluate ergonomic risk factor under real working condition. Application: H-OWAS can be widely applied to the many other companies when implementing the ergonomics risk assessment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.88-95
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• 2009

There are many assessment techniques used for occupational risk factors of MSDs in the workplaces. However, because all ergonomic assesment techniques or tools are based on theoretical background derived from workphysiology, biomechanics, psychophysics, industrial hygiene, work system, and etc, it is impossible to compare the assessment techniques. This study was conducted to compare the excess rates of risk factors among ergonomic assessment techniques and to make alternative methods. Site-visits to 6 automobile products and parts company provided data for process repeated work where the produced data was examined for evaluating the relationship between workplace lay-out and work posture by using ergonomic assessment techniques. We evaluated 157 jobs for simple repeated work and 37 jobs for manual materials handling (MMH). In simple repeated work, the exceeded rates of AC were 36.3% in OWAS method and 93.0% in RULA method. The exceeded rate for RULA method was significantly higher than those for OWAS method (p<0.05). In MMH, the exceeded rates of AC were 80.0% in NLE method and 76.5% in WAC method. Statistically significant differences were not identified in the exceeded rates for NLE and MAC methods (p<0.05). The analyzed results among ergonomic assessment techniques (OWAS, RULA, NLE/WAC) were applied to the same work places performing simple repeated work and manual materials handling simultaneously. The applied results showed statistically significant differences (p<0.05) among ergonomic assessment techniques (OWAS, RULA, NLE/WAC). Exceeded rates of four ergonomic assessment techniques in decreasing order was "RULA>NLE>WAC>OWAS". The RULA method was the strongest assessment technique for automobile products and parts company. We discovered that the results could easily be overestimated or underestimated when the ergonomic assessment techniques were not applied correctly during the evaluation process. Therefore, we recommend using at least 2 methods when evaluating and analysing the results.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.342-353
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• 2020

Purpose: This study aimed to systematically review literature and conduct a meta-analysis to comprehensively identify and evaluate the effects of workplace risk assessment-based ergonomic intervention on work-related muscular-skeletal disorders in workers. Methods: We searched the Ovid-Medline, EMBASE, and Cochrane library and up to 2018 using search terms such as muscular-skeletal, disorder, impairment, work-related muscular-skeletal disorders, ergonomic, intervention, management with no language limitations; screened reference lists; and contacted experts in the field. Results: We identified 545 references and included 13 randomized controlled tests (3,368 workers). We judged nine studies to have a low risk of bias, while the other four studies have a high risk of bias. Conclusion: Ergonomic intervention based on risk assessment in the workplace did not significantly differ in terms of the intensity of pain or duration of workers in the workplace, but low-quality evidence decreased the frequency of musculoskeletal disorder pain in three to six months moderate-quality evidence and in six to nine months low-quality evidence. Besides, low-quality evidence to reduce discomfort and moderate-quality evidence to improve worker posture. Therefore, ergonomic intervention based on the assessment of risk factors in the workplace should be applied to reduce pain frequency and discomfort and improve workers posture among musculoskeletal disorders.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.31-38
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• 2020

The study evaluated the accuracy and intra-rater reliability for OWAS (Ovako Working posture Analysing System), RULA (Rapid Upper Limb Assessment), REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment) to improve their evaluation accuracy and reliability. Participants (n = 163) with undergraduate degree were recruited in this study and trained for 6 hours about the ergonomic assessment methods. Ergonomic assessments were conducted using OWAS, RULA, and REBA for a representative work with dynamic posture found in manufacturing industries. The study compared action categories (overall level) and detailed evaluation scores for individual body part. Action categories of the participants significantly differed from the golden reference defined by ergonomic experts. The participants underrated or omitted scores for truck (37.4% of the participants) and legs (52.8%) in OWAS. Similarly, the participants underrated or omitted additional scores for all body parts except the hand and wrist in RULA (53.5%) and REBA (54.8%). On the other hand, the participants overrated scores for the hand and wrist in RULA (55.2%) and REBA (39.9%). The results found in this study can help of selecting focus points and parts during assessment and education to improve accuracy and reliability of the ergonomic assessment methods.

• 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 agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.138-143
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the ergonomic risk factors in beekeeping, and to evaluate the effectiveness of assistive device hive lift. Methods: This study included 30 subjects of beekeeper in Pocheon, Korea. We assessed the ergonomic risk of main task in beekeeping with NLE, OWAS and evaluate the effectiveness of hive lift. We also surveyed prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms among the subjects based on the Korea Working Condition Survey. Results: Moving to different floral origin, internal inspection of beehives, feeding syrup is the most burdensome to musculoskeletal system (NLE LI value=2~3. OWAS action category=4). The prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms (lower and upper extremities) among the subjects was over 80 %. The introduction of assistive devices in the three hazardous tasks has dramatically reduced the risk by removing manual lifting hives (OWAS action category<1). Conclusions: Beekeeping is a heavy workload on the musculoskeletal system because it has a lot of manual lifting task. As a result of applying the hive lift, the burden could be reduced.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.42-51
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to develop a checklist of risk factors for quantitative assessment of musculoskeletal complaints in shipbuilding workers. A key point was to develop comprehensive a checklist including the worker's physical ability, as ergonomic and workload factors. ln the first, through correlation analysis between musculoskeletal complaints and physical abilities in shipbuilding workers, risk factors related to physical abilities were selected. In the second, after the development of a checklist was composed of physical, ergonomic and workload factors, factor analysis was used to test the validity of the developed checklist. Each factors selected finally showed that physical factors were hand grip strength, spinal curvature, and flexibility (sit to reach), ergonomic factors were posture, total exposed time, duration, and force of working, and workload factors were physical and psychological workload perceived by worker. The results showed that musculoskeletal complaints was associated with physical abilities (p<.05). The developed checklist had a reliability of .761 (Cronbach=.761) and a validity and explanation of 54.9%. The criterion of management was classified in 4 stages by relative weights of each factor. It is suggested that active intervention is needed to reduce musculoskeletal complaints in workers with more than a 14.31 score.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.601-607
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• 2017

Objective: A method to assess the risk level of agricultural works considering work posture and working time was suggested, and the method was applied to the major fruit crops. Background: It is not complete to analyze only work postures when assessing risk level of agricultural works. Method: $3{\times}3$ matrix was employed, in which the severity level was taken from the REBA method and exposure level was taken from the working time, using the criteria of caution zone/hazard zone. Results: Among the 5 major fruit crops(apple, pear, grape, peach, persimmon), the highest level of ergonomic risk was found in the apple and pear, while medium level was found in other 3 crops, mainly because the working time was less in the 3 crops. Conclusion: It was found that when assessing the overall ergonomic risk of agricultural works, work posture and working time should be considered at the same time. Application: The suggested method could be applied to other non-cyclic tasks.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.80-87
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• 2020

Background: Residential and commercial cleaning is a part of our daily routine to maintain sanitation around the environment. Health care of professionals involved in such cleaning activities has become a major concern all over the world. The present study investigates the risk of musculoskeletal disorders in professional cleaners involved in floor mopping tasks. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed on 132 mopping professionals using a modified Nordic questionnaire. The Pearson correlation test was implemented to study the association of perceived pain with work experience. The muscle strain and postural risk were evaluated by means of three-channel electromyography and real-time motion capture respectively of 15 professionals during floor mopping. Results: Regarding musculoskeletal injuries, risk was reported majorly in the right hand, lower back, left wrist, right shoulder, left biceps, and right wrist of the workers. Work experience had a low negative association with MSDs in the left wrist, right wrist, right elbow, lower back, and right lower arm (p < 0.01). Surface EMG showed occurrence of higher muscle activity in upper trapezius and biceps brachii (BB) muscles of the dominant hand and flexor carpi radialis and BB muscles of the nondominant hand positioned at the upper and lower portion of the mop rod, respectively. Conclusion: Ergonomic mediations should be executed to lessen the observed risk of musculoskeletal injuries in this professional group of workers.