• 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 Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.1561-1572
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• 2016

The ability to handle materials from one location to another, whether during transit or at the worksite is vital to all segments of industry. To varying degrees, many personnel in numerous workplaces take part in materials handling. Consequently, some employees are injured. In fact, rigging & slinging is a dangerous work using a crane and sling equipment to carry a cargo and the mishandling of materials is the single largest cause of accidents and injuries in the workplace. The majority of accidents associated with cranes and other lifting appliances are caused by faulty slinging, overloading, unbalanced loads, etc. which result in the load falling or tipping out of control, causing injury to people, damage to plant, machinery and the load. Therefore, recognizing the dangers of the works, there are much technical support including skill training in various institutes to minimize accidents during works on land. Although rigging work at sea is much dangerous than on land work because it needs to take account of the movements of the ships and waves, etc. in addition to land based rigging hazards, it is insufficient in appropriate actions that can improve the safety of the workers at sea. Therefore, this study suggested a rigging and slinging course for seafarers to improve their safety at sea by researching hazards and risk of rigging works and related skill training conducted on land.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.485-490
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• 2020

Background: Meniscal tears are among the major risk factors for knee osteoarthritis progression. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between meniscal tears and work-related factors in the farming occupation. Methods: The participants included 486 farmers (238 men and 248 women), aged 40-69 years, who were among the 550 farmers registered in the Korea Farmer's Knee Cohort (KFKC). Data such as those on gender, age, body mass index (BMI), mechanical axis, cumulative heavy-lifting working time (CLWT), cumulative squatting working time (CSWT), and previous knee injury history were collected from the questionnaire, along with whole leg radiographic findings. Two radiologists assessed the magnetic resonance images of both knees to confirm the presence of meniscal tears. The factors related to meniscal tears were analyzed by multiple logistic regression. Results: A total of 54.5% of the farmers (48.7% of men and 60.1% of women) had meniscal tears. These tears were associated with gender, age, and BMI. We also identified an association between meniscal tears and CSWT, an especially important factor in farming [10,000-19,999 working hours, odds ratio = 2.16, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.14-4.07, ≥20,000 working hours, odds ratio = 2.35, 1.45-3.80]. However, mechanical axis, knee injury history, and CLWT were not significantly related to meniscal tears. Conclusion: This study's findings show that squatting for long periods, as an occupational factor, is related to meniscal tears.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.57-67
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• 2022

Tower cranes have an unstable superstructure, which means that there is a very high risk of accidents. It is necessary to establish preventive measures to ensure the safety of tower cranes at a time when active efforts are being made to reduce safety accidents involving tower cranes. As such, the purpose of this study is to analyze disaster cases to ensure the safety of tower cranes. For this study, 260 cases of tower crane disasters filed with the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency from July 2012 to July 2020 were analyzed. Through this analysis, it was found that lifting work was the most common of the work types, at 45.3%; while of the types of disasters, accidents caused by falls were the most common type, at 35.8%. In addition, with regard to the cause of accidents, work method defects was found to be the highest, at 38.8%. In the future, the findings of this study will be used as basic data to guide the establishment of policy to prevent tower crane accidents.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2024.07a
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• pp.1027-1034
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• 2024

Much labour is required in the labour-intensive construction sector for workers to do physically taxing jobs like plastering, paving, surfacing, material lifting, hauling, scaffolding, etc. Passive exoskeletons have been advocated and examined in previous studies to reduce physical demands, improve work efficiency, and prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders in construction workers. This review study examined previous studies performed on passive exoskeletons in construction or other occupational domains with the aim of finding the working principles and design requirements of the passive exoskeletons, their applicability and usability in occupational settings, and the potential challenges in their adoption, thereby finding future research directions that can overcome those challenges. Three working principles were identified: muscle assistance, joint load reduction, and maintaining proper posture. The design requirements to achieve one or more of these working principles may have a few undesired effects on the usability of the passive exoskeletons, like discomfort, unnecessary weight of the passive exoskeleton, difficulty in operation, restricted range of motion of the joints supported, and the unaffordability of these exoskeletons by the workers. Passive exoskeletons were reported to have a range of positive effects, like reducing muscle effort and improving the endurance of the workers. The study concluded that there needs to be sufficient research on real construction workers in a real construction environment to convince the workers and managers to accept passive exoskeletons. To improve the usability of passive exoskeletons, fundamental changes in design are needed through further research so that the exoskeleton can support workers in multitasking rather than a single function. They also need to become more affordable, and the other undesired negative effects of passive exoskeletons should also be addressed.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.707-717
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• 2024

Recently, the implementation of unmanned and automated technologies has been actively considered as a solution to reduce safety accidents in industrial sites. However, bridge construction sites are recognized as a more challenging area for research and development compared to other industries due to the complexity of the site, such as weather and terrain, and the fact that the work is not repetitive or standardized. In this paper, a formwork system for unmanned and automated construction of bridge piers, which are considered high-risk work environments due to tasks such as rebar assembly, concrete pouring, and formwork dismantling and assembly at high altitudes, was developed. To achieve this, the formwork was equipped with motorized spindles and an automated lifting system to replace the manual dismantling and assembly process. Additionally, manipulators were installed on the upper work platform to replace workers in tasks such as rebar assembly and concrete pouring. To verify the proposed technology, we aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of the automated formwork system for unmanned pier construction through an assembly test.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.120-130
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• 2021

Recently, the government is reinforcing safety management at construction sites to prevent safety accidents in construction works, and the safety management plan of workers is an important situation. Meanwhile, modular construction is expected to be gradually expanded to middle and high-rise buildings, but active measures to ensure worker safety are insufficient. This study is a preliminary study of the development of a checklist for preventive worker safety management. The purpose of this study is to derive a checklist classification system for the safety management of workers in the field of modular construction by preceding studies, case analysis, and expert advisory opinions. The classification system consists of large categories of factory manufacturing, transportation, and on-site construction, and the sub-system consists of six sub-classes: foundation work, frame work, modular frame installation work, finishing work, and facility work. Among them, the sub-classification of modular frame installation work consists of 12 unit works, centering on module lifting and assembly module work, which are the main construction processes. And the classification system reflects the three main management factors and contents for defined safety management. It is expected that the research results of this study can contribute to efficient safety management at the modular construction site.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.675-684
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• 2020

To prevent safety accidents caused by aging pipe infrastructure and to maintain water quality, construction projects for water and sewage pipes are actively conducted across Korea. This study analyzed the criteria situations, site survey details, and regulation revisions related to the calculation of construction cost standards for pipe laying and joining work. The analysis showed that the major causes for revision are the unclear construction scope, limitations in implementing some pipe materials due to installation facility types, workforce focused on ordinary labor, limitations of manual laying work, and the lack of tool hire cost and machine expense-calculation criteria. Field studies were conducted to categorize the pipes according to their features, in addition to identifying the use of lifting heavy equipment and light equipment. In addition, excavation and testing work conducted in connection to pipe laying, as well as the use of skilled labor, were investigated. The current study clarified the work scope through new common items, provides an organization based on the pipe material, adjusted the workforce ratio to focus more on skilled labor, and developed grounds for calculating machine expenses. These revisions were estimated to save approximately 1.28% of the construction costs in each project according to an analysis of the construction cost impact study. truction costs in each project, according to an analysis of construction cost impact study.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.55-62
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• 2021

The productivity of rebar-work and form-work was analyzed with data collected from an actual high-rise construction project, and the actual utilization rates of three tower cranes were also investigated. It was found that the average productivity of the form-work increased from 12.00~8.71(㎡/man·day) in the underground and above-ground/lower-floor to 11.94~20.73(㎡/man·day) in the standard floor. Comparing the productivity of core area to outer, the former was found to be about 11% higher. Moreover, the rebar-work productivity of the outer area(1.12 ton/man·day) was approximately 9.6% higher than that of the core area for the standard floor. The average utilization rates of three TC were surveyed to be about 63.49%, and it was revealed that rainy weather(6.1%), strong winds(6.1%), holidays(17.8%), TC lifting work(5.8%), and other failures and repairs(0.07%) were the causes of non-operation. These research results are expected to be beneficial data in planning and managing the process of high-rise RC construction works in the future.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.1222-1229
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• 2011

Railway bridges are divided into ballastless and ballast track bridges. The ballast abrasion occurs on the ballast track upon bridges more than soil roadbed because the track vibration occurs a lot in the ballast track upon bridges due to girder vibration when a train's weight is loaded onto track even though the identical ballast is used. The phenomena of mud pumping especially, which occurs when drainage is not properly secured for heavy rain, leads to the increase of maintenance work load and the decline of ride comfort. There are countermeasures such as ballast change, installation of cross-drainage for poor drainage, gutter establishment, ballast lifting methods, ballast mats and resilient sleepers laying for the mud pumping. The ballast thickness range in domestic railroad construction rule is uniformly set up according to the design speed of railroad and passing tonnage of train without considering field conditions which is considered in foreign railroad companies. The purpose of this study is to verify the effect of vibration decrease by measuring the acceleration, displacement and ride comfort of ballast track with the change of ballast thickness on the ballast track bridges and to suggest the optimal height of ballast on the Yocheon Bridge built for the test in Honam Line.