• 한국산업보건학회지
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• 제18권3호
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• pp.239-247
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• 2008

Low back disorders (LBDs) have been the most common musculoskeletal problem in Korean workplaces. It affects many workers, and is associated with high costs to many companies as well as the individual, which can negatively influence even the quality of life of workers. The _evaluation of low back disorder risk associated with manual materials handling tasks can be performed using variety of ergonomic assessment tools such as National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Revised Lifting Equation (NLE), the Washington Administrative Code 296-62-0517 (WAC), the Snook Tables etc. But most of these tools provide limited information for choosing the most appropriate assessment method for a particular job and in finding out advantage and disadvantage of the methods, and few have been assessed for their predictive ability. The focus of this study was to _evaluate spinal loads in real time with lifting and pulling heavy cow leathers in variety of postures. Data for estimating mean trunk motions were collected as employees did their work at the job site, using the Lumbar Motion Monitor. Eight employees (2 males, 6 females) were selected in this study, in which the load weight and the vertical start and destination heights of the activity remained constant throughout the task. Variance components (three dimensional spaces) of mean trunk kinematic measures were estimated in a hierarchical design. They were used to compute velocity and acceleration of multiple employees performing the same task and to repetitive movements within a task. Therefore, a results of this study could be used as a quantitative, objective measure to design the workplace so that the risk of occupationally related low back disorder should be minimized.

• 산업경영시스템학회지
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• 제37권4호
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• pp.72-81
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• 2014

Even though two-hands lifting/lowering activity of manual materials handling tasks are prevalent at the industrial site, many manual materials handling tasks which require the worker to perform one-hand lifting/lowering are also very common at the industrial site, forestry, farming, and daily life. The objective of this study was to compare one-hand lowering activity to lifting activity in terms of biomechanical stress for the range of lowering heights from knuckle height to 10cm above floor level with two workload 7.5kg and 15.0kg. Eight male subjects with LMM were asked to perform lifting/lowering tasks using both a one-handed (left-hand and right-hand) as well as a two-handed technique. Spinal loading was estimated through an EMG-assisted free-dynamic biomechanical model. The biomechanical stress of one-hand lowering activity was shown to be 43% lower than that of one-hand lifting activity. It was claimed that the biomechanical stress for one-hand lifting/lowering activity is almost twice (194%) of the one for two-hands lifting/lowering activity. It was also found that biomechanical stress by one-hand lowering/lifting activity with the half workload of two-hands lowering/lifting activity was greater than that of the two-hands lowering/lifting activity. Therefore, it might be a risk to consider the RWL of one-hand lowering/lifting activity to simply be a half of the RWL of two-hands lowering/lifting activity recommended by NIOSH.

• 한국경영과학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한산업공학회/한국경영과학회 1996년도 춘계공동학술대회논문집; 공군사관학교, 청주; 26-27 Apr. 1996
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• pp.647-650
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• 1996

Manual materials handling and improper working postures are known to be a major cause fo low back injuries, which are one of the major problems in the economic and public health aspects. In this study, two machine repair shops of a manufacturing company in Pohang are selected to investigate the potential hazards of low back injuries. Questionnaire study and worker's strength evaluation are conducted and the results are analyzed. Field workers performing the relatively low stressful jobs were also studied as a control group for comparison with the workers performing the tasks under study.

• 대한인간공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한인간공학회 1995년도 춘계학술대회논문집
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• pp.106-110
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• 1995

A local manufacturing companyin which low back pain(LBP) complaints were frequently reported was selected, and regularly perfomed lifting tasks were investigated using questionnaires and the 1991 NIOSH lifting guide. Among several processes of manufacture in the company, three processes-forming, heating and packing-were studied, where most of tasks were perfomed through manual materials handling (MMH). Questionnaire surveys showed that anthropometric data such as stature, weight and someatotype did not affect and weight of load influenced significantly the incidence of LBP, and workers who expwrienced LBP was older than the inexperienced. In addition, safety education conducted at the company was found to be ineffective in preventing LBP injuries. Lifting indexes(LI) was ranged from 0.86 to 17.0 with an average of 4.49, which revealed that tasks performing in the selected factory were in danger of LBP, and should be ertonomically redesigned. The critical factor reducing LI was found to be the horizontal component in all three processes, and most of weight of load was heavier than load constant(23kg) of the 1991 NIOSH lifting equation in heating process and packing.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제16권3호
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• pp.49-60
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• 1997

Although the tasks are being mechanized or automated today, many tasks are still performed manually in several industrial settings. Manual materials handling and improper sorking postures are known to be a major cause of low back injuries, which are one of the major problems in the economic and public health aspects. In this study, two machine repair shops of a manufacturing company in Pohang were recommended by the company health care center to investigate the potential risk factors that may cause low back injuries. Five machine repair tasks were selected from each machine repair shop, which are accountable for relatively high complaints of low back pain. The purpose of this study is to quantitatively evaluate the hazards of the tasks, and finally to recommend the improved methods and guidelines for safe work practices. In order to accomplish this goal, the questionnaire study and ergonomic evaluations were carried out and the results were analyzed. For most of the tasks under study, workers were found to be exposed to relatively high biomechanical stresses in low back, mainly due to the heaby objects handled and the improper working postures.

• 산업경영시스템학회지
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• 제23권56호
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• pp.93-102
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• 2000

Today, the number of automated machine has rapidly increased in industrial workplaces. Nevertheless, workers are often required to handle materials manually. Technical information for using the revised NIOSH lifting equation to evaluate a variety of two - handed Manual Material Handling (MMH) tasks was investigated. The NIOSH suggested the Lifting Index that provides a relative estimate of the level of physical stress associated with a particular manual lifting task. To measure operator's workload in lifting task, Lifting Index Simulator(LIS) was developed based upon the revised NIOSH lifting equation in this study. The purpose of this study was to develop LIS and use the NIOSH lifting equation in our workplace.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제29권1호
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• pp.145-153
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• 2010

Activity of lifting has been a major issue in many research area related in manual materials handling tasks. However, the opposite activity of lifting, lowering, has received much less attention. It is known that 52% of all box-handling tasks were lowering in nature. The difference in stress between lifting and lowering activity is not well understood. A simple assumption that these two activities are very similar has been established and widely used. However, this simple assumption may be questionable. The objective of this study was to compare a lifting activity and a lowering activity based on the three different ergonomic approaches; (1) biomechanical, (2) physiological, (3) psychophysical approach. It was found that the stress of lowering activity was from 65% to 93%, from 87% to 97%, and from 87% to 96% according to the biomechanical, physiological, and psychophysical point of view, respectively. It is concluded from the result of this study that the stress of lowering activity is lower than that of the lifting activity. The maximum compressive force on the lumbro-sacral joint (L5/S1) was 158% and 108% respectively, for lifting and lowering activity of which the work load is the 58% of Action Limit. It is suggested that the NIOSH AL and RWL and biomechanical criteria should be reconsidered especially for the low frequency of lifting activities.

• 산업경영시스템학회지
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• 제25권1호
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• pp.9-13
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• 2002

The objective of this study was to analyze and make comparison between the physical responses such as oxygen consumption rate, heart rate, and EMG-measurement for lifting tasks. Lifting activities with three different working frequencies(5, 8, 11 lifts/min) and two different weights(10, 20kg) for a lifting range(from floor to 76cm height) were studied. It was found that theme are positive correlations between the oxygen consumption rate and the EMG-measurements on the region of law back. Even though these physical responses were influenced by work weights and work frequency, it was found that the work frequency plays more important role in making muscle fatigue than the work weight. From these finding it is suggested that the work frequency should be considered as a more influencing factor than the work weight as long as the weight belongs to the permissible range based on the viewpoint of the biomechanical criterion for designing a job of manual materials handling tasks.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.1-9
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• 1999

The objective of this study was to make comparison of the physical work capacities(PWCs) for three different types of tasks. For this purpose, an ergometer exercise, a treadmill exercise, and lifting activities with four different frequencies (2, 5, 8, 11 lifts/min) for the lifting range from floor to 76cm were considered. Oxygen consumption rates and heart rates were measured during the exercises and lifting activities. The PWC values for ergometer exercise test was $2562.71ml-O_2/min$ and the one for treadmill exercise was $2874.89ml-O_2/min$. The value of lifting PWC increased from $1774.07ml-O_2/min$ to $2296.76ml-O_2/min$ as the lifting frequency increased from 2 to 11 lifts/min. The ratio of the lifting PWCs to the ergometer PWC increased from 69.36% to 89.77% as the lifting frequency increased. To the treadmill PWC, the ratio increased from 62.21% to 85.24% as the lifting frequency increased. From this result, it appears that the PWCs based on the lifting tasks rather than PWCs by ergometer or treadmill exercise should be considered to determine the physiological criterion for safe weights for lifting tasks. Therefore, the physiological criteria of the NIOSH Guideline should be reexamined.

• 산업경영시스템학회지
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• 제27권3호
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• pp.90-96
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• 2004

The objective of this study was to develop a model for safe work load based on a physiological model of metabolic energy of manual material handling tasks. Fifteen male subjects voluntarily participated in this study. Lifting activities with four different weights, 0, 8, 16, 24kg, and four different working frequencies (2, 5, 8, 11 lifts/min) for a lifting range from floor to the knuckle height of 76cm were considered. Oxygen consumption rates and heart rates were measured during the performance of sixteen different lifting activities. Simplified predictive equations for estimating the oxygen consumption rate and the heart rate were developed. The oxygen consumption rate and the heart rate could be expressed as a function of task variables; frequency and the weight of the load, and a personal variable, body weight, and their interactions. The coefficients of determination ($r^2$) of the model were 0.9777 and 0.9784, respectively, for the oxygen consumption rate and the heart rate. The model of oxygen consumption rate was modified to estimate the work load for the given oxygen consumption rate. The overall absolute percent errors of the validation of this equation for work load with the original data set was 39.03%. The overall absolute percent errors were much larger than this for the two models based on the US population. The models for the oxygen consumption rate and for the work load developed in this study work better than the two models based on the US population. However, without considering the biomechanical approach, the developed model for the work load and the two US models are not recommended to estimate the work loads for low frequent lifting activities.