• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.203-210
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• 2010

For the development of a better product which fits to the target user population, physical workloads such as reach and visibility are evaluated using digital human simulation in the early stage of product development; however, ergonomic workload assessment mainly relies on visual observation of reach envelopes and view cones generated in a 3D graphic environment. The present study developed a quantitative assessment method of physical workload in a digital environment and applied to the evaluation of a Korean utility helicopter (KUH) cockpit design. The proposed assessment method quantified physical workloads for the target user population by applying a 3-step process and identified design features requiring improvement based on the quantified workload evaluation. The scores of physical workloads were quantified in terms of posture, reach, visibility, and clearance, and 5-point scales were defined for the evaluation measures by referring to existing studies. The postures of digital humanoids for a given task were estimated to have the minimal score of postural workload by finding all feasible postures that satisfy task constraints such as a contact between the tip of the index finger and a target point. The proposed assessment method was applied to evaluate the KUH cockpit design in the preliminary design stage and identified design features requiring improvement. The proposed assessment method can be utilized to ergonomic evaluation of product designs using digital human simulation.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 1997.04a
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• pp.90-94
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• 1997

Many workers like welders are working in squat sitting postures with te object on the ground for an entire work shift. It is suspected that such prolonged squat sitting without any supporting stool would gradually cause musculoskeletal injuries to workers. This study is to quantitatively evaluate the physical stress caused by the prolonged squat sitting and to recommend a safe work/rest schedule for the task with squat sitting posture based on the lab experiment. In this study, 8 healthy student subjects participated in the experiment. They maintained a squat sitting posture for 16 minutes with 4 different stool height conditions: no stool, 10cm hight, 15cm height, 20cm height. Every 2 minutes, the discomfort was subjectively assessed using the magnitude estimation method for the whole body, lower back, upper leg and lower leg. Based on discomfort rating, we found that 10cm height stool relieved the workload most. Discomfort rating results also indicated that 20cm height stool showed the heghest workload, and that there was no difference in workload between 15cm height and no stool. We recommend to provide the workers with 10cm height stool for prolonged squat sitting tasks.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.12-15
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• 2012

Energy costs for operating and cooling computing resources in Cloud infrastructure have increased significantly up to the point where they would surpass the hardware purchasing costs. Thus, reducing the energy consumption can save a significant amount of management cost. One of major approach is removing hardware over-provisioning. In this paper, we propose a technique that facilitates power saving through reducing resource over provisioning based on virtualization technology. To this end, we use dynamic workload shaping to reschedule and redistribute job requests considering overall power consumption. In this paper, we present our approach to shape workloads dynamically and distribute them on virtual machines and physical machines through virtualization technology. We generated synthetic workload data and evaluated it in simulating and real implementation. Our simulated results demonstrate our approach outperforms to when not using no workload shaping methodology.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.21 no.2 s.74
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• pp.121-127
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• 2006

Nursing often requires heavy physical work activities such as lifting heavy loads, working in awkward postures, transferring patients, operating hazardous equipment, etc. Among various nursing tasks, patients transferring is one of the most physically demanding tasks. This study aims to investigate workload of the patients transferring, and to propose its improving methods for reducing high workload. The results showed that irrespective of methods for patients transferring and the number of workers involved, workload for most patients transferring tasks exceeded the action limit represented in terms of L5/SI compressive force of 3,400N or LI of 1.0 by NIOSH. The loads for some tasks were far larger than the maximum permissible limit of 6,400N. It is recommended that the mechanical devices for transferring patients such as ceiling crane, sling lift etc. should be introduced rather than simply increasing the number of workers in the tasks.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.24 no.69
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• pp.51-64
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• 2001

A laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of working posture. work/rest ration, and task type on the physical workload in automobile assembly jobs. Ten healthy male university students participated as subjects in the experiment. East subject performed 18 experimental session with combination of 3 working posture 3 work/rest ratio and 2 task types. To examine the effect of various working conditions on workload, DMG analysis was performed on 4 different muscles in the neck an arm area, Also RPE scale and heart rate were taken as response variables. The result showed that all working conditions considered in the experiment had significant effects on the workload concluding that labor intensity in auto assembly jobs should be adjusted with respect to different levels of working posture, work/rest ratio, and task type. Detailed analysis are presented in the paper.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.100-106
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• 2013

According to the Statistics Korea, in 2011, people over the age of 65 years old accounted for 11.8% of Korea's population. This number is expected to rise to 15.0% by 2019, making Korea an "aged society". As age increases, physical ability degrades to the point that the workload must be adjusted limitations. However, workloads are given regardless of workers' ages or abilities. In addition, a decline in work efficiency due to aging also increases the risk of work-related injuries. Furthermore, the cases of stress related diseases along with musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) rise as main factors of industrial disasters and excessive job stress gives negative influence not only on mental health but also on physical health so that job stress becomes a hot issue as a main cause of work ability falloff and turnover. The purpose of this research is to examine how the sociodemographic characteristics, MSDs symptoms and musculoskeletal workload of workers in the manufacturing industry of automobile parts influence work ability and job stress. As a result of the research, job ability showed significant differences statistically according to age, working year, sex, marital status and musculoskeletal workload and job stress showed significant differences statistically according to age, working year, marital status and musculoskeletal workload. In addition, it showed that as the worker's job ability decreases, job stress increases.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.98-108
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• 2005

The assembly line balancing problem has been focused by many research works because the efficient management of the assembly line might influence not only the quality of the products but also the working conditions for the workers. This paper deals with U-shape mixed-model assembly line balancing and considers both the processing time and the physical workloads. We suggest the goal programming approach for this situation and to overcome some difficulties of finding optimal solution, we adopt the genetic algorithm that is one of the most promising solution techniques. We tested several test problems and present the results that indicate some improvement for the line balancing as well as the stable performance of the algorithm.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.134-141
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• 2007

It is crucial that the WRMSD is realized as a critical job-related diseases for the construction workers. It is caused by the characteristics of repetitive work, uncomfortable work methods and continuous unsuitable physical posture. The objective of this research is to evaluate the workload for the carpenters and structural steel workers. Investigation on the posture and behavior for the workers as well as personal sensitivity to the workload is conducted. The laboratory tests with graduate students are conducted to estimate inconvenience in terms of personal sensitivity to the workload. The results of this research will be used to perform the further researches on ergonomic and technological approaches to improvements of the hand-intensive tasks in the construction industry.

• Proceedings of the ESK Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.52-52
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• 2004

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.33-40
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• 2012

Dentists are known to be highly exposed to the musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). The present study investigated the prevalence of MSD among Korean dentists and association between their MSD and physical workload. In addition, detailed causes related to the physical workloads were identified in dental operation, and needs for improvement of dental instrument and environment were collected from Korean dentists. The standardized Nordic questionnaire was used to survey body troubles and three types of questionnaires were made to investigate the physical workloads, causes of the physical workloads and improvement priority of dental equipments, respectively. A total of 104 Korean dentists were participated in the survey. Neck trouble (82%) was the most prevalent in Korean dentists, and shoulder (68%) and low back trouble (56%) followed, while low back trouble was reported to be most frequent in previous studies. The body troubles were related to the physical workload of the corresponding body parts, although they were not associated with personal characteristics. Most Korean dentists selected 'to keep direct view inside patient's mouth' and 'no support of the hand with dental instruments' as the causes of awkward and strenuous work postures. They wanted design improvement for some equipment in their operating room such as operating light and arrangement of workplace.