• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제30권4호
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• pp.465-472
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• 2011

Objective: The aim of this paper is to introduce ergonomic evaluation methods for agricultural work. Background: Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders(WMSDs) became a major problem in agriculture industry recently. A number of ergonomics evaluation methods have been developed in order to evaluate the work load for preventing WMSDs. The workload evaluation methods were developed for manufacturing industry. Therefore, these ergonomic evaluation methods were used carefully in agriculture industry because work type in agriculture different from work type in manufacturing. Method: Various references of ergonomic evaluation methods such as OWAS, REBA, RULA, NLE and Snook table have been reviewed for agricultural work. Results: This paper presents the characteristics, the selection and application procedure of ergonomic evaluation methods for agricultural work. Application: These results can be used to provide baseline information for ergonomic evaluation methods.

• 대한산업공학회지
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• 제28권2호
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• pp.223-231
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• 2002

Recently, work-related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs) have rapidly increased and have been a major issue in the field of industrial safety. Of several physical risk factors for WMSDs, which include postures, vibration, repetitive work, speed or acceleration of movements, etc., awkward postures have been known as one of the major causes of WMSDs. For reducing the potential for injury as a result of postures, cost effective quantification of the magnitude for physical exposure to poor working postures is important and needed. To do this, several postural classification schemes have been developed and used in industrial sites. It is known that perceived discomfort for joint motions and muscle strength for females were much less than those for males. However, the existing postural classification schemes were developed without considering these gender effects. This study aims to develop a new postural classification scheme for female workers, based on the perceived discomfort for joint motions. The result showed that there was significant difference between the schemes for female and male. It was also found that when compared with OWAS, RULA and REBA, postural load was quantified more precisely with the developed scheme. It is recommended that different schemes according to gender of workers involved in work be used in order to accurately evaluate postural load of work postures.

• 산업공학
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.222-228
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• 2003

Computer-dominated jobs and industrial automation have rapidly created work-related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs) and WMSDs are also founded in employees of other general industries. WMSDs has been growing problems for Korean industries with higher incidence rate every year. The objective of this paper is to analyze the effects of the neck muscle workload according to postures(joint angle) and load weights. Seven male students participated in this study. Neck workload was rated on each person using a Borg's CR-10 scale. ANOVA showed that the CR-10 ratings were statistically significant according to postures and load weights. To reduce the large number and severity of WMSDs, which employees have been experiencing, we need to redesign the job in workplace so that we can control hazards that are reasonably likely to be causing or contributing to the WMSDs. The results of this study can be used to establish the safety criteria of joint angle and weight of neck workload.

• 대한인간공학회지
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.61-66
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• 2006

Awkward work postures in workshop highly affect on work-related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs). Especially, in automobiles assembly process, these awkward work postures of workers may cause serious injury and illness. This study is to compare the performance among the evaluation tools which can measure the work-loads caused by the awkward work postures in automobiles assemble process. RULA, REBA and TVAL(Toyota Verification of Assembly Line) are used as the evaluation tools. The 85 jobs selected in the automobiles assembly process are applied to the three tools and their performances are analyzed after the evaluation of the work-load in each job. Through various measures of performance such as statistical test, DUNCAN test, regression test etc., the tendencies and characteristics among them are analyzed in detail.

• 한국전자통신학회논문지
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.311-322
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• 2014

본 연구의 목적은 최근 IT환경에서 소방관의 건강 관련 삶의 질에 대하여 작업 관련 근골격계 질환의 영향을 평가하고자 하였다. 평가는 구조화된 설문지를 이용하였으며, 직접 대면 면담 방식으로 진행되었다. 연구는 전체 366명의 소방관이 참여하였다. 평가 방법은 근골격계 질환의 증상에 대한 평가를 위해 NIOSH의 증상 표를 이용한 자가 평가식 설문지로 측정하였으며, 건강관련 삶의 질의 평가를 위해 SF-36을 근거로 측정하였다. 근골격계 질환의 유병률은 상지에서 38.0%, 허리에서 35.5%, 하지에서 21.6%이었으며, 59.3%에서 신체의 두 부위 이상에서 증상이 발생하였다. 근골격계 질환의 증상을 갖는 소방관은 상지에 근골격계 질환의 증상을 갖지 않는 소방관보다 감정 기복 제한을 제외한 삶의 질의 7 범주에서 유의한 낮은 점수를 보였다. 반면에 근골격계 질환의 증상을 갖는 소방관은 하지나 허리에 근골격계 질환의 증상을 갖지 않는 소방관보다 삶의 질의 모든 범주에서 유의한 낮은 점수를 보였다. 이러한 결과는 근골격계 질환이 삶의 질에 부정적 효과를 갖음을 유추할 수 있다. 따라서 소방관에서 근골격계 질환의 예방은 건강 관련 삶의 질을 향상하기 위한 효과적인 중재적 전략으로 고려할 수 있을 것이다.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.148-152
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• 2005

The purpose of this paper is to investigate risk factors and ergonomically improve the manufacturing lines of compressors for prevention of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, enhancement of productivity, and workers satisfaction We executed questionnaire survey, ergonomic risk factors investigation of manufacturing lines and ergonomic intervention of work methods, workplace and hand tools. The results of the questionnaire showed that $7.9\%$ of respondents were positive in WMSDs symptom survey. In ergonomic evaluation, the analysis methods such as RULA and NIOSH lifting equation were used and 28 processes in the lines were evaluated to be potentially hazardous. We ergonomically improved the processes to reduce potential WMSDs hazards : manual material handling, carts, work tables, transport methods, working posture and hand tools.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.225-229
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• 2021

Background: The socioeconomic burden of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) is significant, and kitchen work is a high-risk occupation for MSDs due to the intensive manual workload and repetitive movements that are involved. However, there are very few studies on MSDs and rest breaks as a workplace intervention among kitchen workers. This study examined the relationship between insufficient rest breaks and increased MSD risk among Korean kitchen workers. Methods: Sociodemographic and occupational factors of 1,909 kitchen workers were collected from the 3rd-4th Korean Working Conditions Survey data. Five items on rest breaks at work were categorized into two groups, "sufficient" and "insufficient." The number of MSDs and work-related MSDs (WMSDs), an outcome variable, was obtained from the sum of MSDs/WMSDs in three anatomical sites (back, neck, and upper limb, lower limb). The association between rest breaks and MSDs was estimated using zeroinflated negative binomial analyses, with adjustments for age, education level, and weekly working hours, and the analyses were stratified by sex. Results: After adjustment, significant associations were found between insufficient rest breaks and an increased risk of MSDs (odds ratio [OR] 1.68 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.11-2.54) and WMSDs (OR 1.40 95% CI 1.01-1.96) among female kitchen workers. Insufficient rest breaks were significantly associated with MSDs in female kitchen workers in all three anatomical sites. Conclusion: This study emphasizes the need for rest breaks as a workplace intervention for preventing MSDs in kitchen workers. Further studies to reveal the causality of this relationship are required.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.136-142
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• 2000

One of the major requirements in preventing Work-related MusculoSkeletal Disorders(WMSDs) is to know definitely what vigorous exertion requirements are contained in a job. This requires improved job analysis tools which can accurately evaluate potentially harmful stresses to the musculoskeletal system. But to simply evaluate the level of stress at a joint, or in a muscle is not enough to motivate job changes. Therefore, the development of ergonomic evaluation tools for the jobs are important to ergonomics. The main objective is compared of the results that made by the ergonomic evaluation tools (e.g., BRIEF and RULA) in actually shoes manufacturing. These were developed in the foreign. So, it is priory needed to research of the ergonomics about Korean characteristic work by physiology and biomechanics.

• 대한안전경영과학회지
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.83-90
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• 2011

It has been very important to have an exact evaluation for risk factors in order to prevent WMSDs(Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders). However, most WMSDs evaluation methods have always been some problems of possibilities associated with subjective evaluation. Therefore, this study tried to conduct a sort of usability analysis on three major evaluation methods(OWAS, RULA, REBA). Specifically, major subjects in the study consisted of three parts as follows; comparison of the results between experienced and inexperienced observers, analysis for the consistency of the results in terms of different evaluation times, and analysis for the consistency of the results in terms of different job characteristics(based on the part of the automobile). The results of the study were summarized as follows; 1) There was statistically significant difference of the results by RULA and by REBA between experienced and inexperienced observers. This might be due to the fact that experienced observers have had better ability to detect the important working posture during evaluation. However, the results by OWAS did not give any significantly different results between experienced and inexperienced observers, 2) All three checklists applied by experienced subjects did not show any single result significantly different in terms of different evaluation times. This might have to do with high intra-observer reliability from some of previous studies, 3) The five parts of an automobile were selected as five major jobs with different job characteristics in the automobile industry. Specifically, they were door part, front part(hood, etc.), inside part(dash board, seats, etc.), rear part(trunk etc.), and bottom part. All three methods did not show any significant differences for the results from each observers. Further study on this subject would eventually provide a sophisticated evaluating guidelines for WMSDs regarding determination of observer-specific evaluation, identification of repetitive number of evaluations for stable results for each checklist, determination of job-specific evaluation methods, and so on.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제24권4호
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• pp.90-95
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to investigate industrial safety and health experts' opinions on the examination system of WMSDs(work related musculoskeletal disorders) risk factors. For doing this, a questionnaire study and two FGIs(focused group interview) were conducted. A questionnaire with open questions about the examination system was developed, and sent to 42 experts consented bye-mail. Of the experts, 24 experts responded, whose data were used in the analysis. The FGIs were performed for the persons in charge of industrial safety and health in industries and ergonomists. The questionnaire study revealed that most experts(91.3%) agreed with legalization of employers' duty for preventing WMSDs, necessity of the 11 tasks designated by Ministry of Labor, the examination system and ergonomics program, and pertinency for the examination system classification of periodic and occasional one. However, more than half experts disagreed with timeliness and appropriateness of the legal system. This was validated by the low approval rates for appropriateness of the 11 tasks, methods of the examination, charge person in the examination and ergonomics program. FGIs showed that it was desirable for the examination system to be legalized, and that the system was generally properly performed. It was suggested that the system be partially revised with reflecting problems disclosed during its enforcement rather than whole revision. It is expected that when revising relevant legal system, the results of this study would be used as valuable data.