• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.21 no.4 s.76
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• pp.108-113
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• 2006

The Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders(WMSDs) have been an rising issue since the 1970s. So many manufacturing companies have been tried to improve the work environments for the control and the prevention of the WMSDs. Specific risk factors associated with WMSDs include repetitive motion, heavy lifting, forceful exertion, contact stress, vibration, awkward posture and rapid hand and wrist movement. But recently it has reported that besides working conditions, job stress is the important hazard causes which lead to WMSDs. This study investigates the relation between WMSDs and Job stress from 1426 workers in Heavy Industry. Job stress was evaluated by Karasek's model. Job stress was associated with job satisfaction. Job demand was associated with the WMSDs, but job control was not associated with the WMSDs. The results can be used to design the management program for the WMSDs and the job stress.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.15-25
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• 2003

Recent studies indicate potential links between various psychosocial factors and work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). In this research, the effects of job stressors on the WMSDs symptoms were investigated using questionnaire in the largest automotive company in Korea. It was found that perception of workload, over time and shift work, and working using powered hand tools were significant factors for the symptoms of WMSDs, along with smoking habit, periodic exercise, and interpersonal relationship. Practical applications of this research include practitioners taking into account psychosocial work factors and job stress in their efforts to reduce and control WMSDs.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.167-174
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• 2014

Objective: This research focuses on the working environment of office workers and aims to propose an ideal seating posture and chair design. Background: Generally, office workers having to seat in a fixed posture for long periods of time tend to suffer from an increased rate of musculoskeletal disorders. Method: The measurement and survey of 123 office workers on their working conditions and literature survey will lead to a suggestion of an ideal seating posture and workstation design theory. Results: Work environment satisfaction appeared low for chair and desks. Work-related pain over the last year was experienced among 47.2% of the respondents in shoulder (34.2%), neck (30.9%). Observation of working posture revealed that only 27.6% of workers utilize backrest during work. Conclusion: Office work embodies many situations where risks of musculoskeletal disorders may be high. Thus, the seated workplace must be set up to allow proper seating posture for workers. Application: The results of this study can be applied as baseline data for preventing musculoskeletal disorders of office workers.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.469-474
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• 2012

The aim of this study is to develop an ergonomic design of magic saw handle considering user experiences. Background: Frequent use of hand tool can cause musculoskeletal disorders by inadequate wrist posture, excessive strength, repetitiveness, friction and pressure, vibration, etc. A hand tool that is inappropriately designed has higher risk causing musculoskeletal disorders. Complaints for the design of magic saw handle has been raised by many users according to the increasing use of magic saw. Method: Hand tool has to be designed considering worker's characteristics and task condition to prevent worker's musculoskeletal disorders. For this, user experiences for magic saw handle were measured through questionnaire survey and observation. Results: An ergonomic design of magic saw handle considering user experiences was proposed and then its design suitability was evaluated in comparison with the existing handle design using EMG and subjective evaluation. Conclusion: The proposed handle design showed higher satisfaction and lower muscular fatigue. Application: The results of this study can be effectively used to develop a new magic saw.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.709-713
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• 2010

The objective of this paper is to report how workers' actively participate in a participatory ergonomics (PE) program, and how this program resulted in improved working conditions and decreased occurrence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). A major tire manufacturing company in Korea was studied. Most of the activities in the PE program were designed and actually practiced by the workers and their union. The results revealed some positive effects of applying a PE program to the employees. It was shown that incidence of the WMSDs as well as the lost work days and the economic cost incurred by the WMSDs decreased with the PE program.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.455-463
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• 2010

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are recognized as leading causes of significant human suffering, loss of productivity, and economic burdens on our society. WMSDs are associated with work patterns that include fixed or constrained body positions, continual repetition of movements, force concentrated on small parts of the body, cold environment and vibration. Main effort to protect workers from WMSDs should focus on avoiding repetitive patterns of work through engineering controls which may include mechanization, ergonomic design of tools and equipment, and workplace layout. Where elimination of the risk factors is not practical, administrative controls involving job rotation, job enlargement and enrichment, teamwork should be considered.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.25-38
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• 2006

It was investigated the current state of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs), which is one of the major problems in occupational safety and health management. A survey was conducted for safety personnel serve in the enterprises located at two cities in Gyungbuk area, Gumi and Pohang where the major industrial complex reside. The goal of this study was to identify whether the category and scale of the enterprises affect the sort of hazard factors, occurrence rate, and countermeasures against WMSDs. The results from the survey indicated that there were significant differences in the level of recognition and counteracts for WMSDs among the enterprises subject to their categories and scales. On the basis of these results, it was considered a more efficient way of spreading proper ergonomic knowledge and skills to the industries that were coincided with the circumstances of individual enterprise.

• 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.28 no.4
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• pp.139-145
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• 2009

This study concerned with the characteristics and causes of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) for employees aged 50 years or older. In order to do this, based on 8,011 accident analysis reports, we analyzed the differences of characteristics between groups under 50 years and 50 years or more in terms of gender, occupation, duration of employment, part of body, industry, size of business and work-related factors. Results show that the distributions of the injuries aged 50 years or older are statistically different from those of the injuries under 50 years. Also, older employees have high relationship between repetition, or contact stress/vibration and upper extremity MSDs. These findings can be used to develop more effective MSD prevention programs for older employees.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.149-153
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• 2003

Recently, work-related musculoskeletal disorders(WMSDs) are one of major issues in occupational safety and health in Korea. Main risk factors of WMSDs include manual handling of heavy weight loads, awkward posture, repetitive tasks, Prolonged static muscle contraction, and so on. The number of injured workers has rapidly increased and the related regulation was amended to improve the work conditions and environments. And demands for workers' compensation and improvement of work conditions and environment to prevent WMSDs have increasingly been raised. This study focused on managerial system to prevent WMSDs. Literal survey and questionnaire survey were accomplished to propose a management system in Korea for preventing WMSDs.