• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.351-358
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• 2021

Backgrounds: Irregular and unpredictable work schedules have become more common in most societies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between unpredictable work schedules and depressive symptoms in Korea. Methods: Data from 34,486 workers who participated in the Korean Working Condition Survey in 2017 were used. Unpredictable work schedules were measured by questions about the frequency of changes in work schedule and limited advanced notice. Depressive symptoms were assessed by a single item asking if the participants had depressive symptoms over the last 12 months. Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression analysis was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) for high depressive symptoms. Results: The OR for depressive symptoms was significantly higher in the workers with unpredictable work schedules compared to those with predictable work schedules after controlling for age, sex, education, salary, marital status, occupation, contract period, full-time versus part-time, shift work, weekly working hours, and having a child under the age of 18 years (OR = 2.43, 95% confidence interval 1.93-3.07). Conclusion: Unpredictable work schedules were associated with depressive symptoms controlling for the other dimensions of precarious employment in a representative working population in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.119-124
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• 2008

Many automobile assembly workers often do several cycles of tasks continuously, i.e., without breaks, to get a longer break. This is not recommended since the dose of fatigue increases exponetially with time and it takes much longer time to recover. In this study, a laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of work/rest schedules on workload of a repetitive upper-limb task. Eleven male subjects participated in the experiment, in which simulated screw driving tasks were carried out repetitively with 3 different work/rest schedules: standard breaks(1 cycle of work at a time, 60 20-s breaks), medium breaks(5 cycles of work at a time, 12 100-s breaks), and long breaks(10 cycles of work at a time, 6 200-s breaks). The result showed that medium- and long-breaks schedules significantly increased the level of perceived discomfort and %HRR as compared to the standard-break schedule. The subjects' preference was not statistically different among work/rest schedules, which might be caused from the absolutely low level of workload of the experimental tasks. From the results, it is recommended to have frequent and shorter breaks rather than infrequent and longer breaks to decrease the level of physical workload. A more expanded studies, however, should be carried out to provide more practical safety guidelines on the work practice of continuous working without breaks among automobile assembly workers.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.308-316
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• 2020

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the knowledge and performance of sleep hygiene among nurses with shift work schedules and examine the influence on sleep disturbance. Methods: A total of 199 shift-work nurses from a tertiary hospital were included in the study. To examine the knowledge and performance of sleep hygiene, the participants were asked to respond to a self-reported survey. To assess sleep disturbance, the General Sleep Disturbance Scale was used. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression were applied using the SPSS/WIN 21.0 program to analyze the data. Results: Both the knowledge and performance of sleep hygiene among nurses with shift work schedules were measured at a moderate level. Nurses' knowledge and the performance of sleep hygiene was not significantly associated with sleep disturbance, whereas age, experience with shift-working, and perceived health status were significantly associated. Conclusion: Strategies for providing more accurate information and motivating better sleep hygiene would help to enhance sleep hygiene in nurses with shift work schedules. Further studies examining the association of knowledge and the performance of sleep hygiene with sleep disturbances in nurses with shift work schedules are needed.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.616-623
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• 2022

Some regions and states, such as Wyoming, have harsh weather conditions, forcing most transportation projects to be completed under tight schedules. However, construction projects are not only delayed by weather conditions, but also delayed by other factors such as contractor's competency, resource availability, coordination issues, and safety. Also, the construction method, geographical location of the projects, and inability to follow baseline schedules accurately due to the contractor's resource allocation are also reasons for the delay. This paper discusses the main reasons for the delay in the public transportation projects based on Daily Work Reports (DWRs) from five different transportation projects of the last three years in Wyoming. This paper focuses on the inconsistencies of the contractor's schedules to complete the project according to the baseline schedule. First, the authors collected DWRs and baseline schedules from the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT). Second, the DWR data are compared against the baseline schedules to determine the reasons for delaying their significance. Finally, the paper presents the recommendations to mitigate the effects of delays on public transportation projects as well as to improve the documentation process of DWR data.

• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.620-623
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• 2004

Conventionally injection molds & dies are manufactured through an order-oriented manner. This brings unexpected orders into the shop floor such as hot order, re-work, and new types of mold & dies. Thus, there needs appropriate resource assignment plans considering the available times of machines and workers. Further, a scheduling system is required that can create work schedules periodically or by customers' requests. Yet, in small & medium sized mold & die makers, production schedules usually depend on the shop floor workers' experience and their manual preparation. Hence, developed in this study is a scheduling management system (SMS) based on order release and review (ORR) in small and medium sized mold & die companies. The proposed SMS considers delivery dates as well as flexible work schedules, so as to meet frequent changes of customers' order. The system can provide effective resource assigning and work scheduling plans, securing standard data associated with shop floors. Furthermore, the system pursues economical schedules for companies' needs, equipped with an available to promise (ATP) function that can effectively accommodate the changes of production plans.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.240-248
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• 2015

Background: Recovery from fatigue is important in maintaining night workers' health. This study compared the course of self-reported recovery after 2-week 12-hour schedules consisting of either night shifts or swing shifts (i.e., 7 night shifts followed by 7 day shifts) to such schedules consisting of only day work. Methods: Sixty-one male offshore employees-20 night workers, 16 swing shift workers, and 25 day workers-rated six questions on fatigue (sleep quality, feeling rested, physical and mental fatigue, and energy levels; scale 1-11) for 14 days after an offshore tour. After the two night-work schedules, differences on the $1^{st}$ day (main effects) and differences during the follow-up (interaction effects) were compared to day work with generalized estimating equations analysis. Results: After adjustment for confounders, significant main effects were found for sleep quality for night workers (1.41, 95% confidence interval 1.05-1.89) and swing shift workers (1.42, 95% confidence interval 1.03-1.94) when compared to day workers; their interaction terms were not statistically significant. For the remaining fatigue outcomes, no statistically significant main or interaction effects were found. Conclusion: After 2-week 12-hour night and swing shifts, only the course for sleep quality differed from that of day work. Sleep quality was poorer for night and swing shift workers on the $1^{st}$ day off and remained poorer for the 14-day follow-up. This showed that while working at night had no effect on feeling rested, tiredness, and energy levels, it had a relatively long-lasting effect on sleep quality.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.5-38
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to examine work-life balance by analyzing time schedules of married couple. The 2014 Korea Time Use Survey dataset was used for the analysis. Finally, 6,262 time diaries of 3,131 households were included in the analysis. The study used sequence analysis in particular, by applying the Lesnard(2014)'s dynamic hamming matching (DHM) method, which is useful for the time diary analysis where timing is a key factor. This study explored daily schedules of each man and woman according to 9 types of couple-combined work-schedules, which had been already derived by cluster analysis. The daily schedules were identified according to the activities divided as labor, housework, sleep, self-management, active leisure, passive leisure, and others. Here, time allocation was analyzed through various graphs showing average time amount and modal states by time period. Based on the analysis, it summarized that "long working hours as a main factor of work-life imbalance", "gender inequality of time use", "non-standard hours work impairing quality of life and "poverty of leisure time"as characteristics of work-life imbalance. Finally this study discussed the social policy implications to support work-life balance.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.53-58
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• 2024

Background: As social distancing persists and interest in work-life balance grows, more companies are adopting flexible work policies. While there have been studies on sleep disorders associated with different types of work, such as shift work, research exploring the relationship between flexible work schedules and sleep disorders is still limited, particularly among Korean workers. Methods: We performed a secondary analysis of the 6th Korean Working Conditions Survey, focusing on 31,243 paid workers out of a total of 50,538 participants. We defined flexible workers as those who set their own working hours. Sleep disorders were divided into three categories: 'difficulty falling asleep,' 'frequent waking during sleep,' and 'waking up feeling exhausted and fatigued.' Using scores derived from three specific symptoms, the Minimal Insomnia Symptoms Scale (MISS) was calculated to assess the prevalence of insomnia. We used chi-square tests to analyze demographic and job-related differences. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed to identify any relationship between flexible work schedules and sleep disorders. Results: Significant differences were found between flexible and non-flexible workers regarding age, income level, education level, and job type. Flexible workers reported sleep-related symptoms significantly more often. The odds ratio for insomnia was 1.40 (95% CI 1.21-1.61). For males, the odds ratio was 1.68 (1.36-2.08). Conclusion: This study establishes a correlation between flexible work schedules and sleep disorders among Korean salaried workers. Potential causes could include changes in circadian rhythm, increased work demands, and extended working hours. To precisely determine causality and associated diseases, further research is required.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.165-178
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• 2021

Purpose: To analyze nurses' shift work according to the government guidelines for night work and their perceptions of their work schedules. Methods: The study sample included 487 nurses who provided information on their schedules, including the normal working hours of each shift, and overtime per shift during September 2020. Nurses' perceptions were measured in terms of satisfaction, appropriateness for work-life balance, and fairness to their work schedule. Results: One-third of the respondents worked more than 40 hours per week. The average overtime hour was 1.14 hours per shift. Unsocial hours (8 pm to 6 am on weekdays, midnight to midnight on weekends and public holidays) accounted for 56.4% of all working hours. During their last night shift, on average, nurses worked 9.62 hours and had a break of 39 minutes, although 20.5% reported no break. Sixty-eight percent of nurses had at least one between-shift break shorter than 48 hours after a consecutive night shifts. Fifty-seven percent were satisfied with their schedule. One-third perceived their schedule as appropriate for work-life balance, and two-thirds perceived that days off on weekends and nights were fairly distributed within the unit. Working and overtime hours had an inverse relationship with all three aspects of nurses' perceptions. A higher proportion of unsocial hours and having no breaks during the night shift were associated with lower perceptions of fairness. Conclusion: Reducing working hours, ensuring breaks during night shifts, and increasing rewards for unsocial hours are required to improve nurses' perceptions and reduce turnover due to shift work.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Quality Management Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.315-320
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• 2006

Container crane in container terminal have a lot of parts, and a crane breakdown affects the productivity of terminal. In this paper, we decide Preventive Maintenance (PM) schedules for container crane in container terminals. We define structure of container crane using three model. Also we develop a simulation system and genetic algorithm for decision PM schedules based on failure and maintenance data collected from container terminal. We compare the work schedule with PM schedules of container crane, then regulate PM schedules using heuristic method.