Material handling of Kakrapar Atomic Power Plant and Ergonomic Analysis of Material Handling at NIT Rourkela Construction Site

Material handling is the preparation, placing and positioning of materials to facilitate their movement or storage. In many industries, handling of materials, articles, equipment, etc. becomes a main source of injury. Material handling is of two types; manual and mechanical. To avoid unsafe acts and other hazards like slipping, falling, striking, etc. in manual handling, it is being substituted by more and more mechanical handling. It reduces such hazards and manpower and increases productivity. Regardless of automation and mechanization, it appears that repetitive as well as excessive muscular exertions are still very common during many occupational tasks. Overuse of muscular loads has been found to develop musculoskeletal injuries, especially the back and upper extremity muscles. Through the study of ergonomics, it has been found that a heavy emphasis should be placed on human factors to reduce these injuries. Shapoorji Pallonji Construction Limited (contractor of NIT Rourkela construction site) used to import and handle different material on the site like bricks, rebar’s, IS beams, cement bags, scaffoldings, formwork and manufacturing of brick and tiles, etc. At the receiving area, employees were required to perform manual lifting of supplies, push and pull carts, as well as the use of manual forklifts to move heavy materials. Thus lifting, pulling and pushing of materials incorrectly that can cause back injury, these symptoms are the indications that ergonomic risk factors may exist in the material handling area if these risk factors are present at the site, and there are no corrective measures are taken to tackle the problems, then employees would experience frequent work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs).From the above observation, it is appropriate to suggest to use the advanced practices during handling equipment and materials at various construction sites inside NIT Rourkela. The work-method analysis will be used with NIOSH, RULA, REBA, QEC tools