Ergonomics evaluation of workplace at car tyre service centre

The project title is to evaluate an ergonomic on workplace at car tyre service centre. Too many people are injured while working in automotive workshops. Questionnaire survey on the workers by through interview session is used to identify a level of body discomfort area and sources of injury or uncomfortable feelings. Direct observation is performed by "walk through" inspection using digital camera to evaluate and identify ergonomic risk factor based on work activity that has ergonomic stressors present at the workplace. In particular, the application of Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) is used to evaluate exposures to postures, forces and muscle activities that have been shown to contribute to Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs). From questionnaire survey findings, the twelve (12) of respondents have body discomfort in the neck (8 each), shoulder (10 each), elbow/forearm (9 each), hand/wrist (11 each), knee (7 each), lower leg (7 each) ankle/foot (4 each) and lower back (9 each). The main sources of injury/uncomfortable feeling in workplace are poor body posture (75%), bending the back (75%), highly repetitive motion (75%), heavy lifting object (83.3%), the long term standing (66.7%), long term squatting (58.3%), bending the neck (66.7%) and high hand force (58.3%). And about 50% reported that poor workplace design was contributed to source of injury while 41.7% reported in use of hand tools. Eight (8) pictures were taken by using digital camera for the eight (8) different tasks to identify the ergonomic physical risk factors. Most of the physical risk factors identified were awkward posture from working with the hands above the shoulders, neck bending, bending the back forward, repeated bending, reaching, squatting and kneeling on the hard surface. Lifting heavy objects more than 10 kg, not wearing a hand gloves and exposed to high hand arm vibration when using high impact wrench (air gun) also contributed to the ergonomic physical risk factor. The REBA analysis showed, mostly in a score of eleven (11), very high risk which require action to be taken immediately. This study also includes controlling, minimizing and eliminating the risks of work-related entire body disorders exposure. There is a two hierarchy of controls that are widely accepted for modifying ergonomic hazards in which are engineering controls and administrative controls. Engineering controls involve changing the workstation layout, selection and use of tools, position of process materials, or work methods used to complete a task. Administrative controls are policies or practices directed by management that can reduce or prevent exposure to ergonomics risk factors. The study will be useful to ergonomists, researchers, consultants, workshop managers, maintenance workers and others concerned with ergonomics design in workplace