Biomechanical risk factors among the assembly line workers of a cosmetics manufacturing factory in India

The aim of this study was to find out the perceived exertion and postural risk factors among a group of assembly line workers in a cosmetics manufacturing company in India. Initially there was a general task inspection by floor visit by a team of ergonomists to identify tasks that might be considered to predispose workers to Work related musculoskeletal disorder (WRMSD). Nine tasks were identified to be problem tasks among 38 task areas visited and a detailed ergonomic workplace analysis of those tasks was performed. Photographs and video recording of the chosen tasks were taken. Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) was used to evaluate the posture and Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) by Moore and Garg Strain Index. Among all the tasks shampoo bottle packing line (n=2), shampoo bottle packing area (n=6), container filling (n=10), sachet sorting (n=2), assembly of bottles (n=4), manual filling line (n=2), manual capping of bottles (n=4) and chemical feeding process (n=2) were found to be high risk tasks. Among 9 different tasks in 5 different lines, 3 were assessed with REBA and other 6 were assessed with RULA to find out possible postural hazards. Among the parameters, duration of exertion was high for 6 tasks, efforts per minute were higher for 7 tasks and speed of work was more for 5 tasks. Hand and wrist posture and intensity of exertion found to be at risk in 3 tasks respectively