Relationship between Heat strain and Human productivity in automotive assembly industry

In many jobs، people are exposed to thermal stress. Exposed to heat and Cause heat strain to persons، in addition to the negative impact on health، affected productivity and efficiency and thus reduce the quantity and quality of production of organizations. Therefor، the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between thermal strain and human productivity in the automotive assembly industry.

This cross-sectional study was on 181 workers of automotive assembly industry in both summer and winter season. To study the thermal strains، HSSI and WBGT indices and also to survey of human productivity Hersey and Goldsmit scale was used. Finally to study of relationship between the WBGT and HSSI with human productivity and its subscales، Pearson correlation was applied.

Most and lowest of WBGT index and HSSI in summer، to arrange for special unit and warehouse storage، respectively. In winter the maximum value of these indices was calculated for Production unit and the lowest values of these indices were obtained for special and business units، respectively. The maximum and minimum value of human productivity was obtained for business unit (25. 81) and storage unit (16. 52). The findings showed that the Pearson correlation coefficient the WBGT index and human productivity is not significant (P= 0. 134). But HSSI index and human productivity had a significant inverse relationship (P= 0. 015) and with decreasing heat strain score index، increased the human productivity and conversely.

Heat strain has a negative impact on human productivity so that increase of heat strain human productivity is reduced. The WBGT index did not reported the negative impact.