Ergonomic Assessment of Body Working Postures among the ‎Employees of a Car Services Workshop Using OWAS Technique

Aims: Musculoskeletal disorders are the most common work-related complications in industrial environments. Inappropriate body working postures are considered as one of the most important risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders. The aim of this study was the ergonomic assessment of body working postures among the employees of a car services workshop, using OWAS technique.
Instruments and This study was a descriptive cross sectional study conducted in 2017 in a car services workshop selected through simple random sampling method. The study sample was one of the representatives of Iran Khodro Company in Ahwaz. Based on the study sample, 960 different body postures were recorded. Using OWAS method as a posture assessment method, each of the occupations was photographed for 40 minutes at 30 second intervals. The data were evaluated by Excel 2012 software and the photographs were evaluated by OWAS method.
Findings: Worker's work environment was ergonomically appropriate. Generally, 95.0% of the working postures were related to Level 1, indicating that most of the workstations did not need to be modified. The repetitive movements had the highest body working postures score.
Just in the case of car repairers, there was a need for redesigning the workstation. In other cases, the tasks of repairing, coloring, and pressing were related to Code 1.