Ergonomic Interventions in Workstations of an Assembly Company

Background & Aims:

Currently, work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are one of the main occupational health concerns. These disorders are particularly observed in the upper limbs in the assembly lines of production units. The aim of this study was to perform ergonomic interventions in the workstations of the assemblers of a manufacturing company in 2016.

In this cross-sectional study, 60 workers who were active in the production of auto equipment and gas control with at least 3 years of experience were randomly selected for evaluation. To evaluate the ergonomics activities, data were collected using a researcher-made demographic questionnaire and the Assessment Repetitive Tasks method, and the interventions were performed in this production unit. The statistical analysis of data was performed using SPSS software (Version 22) by comparing the mean of the assessment of repetitive task (ART) scores of a paired t-test.

In an initial assessment of 60 people, 18% and 29% were at high and medium risk, respectively. To investigate the effect of the interventions, 39 people were selected from those who had moderate (64.10%) and high (5.2%) exposure risk and had similar workstations and equipment. The levels of exposure changed after performing engineering and management interventions in the workstations of these people. The number of people at the level of safe exposure was 30.70% before the intervention and increased to 53.85% after the intervention. The frequency of people at the moderate risk level decreased from 64% before intervention to 43% after the intervention, and the frequency of people at the high-risk level decreased from 5% to 2.5% (P < 0.05).

Interventions in this industry confirmed the effectiveness of these methods in reducing MSDs, and it can be concluded that a variety of ergonomic interventions have been effective in decreasing disorders.