Working in a safe working posture is a necessity to enhance occupational health of industrial workers. Poor
working posture may lead to injuries, discomfort and fatigue to the workers. The objective of this study is to survey the
postures practised by the Malaysian industrial workers. A questionnaire survey was performed among 282 Malaysian
industrial workers in 10 different industries. From the answered questionnaire, it was observed that shoulder at chest
level (30.1%), back in a bent forward (33.3%) and lifting heavy load (44.7%) are the major work postures practised by
most of industrial workers. This survey identifies that working with shoulder and hand at chest level and back region
moderately bent forward is the main working posture practice by worker. Workers also reported lifting load below 5 kg
at the workstation. This survey recommended for industrial workers to be aware of the comfortable working posture
to avoid injury.
This paper reviews various papers since the year 2000 until 2016 regarding visual technology in human anthropometry
study, and discusses three major points; (1) the methods and objectives of the research, (2) the subjects of the
experiments and (3) body parts involved in the anthropometrical measurements. Measurement using visual
technology is claimed to be more accurate in obtaining anthropometrical data compared to the conventional method
using manual tools. However, commercial visual technology system can be very costly. Based on the reviewed
studies, a significant amount of research has adopted various visual processing methods to predict the human’s body
measurement. All of the studies utilized the applications of enhanced technologies that are able to reduce time and
human errors that normally occur during traditional hand-operated measurement. Usually, in order to prove that
their result is promising, the studies compared their results with the results gained from manual measurement. The
finding from this review is a preliminary step towards developing a camera-based system in anthropometry
measurement for the use in automotive ergonomics design.
Repetitive movement can lead to the pain muscle, nerves, and tendons that cause by
repetitive overuse of working task. The muscle will fatigue due to; repetitive
movement, force that been applied, posture during working and duration of working.
The stress level during working can influent the energy performance usage during
working. The aim of this paper is to analyse the influence of heart rate and muscle
activity of workers in composite manufacturing towards muscle fatigue. The data was
collected for a worker in hand layup department and the Qualitative method was used
in a way to investigate the working load and level of pain received by their body. Then,
the Qualitative data was sorted and the respondent proceeded for a Quantitative
method which involves muscle activity analysis and heart rate analysis. The tools that
were used to conduct these experiments were surface electromyography (sEMG),
Wristwatch with chest strap and perceived stress scale (PSS). The experimentation
used to calculate the average reading of heart rate and muscle activity during working
and detect the duration the muscle to start fatigue. Moreover, this paper analysed the
relationship between heart rate and muscle activity through the duration of working.
As an overall finding of this research, it was shown that the heart rate of the workers
influence the muscle activity of workers and has high potential relationship to the
fatigue of muscles of the workers in the layup department.
The purpose of this paper is to prepare a conceptual framework of hybrid lean and ergonomics for assembly manufacturing process based. The research used PDCA approach as a basis in linking the relationship between lean manufacturing and ergonomics. Comprehensive literature review identify the lean ergonomics issues, best practices, and also the way to improve the ergonomic conditions in the workplace, especially those impacting employees on the assembly process. The findings show that the job design strategies for reducing extreme injuries influence by repetitive tasks. Selections of lean tools and technique, human factors analysis and lean performance measure are the key point on the stages of the PDCA conceptual framework for lean ergonomics in working assembly process. This paper also demonstrates by continuous improvement applied between the elimination of waste and increased productivity and the impacts on the ergonomic conditions to carry out operations and consequently by improving the productivity and well-being of its employees based on implementation of PDCA conceptual frameworks.