Abstract
Manual material handling (MMH) exposure arises from the work system characteristics leading to strain on musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and neurological system. A combined manual material handling task is composed of a combination of tasks involving lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling or carrying. The paper highlights interventions for a MMH work system in a bearing manufacturing plant in India through an experimental study where workers are faced with both biomechanical and physiological strains while undertaking combined MMH tasks. The intervention procedure proposed for combined manual material handling tasks in this study accounts for both biomechanical and physiological strains. The biomechanical measures considered for interventions are ‘Body Part Discomfort Frequency Severity’ and ‘Muscle effort’, and physiological measures considered for interventions are ‘energy expenditure rate’, ‘heart rate’ and ‘rating of perceived exertion’. The design solutions have addressed the whole-body exertions faced by the material handlers. The practical implication of the study is that it has highlighted a few work system characteristic that produces less biomechanical and physiological stresses. Several recommendations for improved work system factors (e.g. load, equipment, and workplace) for combined loading, push–pull and unloading tasks are provided. The recommended interventions are generic and can be used in any MMH work system where human effort is dominant, and level of mechanization is low. The values obtained from this simulation are only first approximation and need to be verified through actual implementation of the interventions.
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Acknowledgements
The authors appreciate the efforts provided by Mr. Sukanta Chanda and Dr. O.B. Krishna pertaining to the experimental study. The authors thank Rakesh V.B. and Saran R. for their inputs on designs.
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Rajesh, R., Maiti, J. (2018). Interventions for Combined Manual Material Handling Tasks Based on Biomechanical and Physiological Responses. In: Ray, P., Maiti, J. (eds) Ergonomic Design of Products and Worksystems - 21st Century Perspectives of Asia. Managing the Asian Century. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5457-0_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5457-0_3
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