What are the Feelings of Operators about Physical and Psychosocial Ergonomic Risks? A Case Study in SCANIA Production Angers

Abstract

Ergonomic improvement and prevention of musculoskeletal disorders still remain quite important among assembly manufacturing. Then, having the valid and precise evaluation for psychological and physical risk factors as well as musculoskeletal symptoms is the first step for ergonomic risk management. The aim of this study was to evaluate the operators’ feelings in regards to physical and mental workloads a long with musculoskeletal symptoms. Furthermore, the interview was done with all the people Friday afternoon and Monday morning to compare the perceived exertion force at the first day and the last day of week. This cross-sectional study was done in SCANIA production Angers. In this trucks assembly plant one sector was chosen and two different questionnaires including self reported and interview questionnaire were filled out. Self-reported questionnaire evaluated 130 ergonomics variables and interview questionnaire 27 variables. The latter was completed two times Friday afternoon and Monday morning. Our finding showed that Most of study population show pain in lower back, elbow and shoulder. The most observed risk factors were in shoulders, elbows and wrists. The prevalence of psychosocial factors were high among assembly operators as 78% reported low decision latitude. Perceived exertion force for whole body for high workload working day in Friday was more than Monday morning even the difference wasn’t significant. The results showed that in addition to physical ergonomic workloads, there are psychosocial risk factors among assemblers. Furthermore, the body region that were more affected by risk factors were reported as WMSDs symptoms.

Keywords: Physical Risk Factors, Psychosocial, Exertion Perceive Force, Questionnaire

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe100067