Reduce musculoskeletal disorders injury during manual handling in tooling parts manufacturing industry

Abstract

Manual handling is a physical activity that almost everyone needs to carry out in the workplace. However, if a person is required to handle heavy loads such as lifting, pushing or pulling, this may lead to Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD) discomfort and injury. This research aimed to investigate ergonomic risk factors during manual handling activities in a manufacturing company. 14 respondents working in a production area were involved in this study. Questionnaire, direct observation at site, interview, Ergonomic Risk Assessment (ERA) such as Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) have been used as instruments to collect and analyse the data. Most of the respondents are technicians working around manual lifting of heavy loads of 11 kg and above of dies and raw material. The results show that lower back, foot, fingers and wrist contributed to their MSD symptoms. The most significant MSD was at the lower back where 100% respondents have experienced daily pain due to awkward posture, twisting and bending when lifting heavy loads manually into the machine. As for suggestions, engineering control such and administration control can be used to reduce or prevent MSD injury during manual handling.