2. Method
2.1. Overview of the company and project team composition
The company, established in 1970 in the State of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, employs more than 4000 workers in the furniture,mattress and chemical sectors. Around 90% of the furniture is
manufactured for the internal market. Sofa manufacturing requires 290 workers (166 men and 124 women) grouped in 16 sectors. Only four out of six sectors related to assembly/transformation (wooden frame assembly, straps placement, foam gluing, and upholstery),encompassing 81 workers, were supposed to occupy the new facilities.There fore only those sectors were focused on this study. The project team was composed of four ergonomics (two engineers,two physiotherapists), three industrial engineers from the University,two managers and the workers from the mentioned sectors.