In many rapidly developing countries, where labor is
cheap, proper occupational hygiene and posture analysis
methods are often neglected. Proper sitting arrangements
and work environment are seldom provided. The workers,
being economic migrants, accept adverse conditions as a
part of the job and mostly work in bad posture. The small
and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) are much greater in
number in Indian economy and these are the places where
work posture analysis is mostly neglected. Repetitive
processes and manual material handling are the major
problems in the hand tool manufacturing. Therefore,
musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are related to such
high repetitive processes and working in bad posture.
Thus, to improve the efficiency of the workers their
posture needed to be assessed and corrective measures
should be adopted to avoid the musculoskeletal disorders.
The objective of this study is to analyse the working
postures of workers engaged in various processes of small
scale forging industry .The study used three assessment
tools like RULA (Rapid Upper Limb Assessment),
REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment) and Ovaku
Work posture Analysis (OWAS) and recommend the
changes to be made in the body posture while working.
RULA was developed earlier by McAtamney and
Corlett, 1993, to provide a rapid objective measure of
musculoskeletal risk caused by mainly sedentary tasks
where upper body demands were high; where work
related upper limb disorders are reported [1]. RULA
assesses the posture, force and movement associated
with sedentary tasks such tasks include computer tasks,
manufacturing or retail tasks where the worker is seated
or standing without moving about. This tool requires no
special equipment in providing a quick assessment of
postures of the neck, trunk and upper limbs along with
muscle function and the external loads experienced by
the body. A coding system is used to generate an action
list which indicates the level of intervention required to
reduce the risks of injury due to physical loading on the
operator.