Wakula, Jurij
Institute of Ergonomics, Darmstadt University Technology Petersenstrasse 30, 64287 Darmstadt / Germany 49 6151 163189 / wakula@iad.tu-darmstadt.de
Landau, Kurt
Institute of Ergonomics, Darmstadt University Technology Petersenstrasse 30, 64287 Darmstadt / Germany 49 6151 162987 / landau@iad.tu-darmstadt.de
ABSTRACT
Two procedures, OCRA and Strain Index, were used to analyze eight selected assembly work places in the automotive industry involving high levels of stress on the upper limbs. The results revealed that the OCRA procedure was more time- consuming and that video analysis was necessary for collection of data. The Strain Index procedure is significantly less time-consuming because it is only requires estimation of risk factors. This adversely affects the accuracy of the results obtained.
Keywords
Risk assessment, approaches, upper limb, automotive industry
INTRODUCTION
The increasing incidence of work-related, muscular-skeletal disease in industry is causing a rise in days lost through sickness and also in consequential costs. Caffier et al. (1999) analyzed the distribution of industrial production losses through sickness by disease type and found that musculo-skeletal disease occupies first place at approx. 29.2%, followed by respiratory disease with 16.8%. The actual working days lost in 1995 as a result of musculo-skeletal disease totaled 151 million and the financial loss was estimated at around DM26.13 million. Wido (1999) calculated the annual level of absence caused by skeletal, muscular and connective tissue diseases in the motor vehicle and body manufacturing industry at approx. 18.1 days per registered case.
Several procedures for estimating the risk of musculo-skeletal disease developing in the upper limbs from jobs involving repetitive activities were developed during the 1990s. Examples of these are OCRA, (Colombini et al., 2002), Strain Index (Moore
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