Uday V. Aswalekar
Vinod B. Tungikar
Abstract
Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (MSMEs) plays a pivotal role for Indian economy. This study was carried out for assessing ergonomics work environment and risk factors associated with the development of MSDs among the welders employed in 23 MSMEs from Maharashtra. The data was collected from 74 numbers of randomly selected welders. For the assessment of ergonomic work environment along with and standardized Nordic questionnaires for musculoskeletal symptoms; ergonomic questionnaire was used. Data was collected on five point Likert scale and analysis was done using SPSS 21. Results shows that welders have to frequently bend/twist, work above the shoulder, leave the place, manual loading/unloading, lifting load and monotonous and repetitive work for prolonged hours in static posture. There is high rate of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in low back (64.9%), upper back (40.55%), shoulder (36.55%), neck and knees (32.45%) were observed. Along with physical factors, demographic factors like age, experience, years of service found positive association with MSDs complaints. Ergonomic intervention programs should be carried out for eliminating risk factors, environmental hazards for safety and well being. Also Simulation studies including posture analyses and biomechanical modeling; are recommended for risk assessments of welders
Keywords- Ergonomic, MSMEs, Risk factors, MSDs, Welders