title: Evaluation of ergonomic physical risk factors in a truck manufacturing plant: case study in SCANIA Production Angers.
abstract: The aims of this study were 1) to assess the ergonomic physical risk factors from practitioner's viewpoint in a truck assembly plant with an in-house observational method and the NIOSH lifting equation, and 2) to compare the results of both methods and their differences. The in-house ergonomic observational method for truck assembly i.e. the SCANIA Ergonomics Standard (SES) and the NIOSH lifting equation were applied to evaluate physical risk factors and lifting of loads by operators. Both risk assessment approaches revealed various levels of risk, ranging from low to high. Two workstations were identified by the SES method as high risk. The NIOSH lifting index (LI) was greater than two for four lifting tasks. The results of the SES method disagreed with the NIOSH lifting equation for lifting tasks. Moreover, meaningful variations in ergonomic risk patterns were found for various truck models at each workstation. These results provide a better understanding of the physical ergonomic exposure from practitioner's point of view in the automotive assembly plant.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Ergonomic and Epidemiology in Occupational Health (LEEST), University of Angers, France.
authors.forename: Mohsen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zare
authors.forename: Agnes
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Malinge-Oudenot
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Höglund
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Biau
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Roquelaure
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D006804:Ergonomics; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D017770:Lifting / Q000009:adverse effects; D066192:Manufacturing Industry; D008875:Middle Aged; D018986:Motor Vehicles; D009068:Movement; D019370:Observation; D016272:Occupational Health; D011187:Posture; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors