Ergonomic analysis of manual material handling of freights in a trailer for shipping

Abstract

The research was conducted solely to assess the level of employee' exposure to ergonomic based risk factors related to manual material handling by workers shipping department of company XYZ. The study used the Rapid Entire Body Assessment and The Great American Insurance Group ergonomic task analysis worksheet to identify and rate various risks associated with the task of loading a trailer. We also review company XYZ' OSHA 300 injury log to identify the injury pattern to establish a correlation with ergonomics task analysis study. Data obtained and analyzed from the study indicates that there is a high level of exposure of workers to ergonomic risk factor in the shipping department of company XYZ. This was in agreement with OSHA 300 log reviewed in the last study of this research. The study was able to establish a high level of repetition, overexerting, and assuming of awkward posture linked with the task of loading by employees. The injury log reviewed indicates that over 50% of recorded injuries occurred in shipping. Having analyzed the data, the study recommends various engineering and administrative control measures to eliminate or abate the risk employees are exposed in the loading and unloading of trailers.