ISE Graduate Seminar Series

Effective Use of Observations for Job Analysis in Ergonomics

Victor Paquet, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Industrial Engineering Department
SUNY - University at Buffalo

Date: Thursday, October 13th, 2005
Time: 1:00 - 1:50 pm
Location: Room 09-1149 (Kate Gleason Engineering Building)

Abstract:

Observational approaches either in real-time or from videos are often used to evaluate a variety of physical and environmental factors designed to aid injury prevention efforts, but are susceptible to inaccuracies since observations of a job are typically made on no more than a few individuals over short time periods. This presentation will illustrate the variable nature of physical musculoskeletal disorder risk factors in a variety of different work settings, and provide information that will help ergonomics practitioners improve the reliability of their onservational ergonomics job analysis efforts. The methodological approach involves studying the variability of risk factors from large surveillance efforts and performing simulations on the data to investigate the reliability of different sampling strategies. The results suggest: 1) There is almost always a large amount of risk factor variability between workers and over time, regardless of the job. 2) Reliable estimation of musculosketetal disorder risk factors for jobs is likely to require long observation periods or multiple shorter observational periods on multiple workers over fairly long time periods. 3) Observational methods alone are not effective for identifying rare peak exposure to risk factors. Case examples taken from studies of the construction and heavy manufacturing industries are used to illustrate differenecs and commalities between industries.

Questions?
Contact Dr. Michael Kuhl at 475-2134 or mekeie@rit.edu