Abstract
AbstractThe purpose of this study is to evaluate the lower back stress of three warehouse tasks, wafer transferring, product shipping, and container loading, and then propose improvement intervention. Wok-related musculoskeletal disorder is significant occupational problem, it main causes are awkward wotking posture, over-exertion, and repetitive motion. Toward these three causes, this study begins with the the understanding of current working situation, and base on current working situation, analyzing OWAS posture analysis and NIOSH 1994 lifting guide to coin out the contributing problem, then proposing improvement intervention, finally evaluation its cost-effectiveness.Based on current working situation, OWAS analysis shows that these three tasks all have WMDS hazards, they range between AC1 (no hazard) and AC3 (potential hazard), but none of them are AC4 (prominent hazard): NIOSH 1994 lifting guide analysis shows that lifting index (LI) range between 1.3 and 3.0, there are potential hazard and need improvement. Toward these hazard problems, this study proposes improvement intervention: for wafer transferring, a lifting device and butterfly barrier are provided; for product shipping, a 60 cm high working surface is added; for container loading, a tilter is facilitated, the common purpose of these interventions are to induce the workers to adopt a natural and energy-saving erect standing posture to lessen the stress on the lower back due to awkward posture.The result of improvement intervention shows that OWAS analysis for wafer transferring improves from AC1 and AC2 to AC1 and AC1, and NIOSH1994 analysis improves from LI of 1.5 and 1.8 to 1.3 and 0.6; OWAS for product shipping improves from AC2 and AC1 to AC1 and AC1, and NIOSH1994 improves from LI of 2.0 and 1.3 to 0.9 and 0.9; the intervention for container loading one of the two workers can be reduced, OWAS analysis of the improved task improves from AC3 and AC3 to AC1, no hazard, and NIOSH1994 improves from LI of 2.4 and 3.0 to 1.0. In summary, with simple and low cost intervention, the lower back stress can be effectively reduced, these improvement intervention case study are cost-effective, it promotion will be worthwhile.Keywords：lower back stress、OWAS、NIOSH1994