Reduction of Fatigue of Employees by Application of Ergonomic Principles

The study was carried out at the Injector Manufacturing unit of an MNC company located at Bengaluru, India. The logistics unloading section was considered for this study in order to reduce stress and fatigue caused to the operator(s) due to load handling of components. The operator/driver had to drive the truck to the unloading bay and unload the materials on to a pallet from where he would have to place it in an intermediate location after the quantity check. All of these activities are to be completed within a specified time interval and is usually carried out by a single operator. The load handled by the operator is a cumulative factor of the weight of the crates, operating scenarios, lifting height and grip distance. The cumulative load handled by the operator was observed to be almost 3 times the allowed specifications. The data collected was analyzed in terms of lifting index for the particular activity and for the whole task. Based on the lifting index obtained and analysis of the input parameters, a standard work style is determined and 3 common proposals were made as to reduce the stress caused to the operator in the long run.