Assessment of Physical Demands in Building Component Manufacturing Operations

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Landmark is a growing organization dedicated to providing the best building solutions to their customers. The company manufactures modular homes of unmatched strength to any others in the city. Despite of high-tech automated and semi-automated manufacturing line, there are some tasks associated with manual handling of components of different size and weight such as door frames and timbers. Depending on the components weight, handling method, frequency of maneuver, as well as the number and duration of the breaks taken by the workers, their musculoskeletal system might be at risk of work-related disorders such as Low Back Pain (LBP). Landmark is committed to succeed in gaining information on how workers perform assigned tasks particularly in some of the production lines which tend to have high rate of injury incidence. Most injuries form these lines tend to be repetitive strain injuries. The proposed project aims to: 1-Perform Physical Demand Analysis (PDA) for high risk work stations in Landmark production line, 2-Simulate the task maneuvers of workstations, which were identified as labor intensive workstation in the PDA, in the Syncrude Center for Motion and Balance at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital to measure the reaction forces and moments, kinematics of body segments as well as muscle activity, 3-Develop full human body model, including bones, muscles and joints, to predict muscles and joints forces in response to task maneuvers simulated in 2, 4-Suggest corrective maneuvers and redesign workplace elements using ergonomics principals. The findings of this study will be used to create new PDAs for Landmark workstations, and to propose corrective suggestions to improve the safety conditions of workers.