20 INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL May 2017 Vol. X & Issue No. 5 May - 2017 ASSESSMENT OF ERGONOMIC ENVIRONMENT AND RISK FACTORS FOR MUSCULOSKELETAL DISORDERS AMONG WELDERS IN MICRO SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISES Uday V. Aswalekar Vinod B. Tungikar Abstract Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (MSMEs) plays a pivotal role for Indian economy. This study was carried out for assessing ergonomics work environment and risk factors associated with the development of MSDs among the welders employed in 23 MSMEs from Maharashtra. The data was collected from 74 numbers of randomly selected welders. For the assessment of ergonomic work environment along with and standardized Nordic questionnaires for musculoskeletal symptoms; ergonomic questionnaire was used. Data was collected on five point Likert scale and analysis was done using SPSS 21. Results shows that welders have to frequently bend/twist, work above the shoulder, leave the place, manual loading/unloading, lifting load and monotonous and repetitive work for prolonged hours in static posture. There is high rate of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in low back (64.9%), upper back (40.55%), shoulder (36.55%), neck and knees (32.45%) were observed. Along with physical factors, demographic factors like age, experience, years of service found positive association with MSDs complaints. Ergonomic intervention programs should be carried out for eliminating risk factors, environmental hazards for safety and well being. Also Simulation studies including posture analyses and biomechanical modeling; are recommended for risk assessments of welders. KEYWORDS; Ergonomic, MSMEs, Risk factors, MSDs, Welders 1 INTRODUCTION Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in the economic and social development of the developed as well developing nation. SMEs contributes not only to manufacturing output, gross domestic product (GDP), exports but also employment growth at low cost. SME sector in India is highly heterogeneous in nature with a variety of products. There are 501.93 lakh registered and unregistered enterprises with an employment of 805.24 lakh employee (MSME annual report (2015-16)). Due to high percentage of the workforce in SMEs it is necessary to have attention towards health and safety problems of this sector (Helali F (2009)). Ergonomics help to improve performance by fitting products, tasks, and environments to workers. Effective application of ergonomics in work system design can achieve a balance between worker characteristics and task demands (Das B & Shikdar A A (1999)). Studies have shown positive effects of application of ergonomics principles in work environment, workplace layout and design, machine and tools design. The ergonomics field is committed to a systems orientation in which nothing exists in isolation and each element has the potential to impact another (Kogi K (1997), Caple D C (2010)). Ergonomics is broadly divided into three main domains namely physical ergonomics, cognitive ergonomics, and organizational ergonomics. Physical ergonomics is concerned with human anatomical, anthropometric, physiological, and biomechanical characteristics as they relate to physical activity. Cognitive ergonomics is concerned with mental processes, such as perception, memory, reasoning, and response, to have interactions among humans and other elements of a system. Organizational ergonomics (also known as macro ergonomics) is concerned with the optimization of socio technical systems, including their organizational structures, policies, and processes (Karwowski W & Rodrick D (2001)). Ergonomics Definitions Year Author Definition 1993 Sanders & McCormick Ergonomics discovers and applies information about human behavior, abilities, limitations, and other characteristics to the design of tools, machines, tasks, jobs, and environments for productive, safe, comfortable, and effective human use. 1997 Tayyari & Smith A branch of science that is concerned with the achievement of optimal relationships between workers and their work environment. 2000 International Ergonomics Association (IEA) The scientific discipline con cerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well -being and overall system performance. 2005 Lee Ergonomics is concerned with promoting compatibility between humans and systems. Ergonomic approach in the design of work system encourages workers and management at macro and micro level resulting in increased productivity, health and significant cost reduction and also contributes to different company strategies to support the objectives of business functions and of the organization as a whole (Dul J & Neumann W P (2009). Most of ergonomics studies have been conducted on modification in work environment so that work environments will be comfortable for DOI: 10.26488/IEJ.6.10.5 DOI: 10.26488/IEJ.6.10.5 DOI: 10.26488/IEJ.6.10.5 DOI: 10.26488/IEJ.6.10.5 DOI: 10.26488/IEJ.6.10.5 ISSN:2581-4915 ISSN:2581-4915 ISSN:2581-4915