Abstract:

Although the importance and having a place of mechanization in manufacturing industry has increased; it cannot be said that human being, which is an indispensable element of production, has lost his effect. Human, as the employee, which is the most important factor in ensuring continuity in production, monitoring the production by an external eye, making on-site touches during manufacturing, and performing skillful activities, is the basic element in this system. Hence, ergonomic studies should be carried out; so that production does not go wrong and employees can perform their duties in a healthy way. Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) method enables to assess the ergonomic risk of employees’ that their musculoskeletal system may be exposed to, during movements such as posture, stoop, turning, applying force and holding, easily and quickly. In this study, the application of REBA method in a company which is manufacturing cryogenic tanks is given and it is aimed to evaluate the ergonomic risk for personnel working in welding operations. An ergonomic risk assessment was made for 18 different working postures determined for 11 participants working as welding operators. REBA scores were between 3 and 11, and it was observed that most of the problems were experienced in the trunk (back), legs and arms. According to the results, various suggestions have been presented in order to reduce the ergonomic risk level for inappropriate situations.

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