Ergonomics Study of Working Postures in Manual Hand Layup Process

In composite manufacturing, hand layup is of the fabrication methods that is widely used. Composite is the basic material used in the manufacturing of products such as shipbuilding and the process requires manual handling. Currently, there is a significant number of absenteeism that due to low back pain, indicating that workers in manual composite manufacturing have problems related to musculoskeletal disorder (MSD). The objective of this paper is to study the working posture and discomforts experienced by workers in layup process station. A preliminary survey is conducted on 45 workers to obtain their experience of discomforts while working. Survey results show that 83.33% of the workers experience discomforts on the lower back of the body. When rating their level of pain on the lower back on a scale from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest), 41% of them rated 4 on the level pain. Pain and discomforts lead to lower productivity of workers. Consequently, this can jeopardise the quality of the products. At the layup station, this problem arises due to the design of current workspace and the posture of workers when executing the job tasks. Rapid Upper Limb Analysis in CATIA V5R20 software was used to calculate the RULA scores. All postures had scored more than 6 that need further investigation and immediate change. Ergonomically designed layup workstations and good education on proper working posture will be able to improve the workers’ health conditions on the future.