A systematic review of comparative studies on ergonomic assessment techniques

Abstract This review provides a systematic overview of the comparison of ergonomic assessment techniques’ output in variety of industrial sectors. The relevant publications have been classified into broad categories such as comparison of applied industry sector, trend analysis, ergonomic assessment techniques been compared, comparative studies between two ergonomic assessment techniques, frequently compared techniques, levels of Action categories used. The summary of extracted data from included papers is provided. Authors have compared the results based on observational techniques which are easy to understand and apply. Available publications related to such comparison is limited. Authors have compared and analysed the correlation between the outputs of techniques but only few researchers pointed out the exact reason of variation in outputs applied in the same task. Hence, establishing applicability of each technique required. To identify the causes of variation, the sensitivity study of exposure factor-Task-posture assessment techniques is highly required. There are few techniques which are not yet compared for checking agreement or correlation, serving as a research gap. Authors have studied and published literature review specific to one technique of ergonomic assessment. Few authors have compared the outputs from various ergonomic assessment techniques in particular sector and investigated the correlation between them. No study has been carried out till date to review available literature on comparative study of comparisons made. In this paper, two research gaps have also been identified.