Revista de Ergonomia
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An OWAS-Based Analysis of Workers Engaged in Brick Making Factories, Faizabad District of Uttar Pradesh, India

Kumkum Pandey and Aditi Vats

The main objectives of this study were to identify the most problematic postures in brick making tasks performed by workers through application of the OWAS (Ovako Working Posture Analysis System) method, and to help them for improvement of working method and workplaces. Owing to poor socioeconomic conditions they are compelled to carry out a considerable number of manual, rigorous tasks in brick factories. Twenty construction workers, ten male and ten female, from five brick making industries participated in the field study. The brick making tasks observed during the two-month period included digging clay, loading clay, unloading clay, mixing clay etc. Of all the observations, poor working postures were observed most frequently in digging clay, crushing clay, mixing clay loading to the wheelbarrow, loading and unloading to the truck. And all these indicating that these postures should be corrected either soon or immediately. It was observed that workers who worked continuously in awkward postures during certain raw brick making activities consequently they suffered from discomfort in different parts of their body. Even though they were young, they were likely to suffer from serious musculoskeletal disorders in the future in the brick factory there is a need of immediate corrective measures. Though the OWAS method for postural data analysis proved to be a very useful way to reduce postural load of dynamic brick making tasks, and allowed for efficient application of the original OWAS method.