Ergonomic Workstation Design for Welding Operation—A Case Study

Ergonomic Design of a workstation is a need of time to overcome the future issues of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) of workers. The industries having repetitive manual operations have become aware of the significance of the effect of the ergonomically designed workstation on the physiological and psychological aspects of a human being. Ergonomic intervention with a detailed analysis of existing operating practices in the manufacturing unit using different ergonomic analysis tools identifies the opportunities for potential improvements. This paper discusses an ergonomic analysis carried out in a welding operation of a tractor trolly manufacturing unit located in central India. The ergonomic tool such as Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) is applied to identify the need for ergonomic intervention based on the RULA scores. Based on the anthropometry of the Indian male, a new fixture design is proposed by introducing a tilting mechanism in it. The proposed design reduces the RULA score thereby reducing the future possible musculoskeletal issues of workers.