Evaluation of Workplace Environmental Ergonomics and Method Development for Manufacturing Industries

Though workplace safety is relatively satisfactory in developed countries, it does not receive proper attention in developing countries yet. It is known that productivity improvement mainly in labor intensive factories like metal and textile, is not easy without considering the workforce safety. Studies on Ethiopian manufacturing industries show that there are different workplace safety problems, and as a result of less attention, there are also very few practices on prevention and control. Even the few studies done on the area do not yet see the workplace physical factors in terms of complying standards and being causes for injuries and low performance. Thus, this study focused to assess and ergonomically evaluate the workplace environment and develop a control method. It is conducted on purposely selected 10 metal and 4 textile factories. Workplace observation, focus group discussion and measurement are methods applied and digital light, sound level and heat stress meters are measurement equipment used. The factories’ environmental measurements compared to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NOISH) standards shows incompliance and even some textile and garment factory work sections has lighting reading level less than 250 lx where 2000 lx is the standard, and metal factory work sections have also up to 128 dB from 85 dB noise exposure standard. Hazardous sections are identified as an intervention and the major causes and impact of the factors is assessed. Finally, a factory level strategic approach model is developed for workplace hazard prevention and control.