• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.219-225
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• 2010

A structure of line for producing products is variously changing to be automatic and one-person Cell-Line considering the physical burden for workers in manufacturing industry of electronic goods. However, workers tend to still accuse Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders (including shoulder, waist, hand, wrist, leg etc.) as a simply repeated work by accelerating of the production speed for productivity improvement in the assembly line. Thus manufacturing engineers in charge of changing and set up newly for an assembly line are necessary to the construct of the guideline on human engineering. Especially. There is no standardized engineering-guide and it is difficult to create the exact work environment because the risk factor analysis and the improvement for assembly line are executed once a year on the current situation. I'd like to reduce the physical burden on workers through the effective improvement of processing by the guideline on working environment fit for a characteristic on manufacturing process when the process is changed or newly installed.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.479-486
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• 2010

Automobile-related industries have been a few of leading ones among domestic industries reporting high rates of musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD's). In this paper, major ergonomic aspects of automobile-related works were reviewed with reference to WMSD's. According to the result, high repeatability of works with as short as 1 minute or less, awkward postures required, excessive forces, and vibrations due to power tools were drawn out as major physical factors. To eliminate or mitigate those factors - at least in automobile-related industries - ergonomic approach has tried for more than a decade. With all, however, ergonomists still seem to confront with several problems to be solved such as development of appropriate assessment tools, enhancement of work improvement activities, system establishment for continuous prevention and management of WMSD's. As lots of previous researches declared, it was concluded that ergonomic approach would collaborate with other approaches such as ndustrial medicine considering physical factors as well as psychosocial factors, and that the necessity of an integrated Occupational Safety and Health Management System(OHSMS) was mentioned.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.597-603
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• 2006

This study was aimed to find out the problems of wearing flame-proof clothing and to analytically assess functional working-clothes, thus to propose a new design. We carried out a questionnaire with workers in the field and evaluated the facility for wearing, the sensation of wearing and clothing microclimate in the environmental chamber. We found out the problems were in the parts of neck, armpits, armhole, sleeve, crotch and suspenders. Thermal sensation, wet sensation and comfort sensations were evaluated to be 'hot', 'wet' and near to discomfort', respectively. Therefore, improvement of movement and air permeability is needed. If we can add gusset on armpit for air permeability, this gusset will enable to enlarge the surface in armpit area and finally give a movement efficiency. We suggested several new partly modified design for flame-proof clothing which can be applied to other protective clothing for improvement. This must be further considered in the ergonomic evaluation of new proposed functional working-clothes as well as in the suggestion of design.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.473-480
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• 2011

Objective: This paper presents the results of a literature review undertaken to analyze the types and risk factors of unsafe posture in accordance with the crops and the working position and to introduce various ergonomic intervention approaches. Background: There is clear and consistent evidence that agricultural work has been rated as one of the dangerous occupations in the world. A considerable number of adverse health conditions, including musculoskeletal disorders(MSDs) are related to agricultural work. Method: An agricultural work requires squatting, kneeling, and bending(stooping) postures for significant periods of the work day which due to a wide variety of activities such as planting, cultivating and harvesting various agricultural products. Thus, each of these postures is analyzed in detail to recommend the improvement methods. Results: Various unsafe postures in agricultural works are revealed and analyzed. It is proven that ergonomics intervention has the potential benefits to reduce MSDs among agricultural workers. Two types of ergonomic intervention methods were discussed to improve unsafe working postures, engineering controls and administrative controls. Conclusion & Application: As a concluding remark, this article can be used as a reference manual for the agricultural workers and also used to raise the research community's awareness to the risk of unsafe working postures for workers in agriculture.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.167-177
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• 2015

Objective: The objective of this research is to develop evaluation checklist for personal office furniture and apparatus to shape comfortable and efficient worksite for workers' welfare improvement, productivity enhancement and labor force preservation, and to identify office work environment by applying the checklist. Background: Because most office workers work using computers in a sitting posture, the ratio of office workers among total musculoskeletal disorders patients is forecast to increase. In this regard, an effort to prevent and manage such musculoskeletal disorders is required. Method: This research developed evaluation checklist for personal office furniture and apparatus by examining 25 domestic and international ergonomic literature and anthropometric data. This research carried out a fact-finding survey targeting the A Office and B Office of one public agency using the checklist. Results: Although, the checklist items on desks, chairs, computers and other goods conformed to the checklist standards, the following items did not conformed: desk height adjustment, seat board depth adjustment, lumbar support depth, foot rest, wrist rest, mouse tray, headset, speaker phone and Bluetooth. Conclusion: The evaluation checklist for personal office furniture and apparatus and fact-finding survey results are considered to be used as basic data for office work environment and workers' welfare improvement. Application: The information drawn from this research can be helpful to manufacturers' design and manufacture of ergonomic furniture and apparatus.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.59-67
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• 2009

The goal of this study is to propose the effective method of investigating the injurious factors and making improved plans that prevents the workers against musculoskeletal disorders at an diesel engine manufacturing company and the same business field with similar working conditions and process. A questionnaire were adopted to analyze the symptoms of workers' musculoskeletal disorders, and an ergonomic assessment method such as RULA, OWAS were performed to find out harmful factors of workplace and working posture. Based on the result of the evaluation, to enhance the working environment, improvement of worktable, working space, tools, and outfit was suggested, and induction of mechanical system was also suggested. It can be concluded that the method and process described in this paper could be helpful for diagnosing the musculoskeletal disorders and making improvement plans to the diesel engine fuel injection system manufacturing company and the same business field with similar working conditions and process.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.541-550
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• 2011

Objective: The objective of this study is to present varying cases of ergonomic improvements in equipments for agricultural work. Background: In Korean agricultural sector, many older people and females, who may be more vulnerable to musculoskeletal diseases than young males, are doing high stressful tasks such as manual materials tasks, harvesting, etc. For reducing the work stress of the farmers, the Korean government has been performing support projects to provide the farmers with agricultural implements specified for their crops. In the projects, ergonomics experts have participated and helped modify the equipments. Method: Fifty cases of equipment improvements, which were carried out in 33 farming organizations cultivating 13 different crops, were reviewed and presented by equipments and their parts. Results: In total, 283 cases of improvements for 12 equipments including 4-wheel, 1-wheel, and 3-wheel powered carts, grass cutter, conveyer, pest control machine, and so on, were presented. The improvements were also classified according to the ergonomic principles like compatibility, ease of use, safety and fitting to the anthropometry, etc. Frequencies of improvements by equipment and its part were the highest in carts and controls, respectively. Principles of safety and ease of use were adopted more frequently in improving equipments than others. Conclusion: The tables of examples of improvements of agricultural implements are main results of this study and the systematical summaries are expected to be widely used in the development of more improved agricultural implements. Application: The results could be used as practical guidelines in ergonomically developing and modifying agricultural implements by both the experts and non-experts in ergonomics. The improvements would contribute to reduction of stress in farm work, which result in increasing the level of safety and health of Korean agricultural society.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2015

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate old and newly designed ammunition boxes from an ergonomic point of view. Background: The ammunition boxes made of wood, which are currently used by the military, have some difficulties such as corrosion and damage of ammunition, environmental pollution, and stock management. Also, damages to the wooden ammunition boxes take place frequently, because soldiers carry them manually. Method: Sixteen participants volunteered to randomly perform lifting, carrying, and side-by-side moving tasks with 4 different old and new boxes, respectively for the ammunitions of 5.56mm, 60mm, 81mm, and 105mm in diameter. The old boxes are made of wood and are currently used in the military, while the new boxes are made of plastics. The joint moments of the elbow, shoulder, back, and knee were measured by using a motion analysis system and force platforms. In addition, an electromyographic system was used to measure the forces of hand and wrist muscles. Results: In most tasks, new boxes caused less joint moments at the elbow and shoulder than old boxes, because the new boxes were lighter and smaller than the old boxes. New boxes also derived less hand and wrist muscle forces due to the provision of fixed hard handles rather than string handles. Conclusion: The ergonomically designed new boxes could reduce the physical stresses of soldiers manually handling ammunitions and be helpful for storage and reuse. Application: This study shows an ergonomic application example for product development and evaluation.

• Journal of the Korea Furniture Society
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 1999

All chairs are uncomfortable in the long run and some chairs become uncomfortable more rapidly than others. In a particular chair, some people feel more uncomfortable than others. Comfort will depend upon the interaction of chair, user, and task characteristics. In this study, we intended to design a comfortable office chair by investigating anthropometric and biomechanical aspects for Koreans. We determine the design dimensions by analysis the anthropometric data. With these body parameters, we determined the design dimensions such as seat height, seat depth, seat width, seat backrest width, etc. This research, hopefully contributes to the development of ergonomic chair and improvement of the chair design technologies.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.312-312
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• 2000

Human sensibility ergonomics is applied to evaluation of dynamic performance of a vehicle driving simulator. Vehicle, driving environment, and human perception models are constructed and integrated. Driving simulations are carried out based on these models. This study defines a set verbal expressions collected and investigates which are the most appropriate for describing the fidelity of translational and angular accelerations of the driving simulator. An statistical analysis is uscd to find correlation between the ergonomic sensibility and the cut-off frequency of the washout algorithm. This study suggests a methodology to obtain an ergonomic database which can be used for the performance evaluation of dynamic environments.