• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.19-30
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• 1983

This report is intended to find out the health status of the korean industrial workers based on the periodic physical examination in 1982. It has resulted in the followings: 1. As of April, 1982, total No. of industries was 81,136 of which workers was totally 3,383,700 persons classifying into 2,163,600 in male and 1,220,100 in female, and manufacturing field was occupied 44.6% of total industries and 61.0% of total workers. 2. In view of size, industries having less than 9 ordinary workers was 47.5%, those having less than 29 ordinary workers was 77.0%. 3. Applicable target industries to industrial safety & health law was 31,059 which was covered 38.3% of total establishments and No. of workers was 2,192,511, 64.8% of all industrial workers. 4. No. of establishment & workers conducting the physical examination was 26,463 which is 85.2% of all examining industries and was 2,007,091, 91.5% of all examining required workers. 5. Case having general disease by general physical examination was 3.5% of examining workers and especially it was appeared 9.7% in mining. 6. Case having general disease by special physical examination was 3.8% of examining workers and incidence rate for occupational disease was 2.4% of examining workers. 7. No. of the occupational diseased was 5,341 persons which is 2.6% of all the examining workers, 205,497 and its rate was appeared highly as 7.5% of silicosis in mining workers and 1.4% of hearing difficulty to noise in construction.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.209-219
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• 2015

This paper deals with a case study about productivity improvement in medium and small-sized manufacturing factories. It is popular to improve the productivity of lines by shortening the production cycles and assigning multi jobs to workers. We analyze the production lines and improve the productivity in the case study through multi-functional workers and shortened production lines. Based on the case study, we propose some guidelines to improve the productivity of production lines.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.417-422
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• 2000

In the process of die manufacturing, according to increasing demand of die and molds, the efficient machining of dies and molds has been increased. However, while the cutting process has been automated by the progress of CNC(computer numerical control) and CAD/CAM, the polishing process still depends on the experienced knowledge of an expert. Also, even when workers are skilled in polishing dies. it takes much time to obtain the required roughness and smoothness on the surface of a die. Moreover, many workers gradually avoid doing polishing work because of the poor working conditions caused by dust and noise. Therefore, to improve productivity and to solve the potential shortage of skilled workers, a user-friendly automatic polishing system was developed in this research. The developed polishing system with five degrees of freedom is able to keep the polishing tool normal to the die surface during operation and is able to maintain a pressure constantly by the developed pneumatic system. Also, to evaluate polishing performance of the developend system and find the polishing conditions, the various polishing experiments were carried out.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.67-75
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• 2009

In order to provide basic data for the prevention of adverse effects of lead on health, we examined lead levels in the blood of 30 handicapped workers employed in manufacturing electronic components in Seoul from 2002 to 2008. The average lead level in the blood of all the subjects was $4.79{\pm}4.32{\mu}g/dL$ in females, $2.64{\pm}2.31{\mu}g/dL$ in males, and $3.88{\pm}3.75{\mu}g/dL$ in total. Lead levels examined in this study were significantly lower than other investigators study have reported. The average lead level from personal exposure of the subjects was $1.44{\pm}0.91mg/m^3$ in the workplace. The relation between blood lead levels and personal exposure was a simple linear regression; it's equation was "Lead level in blood = 6.04 - 1.92 lead level by personal exposure".

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.3-23
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• 1993

In this paper the prevailing geography of the information sector, fousing on its occupatonal dimension, is examined. The purposes of this paper are to analyze the labor force share of information occupation workers at each special city and region, to compare the inter-regional distribution of information workforce and to analyze regional share of information occupations in manufacturing industry. Spatial pattern of size and occupational composition of information sector shows a core-periphery disparity. There is a clear evidence of Seoul's dominance of the information economy, particularly such as scientific and technical, consultative services, management and process control function. Also the distribution of information workers in manufacturing industry over space was polarized than is the case for total manufacturing employment and noninformation workers. Therefore Korean information economy is marked by a highly articulated spatial division of labor within individual industry, which can be attributed to the locational characteristics of information intensive industries and industrial composition of regional economy. From the results of this study, information employment prospects among regions of Korea would reinforce the unequal geography of job opportunity. In this light, regional policy efforts should be given to the improvement of information infrastructure to facilitate new computer-based service products and process in peripheral regions.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.463-473
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• 2015

The fashion industry has distinctive characteristics. It is important to understand the specific working environment and unique problems at fashion corporations in order enhance employee efficiency. However, studies on job stress for fashion employees remain limited. This study used qualitative research to examine major job stress factors for fashion company workers. In-depth interviews were conducted on 6 respondents who work in various departments at fashion manufacturing companies. We identified task-related factors and structural factors as the two major job stress factors. Task-related factors consisted of 4 elements (necessity of massive knowledge, overtime outside work, tight schedules, and organizational tasks); structural factors consisted of 3 elements (burden of sales outcome, formal relationships, and anxiety of salary retirement). The results indicated that respondents consistently tried to gain knowledge about the latest trends and field experiences that caused mental and physical exhaustion due to the necessity of working late. Designers and workers in the sales department were constantly evaluated by their sales results compared to other workers that caused high levels of stress. Respondents answered that building relationships was an important factor in the fashion industry and sometimes felt that building formal relationships was more important than the ability to do work.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.20 no.3 s.71
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• pp.202-211
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• 2005

Musculoskeletal Disorders(MSDs) have been a growing problems with higher incidence rate every year. The 65% of all work-related diseases in the US has been MSDs since the middle of the 90s according to BLS(Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1995). The MSDs in Korea has been increased in recent 10 years as well. This study has tried to focus on job stress associated with MSDs that has not been usually studied before. Specifically job stress of workers at automobile manufacturing industry and relationship between job stress and symptoms of MSDs have been major concerns in this study. The workers had higher stress with longer working experience, longer working hours, and worse working environment. The job stress had strong association with the symptoms at hand, wrist and low back. Specifically, job stress factors such as job requirement and job future ambiguity had more effects on the symptoms of MSDs.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.39-49
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• 2003

The Purpose of this study is to identify the trends of studies on workers' musculoskeletal disorder and to suggest the direction of future research. 83 research article on workers' musculoskeletal disorder were reviewed. The results are as follows : 1. Studies on workers' musculoskeletal disorder have increased rapidly since 1996, but most of them were done by non-experimental design. 2. The most frequently selected subjects of studies are telephone operators and manufacturing workers. 3. The most frequently used instrument of studies is NIOSH's questionnaire & RULA (ergonomic work posture analysis). 4. The most frequently analysed variables relating to workers' musculoskeletal disorder are working years, hours of work a day, working process, and physical exercises. Therefore, it is needed to develop the management program of workers' musculoskeletal disorder and examine its effects.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.423-433
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• 2010

The presence of musculoskeletal burden tasks and work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) at Industrial workers was not well-known until 2000 in Korea. Since The Occupational Safety & Health Law was registered a business of proprietor duty in preventing work-related MSDs of workers In July of 2003 WMSDs became a big issue in Korea. A social previous interest was focused on the manufacturing industry just like auto and shipping industry in manufacturing sectors but nowadays it is spreading out to non-manufacturing fields gradually. Nevertheless, we have WMSD prevention Law and System in Korea to reduce WMSDs effectively and systematically we recognized some mistakes and problems of WMSD Law and System. In this paper we study these recent problems in Korea from about 10 years experience and proposed some proposals as discussion.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.4.1-4.11
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• 2023

Background: Shift work has been shown to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) based on several evidences. The classic risk factors of CVD include age, hypertension, smoking, obesity and diabetes. Recently, the serum homocysteine level has been reported to be a valuable indicator of CVD risk. This study aimed to determine the variation in serum homocysteine level as a cardiovascular risk indicator among female workers according to shift work. Methods: The data of regular health examination of workers at an electronic manufacturing services company in Yeongnam region, South Korea in 2019 were examined in this study. The investigation was based on a cross-sectional study conducted on 697 female workers (199 day workers and 498 shift workers). The sociodemographic and biochemical characteristics were compared between day workers and shift workers. Through a logistic regression analysis, the odds ratio (OR) of the increased serum homocysteine level in relation to shift work was determined. Results: Compared to female day workers, female shift workers showed significantly higher level of serum homocysteine (8.85 ± 2.16 vs. 9.42 ± 2.04 μmol/mL; p = 0.001). The OR of day workers against shift workers was 1.81 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.25-2.63). With the adjustment of variables that may influence the level of serum homocysteine, the adjusted OR was 1.68 (95% CI: 1.09-2.60). Conclusions: The serum homocysteine level was significantly higher in shift workers than in day workers. It is thus likely to be a useful predictor of CVD in shift workers.