Executive Summary : | In mining industry, during the past few decades rapid growth has been seen towards the usage of heavy earth moving machinery (HEMM) for enhancing the production which leads to the occupational health and safety issues of the workers (Chaudhary et al., 2022). Exposure of HEMM operators to high levels of whole-body vibration (WBV) in combination with awkward posture, repetitive work, regular and frequent exposure and vibration shock are responsible for musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). In addition to this, HEMM operators also have to change their position and posture depending on the range of factors like sitting position, cabin design, machinery location, and improper working environment (Lutz et al., 2016; Park et al., 2021). Many factors do contribute to the occurrence of MSDs; however, postural factors is found to be one of the significant factors and can be controlled through ergonomic design of workplaces to protect the HEMM operators. Therefore, study of MSDs of HEMM operators in mining, who are exposed to WBV, is of utmost importance to protect the operators from its hazardous impacts. The adoptions of various awkward postures, forceful movement, lifting and physical work during the operation are the major issues causing the work-related MSDs. In 2013, Bureau of Labor Statistics reported incidence rates for work-related MSDs in all mining sectors to be 42.5 per 10,000 full time employees (Chaudhary et al., 2022). In 1999, according to the European Labor Force Survey (LFS), 4.1 million workers were subjected to work-related MSDs (Nath et al., 2017). Proper ergonomically designed workplaces is expected to decrease work-related MSDs and improve workers health (M.S. Norhidayah et al., 2016; Pertiwi and Roosmini, 2015). Therefore, the proposed research work is oriented towards postural assessment of HEMM operators exposed to WBV using Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) and human modelling using HumanCAD. The focus of the research project will be to assist the mine management to identify and assign the operators based on their work postures and anthropometry to a specified heavy earthmoving machine, and proposing a methodology for ergonomic intervention for devising counter-measures through work postures for reducing the impact of MSDs of WBV exposed operators. |