Abstract:
The objective of this research was to apply the principles of motion economy to improve working methods to reduce the risk of working postures of 10 volunteer cable wire packing workers. This study used a quasi- experimental design. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to measure and compare the results. Working procedures were investigated using Flow Process Chart and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) was used to assess work posture risk. The results of this study indicated that working procedures and awkward postures were twisting/bending/flexing the wrists, reaching, lifting arms and shoulders, exertion of lifting/moving, flexing/twisting/lateral bending the trunk, bending/twisting/tilting the neck, knee flexion, unilateral weight bearing on the legs, standing to work continuously for a long time. The number of statistically significant reductions in awkward postures at post-improvement were twisting/flexing the wrists, bending/flexing the wrists, hand and forearm reaching (p-value = .008, .005, .025), twisting/tilting the neck, twisting/lateral, bending the trunk (p-value = .008, .014), flexing the trunk, knee flexion, unilateral weight bearing on the legs (p-value = .002), and workers standing waited for packing (p-value = .025), respectively. When the risk scores were compared with the REBA, it was found that the risk score at post-improvement (7 points) was lower that at the score at pre-improvement (13 points). In other words, the work posture risk was reduced from very high level to moderate level. Therefore, the findings implied that principles of motion economy could be applied to improve work methods by reducing the risk from working postures thar may affect workers' musculoskeletal disorders in the future.