REBA evaluation on garage worker: a case study

Abstract

Garage workers always involve with awkward posture as their task being carried out manually in most small scale vehicle maintenance industries. Therefore it is crucial to identify the problems causing awkward posture because it can result to the development of Musculoskeletal Disorder Symptoms (MSDs), which may gone unnoticed and might cause higher compensation cost later. Postural analysis tool using Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) were applied and conducted on nine workers engaging in maintaining three types of vehicle namely car, Multi-purpose vehicle and bus. The evaluation of working postures in different activities is carried out using worksheet of scoring system. Result shows that most of the tasks involved awkward posture and most at high risk level. There is lack of ergonomic awareness and knowledge which contribute more towards high risk of MSDs problem.

Keywords: garage worker; assessment tools; musculoskeletal disorder; REBA; ergonomic