Managing ergonomic risk assessment among assembly operators in the small-scale fabrication sector

In the small-scale fabrication sector, employee health and safety are the most important aspects for improving productivity and quality. There is a lack of risk assessment and limited information on human handling and ergonomic approaches in the working environment of the small-scale fabrication sector. This study aims to analyze the association of human handling risk factors with work-related musculoskeletal disorder (WMSD) symptoms among assembly operators and to evaluate the proposed ergonomic intervention for a high-risk work task using ergonomic risk assessment tools such as Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA). A questionnaire survey and observation were conducted across seven work categories. The analysis using RULA and REBA revealed that cleaning, fitting, and assembling have a high-risk level that requires ergonomic intervention. The virtual design of the proposed ergonomic workstation for high-risk work tasks was created using CATIA software and evaluated using RULA and REBA analyses. Job and organizational factors were found to be the main contributors to WMSD, while individual factors, awareness levels, and ergonomic risk assessment had insignificant effects on WMSD. Based on RULA and REBA scores, the proposed ergonomic intervention significantly reduces risk by 30%–47%, improving overall health and safety for operators in diverse work activities.