جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه "furniture industry" در نشریات گروه "پزشکی"

During the past times people have used furniture as today. Along with the social welfare development and the importance of manufacturing efficiency, the importance of ergonomics and standardization in furniture became very clear so that, today it is well-known that not considering human factors in furniture manufacturing causes much human health problems. Due to the importance of furniture standardization, the present study was conducted to investigate the use of standards in furniture manufacturing units in Tehran province.

In this study, cluster sampling was performed and questionnaires were distributed among experienced manufacturers of sixty furniture manufacturing units. Statistical analysis was performed using One sample student t-test and Friedman test in SPSS 18 software.

Results revealed that there was a significant difference between the indices mean and the hypothesized mean of the population. Furniture manufacturers believed that the governmental and nongovernmental institutions have appeared weak on updating furniture standards and making manufacturers familiar with standards. From their point of view, consumers have shown a great trend to buy standard and ergonomic furniture. Manufacturers also have largely tended so much to use standards and national standards conformed by  international standards.

The manufacturing of standard furniture increases the consumer interest to buy furniture and it increases the consumer satisfaction. The high quality of imported raw materials makes furniture competitive and it causes coordination with international standards and it can assure the successful export of furniture in Iran. Successful furniture manufacturing will depend on realization of all indices mentioned in the present study.

Furniture industry is known as a part of semi-heavy industry in Iran. The role of labour force is inevitable in production processes. Therefore risk factors affecting occupational musculoskeletal disorders in this industry must be evaluate. Identification and assessment of these factors is important measure to prevention and controlling of musculoskeletal disorders. Production performance in the furniture manufacturing activities is almost accompanied by transportation (heavy, large and rigid load). Since there are so many furniture makers in Qom, this study was chosen for the evaluation and determination of risk factors inducing musculoskeletal disorders in this industry.

In this cross- sectional study, after identifying work stations and work tasks in furniture manufacturing workplaces, Nordic and demographics questionnaires were used for the determination of prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and individual characteristics, respectively. Also, for evaluation of risk factors inducing musculoskeletal disorders was used Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) method. After all, the obtained data were analyzed using statistical methods including: t-test, and chi-square and fisher’s exact tests.

The results demonstrated that the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in this industry is high. Also, job tenure and work duration are the main important factors in prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders. On the other hand, evaluation of work postures indicated that duty type and work posture were the main important factors in prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders, too. Finally, by applying the standard tables of REBA method, action categories of correction strategies were determined and after identifying risk factors, control strategies were recommended.

The results of this study demonstrated that the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in back, knee, leg, hand and hand wrist has been high and body postures of these workers should be improved. More training and instructions are needed to have good position in the workplaces. Therefore, it is suggested that by performing correction strategies in order to optimization of work stations design, ergonomic condition, and periodic training of workers for a long time, improve their workplaces.