ENGINEERING DESIGN OF AUTOMATIC SELENOID STOVE TO REDUCEMUSCULOSKELETAL DISORDERS COMPLAINTS USING NBM AND RULA APPROACH

Abstract

UKM Kenanga is a home industry producing various cassava chips based in
Kubu Raya district, West Kalimantan. Complaints regarding musculoskeletal
were identified in the process of frying chips. The complaints were carpal
tunnel syndrome, low back pain, neck pain, as well as on the forearm and
upper arm. Non-ergonomic working position contributes to these
complaints. Therefore, it is necessary to perform this analysis and suggest a
tool that would be helpful to reduce the worker’s complaints. Formerly, there
haven’t been any early studies that cover the design of an automatic stove for
the frying process based on biomechanical considerations, particularly on
musculoskeletal disorder complaints.
This study performs an analysis based on Nordic Body Map (NBM) and Rapid
Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) concerning the process of frying the chips.
Nordic Body Map analysis was used to identify body parts that were
experiencing fatigue. Following the Nordic Body Map results, the automatic
stove was designed to solve the employees’ complaints. RULA approach was
used to analyze the condition after the employees carried out the work using
the stove. The outcomes of this study are an automatic solenoid stove and a
stool for the process of chips frying. RULA approach on the frying process
with the manual stove and with the automatic solenoid stove resulted in L4-
LV compression level reduced by 71.05%, whereas for Flex/Ext
Compression was 87.97%.