Options
Roejhan Md Kawi
Preferred name
Roejhan Md Kawi
Official Name
Roejhan, Md Kawi
Alternative Name
Kawi, R. Md
Main Affiliation
Scopus Author ID
57221203782
Now showing
1 - 1 of 1
-
PublicationErgonomic intervention in harvesting process in oil palm plantationMost fannworkers in the small and medium Oil palm industry are using conventional method for harvesting works. Therefore, they are extremely exposed to the risk of shoulder muscle injury which is one of the musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) problems. Referring to the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), conventional harvest works was highly risk to undergo shoulder muscle problem due to extreme harvest posture with the repetitive and high of loading. Based on the body score result, there were 100% of respondent proven suffering shoulder problem. Hence the aim of this project is to identify proper working posture with design of palm oil harvesting ergonomic intervention device in order to replace the use of long arm sickle in conventional harvest. A comprehensive field study was conducted which focusing on conventional harvest posture by using Electromyography (EMG). Five male subjects volunteered to demonstrate these harvest posture conditions with four selected muscle activity and recorded by EMG and the signal data then plotted into scatterplot. By these findings, the analytical expression developed with proper harvest posture basis as a motivation in designing the intervention. The intervention is developed into prototype with mechanism system. A prototype field evaluation has been conducted to monitor the muscles activities with focus on same selected muscle by using EMG. Volunteered farmworkers is randomly picked to demonstrate the hruvesting process. The result shows reduction of selected muscle activity as compared to the conventional method due to working posture improvement. The Human Activity Analysis (HAA) was study to investigate the posture of the farmworkers during conventional and intervention harvest. There are five body conditions were simulated: L4- L5 compression, body load compression, axial twist compression, flex/ext compression and L4-L5 joint shear. Besides, the RULA's also shows better score as concrete evidence in improving body posture during harvesting work with this new method. As conclusion, optimized working posture along with the assistance of intervention prototype in oil palm harvesting process is suggested since the data provided in this research shows it could decrease the risk of shoulder muscle pain. This research also encourage of generating the innovation in designing new tools to increase the agriculture workers petformance.
17 14