Pantnagar Journal of Research

Abstract

An investigation was conducted to evaluate agricultural workers’ ergonomic performance during cranking activities. To assess the ergonomic performance of agricultural workers, a cranking operation experimental lab set-up was developed based on the subjects’ ergonomic reach criteria. Four loads 10, 30, 50, and 70 N were used to assess the ergonomic performance of 12 medically fit male farm workers. For all loads, it was observed that the working heart rates (WHR) of the selected subjects were 102 to 135 beats/min. The limit of continuous performance (LCP) was less than 40 beats/min for all selected loads except at 70 N of load. However, it was also observed that all of the selected subjects’ oxygen consumption rates (OCR) varied between 0.59 and 1.19 l/min and their energy expenditure rates (EER) ranged between 12.34 and 24.86 kJ/min for all loads. According to the classification of manual jobs based on energy expenditure during the operation, cranking operation with a 10 N load fell in the light category, whereas 30 and 50 N fell in the moderately heavy category, and 70 N fell under the heavy category Additionally, the overall discomfort ratings (ODR) ranged from 3.1 to 6.3 on the adopted 10-point scale, while the body part discomfort scores (BPDS) for cranking operation of all the selected subjects was obtained in the range of 35.2 to 38.3.