EFFECTS OF KNOB SELECTIONS ON WORK POSTURE SELECTIONS IN MANUFACTURING COMPANIES

Hand tools that fail to accommodate various hand and body postures can lead to serious injuries and potential development of hand-related musculoskeletal disorders. While some studies have shown that there are theoretical relations between different work postures and object shapes, it appears that there are no statistical analyses that investigate how the different selections of knobs affect the selections of different work postures. This paper aims to detennine the effects of knob selections on the work posture selections of manual workers from several manufacturing firms. The analysis used for this study is regression analysis. The survey responses are entered into Minitab 16 for the analysis. The findings confirmed that majority of the workers normally and preferably use the knurled spherical knob for their manual work. The selection of this knob also significantly affects the selection of the work postures that they assume. The findings are useful preliminary guidelines for the development of ergonomic knob prototypes that accommodate different work postures to potentially reduce hand-related injuries at the workplace.