Posture in industry

References:

The International journal of Production research (1967) vol. 5, NO.3

 

Author :

W.F. Floyd and Mrs. J. Ward

Summary:

Studies are made of various group workers engaged in repetitive tasks; photographic and activity sampling techniques are used to record postural behavior. Measurements are made of dimensions of operators and their machines and workplaces relevant to the working relationship between them. As a result of the studies modifications are made to machine and workplace layouts and changes in postural behavior and workers report of feeling of fatigue are noted.

In this blog 3 studies of of postural behavior in industry are described,, the two being related where employees are seating.

 

 

Several aspect of behavior were noted among the ladies engaged on this task.

The problems of posture have long exercised those concerned with man in industry. In the last century, Charles Thackrah (1831) noted cramped and crippling postures in many operators, and wrote. . . "the work people are less thought of than the machinery; the latter is frequently examined to ascertain its capabilities—the former is scarcely ever". In the ensuing century great strides have been made in the design and layout of machinery and equipment so that the operator is more appropriately accommodated at his work station. The need to provide seats for workers, to alleviate fatigue, is now generally acknowledged, and is given practical form in, for instance, a publication by the Ministry of Labour and National Service (1958).

Studies to determine the validity of the above principles when applied to the practical situation have recently been reported. One (Floyd & Ward, 1964) compared the percentages of time that school pupils adopted certain body postures considered to be imposed upon them by the design of two types of school desk and chair to which they were accustomed. One design conformed to the British Standards Institution recommendations referred to; the other was an "old-fashioned" design contravening most of these recommendations. The study showed that the "new" design of furniture permitted the adoption and maintenance of body postures notable for a more erect trunk, straighter shoulders, use of backrest and freer movement of the legs beneath the desk to a significantly greater extent than did the "old fashioned" furniture.