Ergonomic Risk Assessment in Automotive Welding Lines and Comparison ofMethod Output

Abstract

There are many studies in the literature on ergonomic risk assessment, but there are limited studies on theGermany Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAUA) method. The aim of this study isto examine the compatibility between Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) and BAUA and the abilityof the methods to correctly classify the risk level of risky tasks, and to make ergonomic improvements toreduce the physical strains. The welding processes of the automotive company were examined andergonomic risk assessment was made by using REBA and BAUA for four tasks with the most strains. Theevaluation criteria and results of the methods were compared and improvement suggestions weredeveloped to reduce ergonomic risks. The results of this study approve that the risk output of both methodsdepends on the exposures considered and their greatness. Both REBA and BAUA are used for work doneusing the whole body. The biggest difference between the methods is that the time weight evaluation isalways used in the BAUA, and the time is not taken into account in the REBA. Since the aim of ergonomicsstudies is to eliminate the risks of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), the results that will show where tostart the improvement studies should be determined in the most accurate way and no factors should beoverlooked. People who will conduct ergonomic risk assessment studies for welding employees were informed about the advantages and disadvantages of both methods and suggestions were given.