Study of association between OWAS, REBA and RULA with perceived exertion rating for establishing applicability

Abstract

The paper highlights the need to determine applicability of various ergonomic assessment methods. The methods such as Ovako working posture analysing system (OWAS), Rapid entire body assessment (REBA) and Rapid upper limb assessment (RULA) were used for the evaluation. The current research is carried out in three phases. The first phase involves assessing 25 postures at four different load levels (100 postures) to confirm the existence of variation in outcome of assessment. In the second phase, 24 male participants were selected to simulate the selected set of 100 postures-load combination in the laboratory and their perceived exertion rating was noted. Phase three includes the result’s validation. ANOVA was carried out to identify significant factors. It may be concluded from the study that OWAS may be better suited to evaluate risk if the load is less than 5 kg. Similarly, REBA and RULA may be better suited for the load range 5 kg − 10 kg and load greater than 10 kg respectively. It is observed that outcome of assessment methods is insensitive to some posture cases. So, there is a need to identify all the insensitive zones within a method that has a considerable difference in perceived exertion.

Keywords:

• Ergonomics
• variations
• posture assessment
• REBA
• RULA
• OWAS
• perceived exertion
• MSD
• comparison

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the people who have contributed directly or indirectly to this research. No funds were received for this study by any funding agency.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Relevance to industry

This study will help ergonomic practitioners to identify postures that need improvement along with the level of risk involved in the automobile industry. This study will also help to select the appropriate methods for posture analysis thereby reducing the risk of causing MSDs.