Ergonomic issues at a railway maintenance workshop Kumar, Rupesh ; Markeset, Tore ; Barabady, Javad ; Kumar, Uday
Publication details: Birmingham COMADEM International, 2011Description: s. 1583-1587ISBN:- 0954130723
Research on human factors related to railway operation and maintenance has, to an extent, been the neglected branch of transport ergonomics. Despite the numerous reports of ergonomics programs in a variety of industries, no examples of implementing ergonomics interventions in the railway vehicle maintenance workshop have been reported. In this study, a maintenance process at a railway workshop was studied and analyzed with special reference to working posture and maintenance repair time. The working postures of two maintenance personnel were obtained and analyzed using OWAS (Ovako Working Posture Analysis System). From the results, it was clearly indicated that poor working posture was a frequent occurrence during the maintenance activities. It can be concluded that the introduction and implementation of ergonomics principles at the railway maintenance workshop must be considered in order to reduce the poor working postures, maintenance repair time and to improve maintainability and productivity.