Improving worker health and production quality through the identification and reduction of fatigue

Overview

Keywords: Fatigue; quality; ergonomics; human factors

Timeline: 2012 - present

Researchers: Richard Wells (Principal Investigator, University of Waterloo), Jack Callaghan (University of Waterloo), Julie Cote (McGill University), Patrick Neumann (Ryerson University), Jim Potvin (McMaster University). Student researcheres: Marcus Yung* (University of Waterloo), Michael Sonne* (McMaster University) (*PhD student)

Funder: AUTO21; CRE-MSD

Project type: External grant

Sector/Workplace type: Automotive; Manufacturing

Theme:
Theme 1 Injury mechanisms
Theme 2 Risk factors
Theme 3 Hazard identification and risk assessment

Background/rationale

Fatigue in the trunk, shoulders and hand/arms can have multiple negative effects on a person and their work performance. Negative effects include: poorer motor control (with potential negative effects on product quality), increased discomfort, reduced maximal capacity and increased risk of acute injury. As well, if a person experiences neuromuscular fatigue over a long duration, it is believed to be a precursor to the development of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), such as shoulder injury, carpal tunnel syndrome or low back pain. Musculoskeletal disorders and their personal, firm and societal costs are a substantial problem in the automotive sector.

Research question/objectives/methods

The underlying driver of this project is the search for the specific links between poor ergonomic job design, fatigue and product deficits in manual work in manufacturing operations.

  • To measure neuromuscular fatigue at work: Current measures of neuromuscular fatigue may work in the laboratory and under specific conditions but ways to detect fatigue (at less than high levels) in the workplace are under-developed. This has required the development of new methods and instrumentation. Fatigue can manifest itself in many forms in multiple body regions. Team members are tackling this complex problem in different body regions and using different approaches. The results are being used to inform the development of the field friendly test battery.
  • To provide a link between ergonomics and product quality: The goal is to develop methods of linking product deficits/assembly mis-operations to poor workplace ergonomics and perform empirical studies in organizations to better understand these links. Development work required includes extending the scope of common ergonomics job and task assessments to include factors such as vision: a nut may be cross-threaded due to fatigue or to poor visual access.

Key findings

The development of the workplace friendly methods of measuring muscular fatigue has taken longer than anticipated as we have been not only evaluating existing laboratory based methods but also developing and testing novel workplace measures. We continue to pursue field sites for determining the links between ergonomics, fatigue and quality.

Implications for the prevention of MSDs

Being able to understand fatigue and how to measure it in field will enable practitioners to greatly decrease risk of workers developing MSDs.  Consequently, this will curtail the physical, mental and economic costs of injuries while helping enhance worker productivity and quality of work.

Knowledge dissemination

In progress.