Musculoskeletal risk assessment and interventions in a lifting task: A comparison of several biomechanical and ergonomic tools

One of the main risk factors for workers, particularly in manual material handling tasks, is musculoskeletal disorder (MSD). In this study, the risk assessment of the car tire assembling station in a car manufacturing corporation is conducted. This activity was divided into three phases and the critical phase was identified after careful examinations. Lifting phase had the highest risk of injury. Biomechanical and ergonomic tools were used to fully assess this activity. After confirming the risk of injury in this activity by these tools, the necessity of interventions to reduce the risk of injury became evident. Three interventions were proposed, and the effectiveness of these interventions was confirmed by most of the tools by demonstrating the reduction in L4-L5 disc compression load on average from 3691N in main posture to 1367 N in intervention 2, the best intervention. Finally, a throughout comparison of the assessment tools was made thus helping the practitioners to choose the appropriate tool for future musculoskeletal risk assessments.