Tilting Cars on Assembly Lines

摘要

Letting autoworkers sit while they reach into a car's interior could help prevent shoulder and back strain, but another solution might be to tilt the entire car so that workers can stand up. That is the finding of two studies published in Applied Ergonomics. Sitting on a cantilevered chair reduces the stress on the workers' back and shoulders for three common installa- tion tasks, but a different strategy— tilting a car sideways on a carriage so that workers can access the interior while standing—reduces the stress for nine different tasks.