Reseaarticles

Ergonomics in floriculture in Colombia: results and lessons

Ergonomics in Colombian Floriculture: Results and Lessons

Floriculture Ergonomic in Colombia: Results and lies
H. Lope Barrero, ScD 1
Received: March 4, 2013 Accepted: December 4, 2013

Summary
Introduction: The floriculture sector has been affected for years by the high occurrence of
musculoskeletal diseases among workers. Various efforts have been launched to understand the
magnitude of the problem, its causes and possible solutions. This manuscript presents from the
academic perspective the lessons and achievements of the performance model industry-academia to
improve the ergonomic conditions of the working population of this important industrial sector.
Materials and methods: was a collection of records, communications, reports and scientific
publications of works carried out since 2007 with the participation of Ergonomics Studies Center of the
Department of Industrial Engineering at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. A retrospective analysis
of the information sought to answer questions about the origin of the work, objectives, results
achieved, benefits and lessons learned. Results: the working model was participatory. The initiator of
the engine work is the companies producing flowers that make explicit their insurance needs work.
The overall design of the study was not commissioned the academy, but the academy built; and then
refined with the unionization of producers. Although the overall objective of the work is the prevention
of diseases, this is carried out from projects in so far as time passed were securing funds to achieve
specific objectives related to: the assessment of ergonomic conditions work, characterization of the
working population and development, implementation and testing of solutions. Conclusions: the
collaborative model industry-academia evidence presented important results both improvements to
working conditions as academics. While it is necessary to validate the vision of the industry on these
models of collaborative work, it is considered that this case was successful and, therefore, should be
replicated in other industries.

Keywords: collaboration with industry, labor, health, agriculture.

1 Department of Industrial Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. E-mail: lopehugo@javeriana.edu.co

 Abstract
Introduction: The flower industry has-been for years AFFECTED by the high occurrence of
musculoskeletal disorders Among workers. Various Efforts Have Been done to Understand the
magnitude of the problem, causes and possible solutions STIs. This manuscript presents from the
academic perspective the lessons and achievements of an industry-academics model of action to
improve increase the ergonomic conditions of the working population of esta Important industry.
Materials and methods: a review of minutes, communications, reports and scientific publications
related to the ergonomics work done since year 2007 With the participation of the Center for
Ergonomics Studies (cee) of the Department of Industrial Engineering at Pontificia Universidad
Javeriana was Conducted. A retrospective analysis of the information Sought to answer Questions
about the origin of the work, Objectives, results, benefits Gained and Lessons Learned. results:
The working model was participatory. Flower Producers Were the starters of the work. They made
explicit Their needs to workers' insurance companies. The overall study design but was not just
Given Built with academics, and subsequently refined With the Association of Producers. ,
Although the overall objective of the work was the prevention of musculoskeletal disease Among
workers, the work was Carried out in time as funds Were secured through studies With Specific
objectives related to: Workplace ergonomics evaluations, characterization of the working
population, and the development, implementation, and testing of solutions. Conclusions: The
industry-academics presented Resulted in collaboration model important improvements to working
conditions and academic results. , Although it is Necessary to validate the view of the industry
regarding this type of collaborative models, it is Considered that case was successful and
replicated THEREFORE Should be in other industries.

Key words: With industry collaboration, occupational health, agriculture.

Summarize
Introduo: or floricultor tem setor been afetado for years by high ocorrncia of musculoskeletal
doenas between Trabalhadores seus. Various esforos postos em tm been functioning for
compreender to do problem magnitude, causes and suas suas solues Possveis. This
manuscript expe from a perspective as lies academic results and do atuao model industry-
academy for melhorar condies da trabalhadora populao as ergonomic deste important
Industrial Sector. Materiais and Methods: uma recopilao of atas, comunicaes, reports and
scientific publicaes two trabalhos levados out since 2007 or participao com to do Centro de
Estudos do Ergonomia Department of Industrial Engenharia da Universidad Javeriana is fez.
Uma Anlise Desta informao retrospective buscou answer to origem perguntas on two
trabalhos, objectives, alcanados results, benefits and lies obtidos learned. results: or
participatory model trabalho foi. O engine starter two so trabalhos as produtoras flowers
companies fazem explicit s suas necessidades seguradoras do trabalho. Globally criao
estudo do NAO foi encarregada academy, I Senao built com academy; and later refined to
agremiao of produtores com. Ainda than or overall objective trabalho do to preveno of
doenas, or trabalho is washed out from projetos that measure with foi passando or tempo,
foram segurando farms for a consecuo specific objectives relating com: a avaliao das
ergonomic condies trabalho do, to caracterizao eo Desenvolvimento da trabalhadora
populao,

46 / Rev. Cienc. Health. 2014;

12 (Special): 45-53
 Ergonomics in floriculture in Colombia: results and lessons

implementao and prova of solues. Conclusos: evidence or model industry- academia

colaborao apresentada important results both Laborais quanto s condies melhoras
academic. Ainda necessrio validate that gives indstria viso this type of collaborative models
trabalho considers that this case-se foi sucesso and portanto deveria be replicated em outras
industries.

Keywords: com colaborao indstria, labor sade, agriculture.

Introduction
The Colombian agricultural sector is one of the
most important in the national economy. In
2012, agriculture accounted for 3.4% of gross
domestic product and 7.9% used the soil of the
national territory (1, 2). Recent estimates
indicate that this sector of the economy would
use approximately 13% of employed people in
the country (3). Moreover, this sector can
become a great generator of wealth for the
country if its potential is well used (4).
The agricultural sector, however, is a sector
with great difficulties of social and political (5)
character. Informality prevails in it, which
reached combined with the livestock sector in
the country, levels above 90% in the year
2012, contrasting with national official figures
of urban informality that would be about 50%
(6). These levels of informality assume that
the working conditions of persons employed
in agriculture are not sufficiently recognized
despite the plaintiffs levels associated effort in
agricultural work (7). This situation also
means that the ailments and diseases that
this working population suffers are not
recorded in the national accounts of
occupational disease.
Latinos of Colombian social security system
and, therefore, registration of the occurrence of
diseases that afflict workers. This would
explain in part because most new cases of
occupational disease in Colombia come from
this important sector of the economy (8). The
point prevalence of symptoms associated with
diseases such as carpal tunnel syndrome may
reach in this sector to levels near 30%
(9). Therefore, the study of working conditions
in this sector, as well as the means and
actions required to improve these conditions,
should be guaranteed.
The type of actions that can be pursued
vary in scope and level of performance. On the
political level, business associations, social
pressure groups and media have a major role
outreach and awareness of the importance of
the implementation of occupational health in
improving productivity and health of workers,
particularly in industries high occupational risk,
such as agriculture. The academy at this level
meets the essential function of providing
objective evidence justifying such outreach and
awareness, and, ultimately, allow the process
of generating inform public policy in this area.

An important sub-sector of Colombian Meanwhile, on a more tactical level, where

agriculture is floriculture. In this sector, in
contrast to most of the agricultural sector
prevails formality. This situation implies that
formality floriculture sector workers are
subject to the regulations
employers, workers and academia have a
direct role of technical performance, it is
necessary to ensure that are launched joint
efforts to measure

Rev. Cienc. Health. 2014; 12 (Special): 45-53 / 47

Barrero LH.
Working conditions and proposes solutions to
their improvement as business
competitiveness in the context of current policy
and regulation in this area is ensured.
However, such efforts in the country are still
insufficient and often little effective. At this
level, of course secure resources to finance
such joint efforts are essential. However, the
existence of resources cannot be the variable
that mainly affects the amount and
effectiveness of efforts working in occupational
health industry-academia because I wonder:
what company is not willing to make
investments if you have a degree of certainty
important that your investment will be fruitful?
My contingency is that the discrepancy
between expectations and interests of industry
is the main factor that prevents the planning
and execution of new projects for the
measurement and improvement of working
conditions of workers. For example, you might
academia, and general occupational health
professional, not sufficiently sensitive to the
needs of business productivity, timely response
requirements and the need to demonstrate the
benefits achieved. In turn, the employer may
not be sufficiently sensitive to the needs of
scientific publication of the academy, which
requires robust methodological designs and
strict documentation of the work performed. If
this contingency is true, brief the results of the
studies, I focus primarily on documenting
Here I present a case study of a work done in
occupational health and ergonomics in
particular, with the participation of different
actors in an important sector of the Colombian
industry over the past five years. Although I
references
48 / Rev. Cienc. Health. 2014; 12 (Special): 45-53
researcher from the perspective of the
experience of working together, seeking to find
process lessons that can be shared with the
community of scholars and practitioners of
ergonomics in Colombia.
Materials and methods
A review of the resulting secondary
information from a group of ergonomic studies
conducted in the floriculture sector by industry
and insurers workers was made, with the
participation of the Centre for the Study of
Ergonomics Department of Industrial
Engineering at the Pontifical Javeriana
university. Among the documents consulted
are the records, technical reports, electronic
communications and scientific papers resulting
from the study.
From this information, we tried to
answer the following specific questions:
What were the general characteristics of
the work done?
What were the main results and
achievements of the work done?
What factors contributed to the success of
the work done?
What lessons have been learned from
the work done?
Results
What were the general characteristics of the
work done? The work had the overall objective
of improving the musculoskeletal health of
workers. This effort was attended at different
times of the project of a major insurer of
workers in Colombia; the association unionizes
most of the producers (Asocolflores),
floricultural

farmers, workers and academia. The overall
work done has been done through various
projects with specific purposes but related that
have included aspects such as assessment of
ergonomic conditions of work, the
characterization of the working population,
development and implementation of solutions,
including changes to tools and work
procedures, and evaluation of these.
Identify the start date of the work done with the
participation of cee difficult, because, although
the line of work was formally created in 2007,
researchers cee had already participated in
previous efforts to evaluate the physical
conditions of work floriculture. The formal
development work in 2007 began with a
request from the Sura ARL (formerly arp
Suratep) at the Javeriana University to
formulate a project to find and test solutions
that could reduce the occurrence of
musculoskeletal diseases limb higher in
workers.
A team composed of the insurer, external
consultants and researchers of the University
began with the conceptualization of the study,
its objectives and overall design. The study
was initially raised to Asocolflores, association
unionizes flower growers, which gave their
support and facilitated the rapprochement with
the producers. A total of twelve companies
were invited to participate in the study
according to a plan of visits to companies that
met production criteria Chrysanthemums roses
in Cundinamarca and Antioquia, and a range
of between 200 and 800 workers. These
conditions were defined to try to represent
typical size companies in the sector.
Ergonomics in floriculture in Colombia: results and lessons
From the study, were several international
technical collaborations with researchers from
the German Social Insurance and Harvard
University, who made contributions mainly in
technology for gathering information electro
goniometry and electromyography,
respectively, Similarly, national collaborations
emerged in particular with the Colombian
School of Engineering. In addition, recognition
of the group of researchers from cee with
national flower producers provided new
approaches for further studies. Finally, the
work allowed and encouraged the
participation of students, teachers and
consultants. This allowed the project to
develop parallel processes practice, learning
and training for our students. As a result,
Efforts focused primarily on understanding
the characteristics of cutting operations in
flower cultivation and classification and
bunched postharvest (9). these operations
were chosen based on prior knowledge given
to the team of professionals with experience in
the sector suggested the importance that these
operations might have on the health of
workers. However, the study raised the
collection of self-reported information from
other tasks floriculture and even other tasks
outside of work. The study was initially raised
in three phases, although contracts were being
given execution phase by phase. The first was
undertaken to study the scientific literature to
find solutions that have already been created
for the sector. The second was to evaluate the
main mechanical work factors present in
cultivation and post-harvest tasks, and iden-
Rev. Cienc. Health. 2014; 12 (Special): 45-53 / 49
Barrero LH.

Social insurance
German

ECI University of
Harvard
Articles

international patents
Local network network
scientific
production
hand anthropometry

Maintenance of
tools
Project
Implementation new
studies
1 Undergraduate work

Ing. Industrial 1

participation Masters work Ing.

students
Industrial

Figure 1. Results of model industry-academia collaboration

ify a cross sectional study which of those
factors were mainly related to mechanical
factors studied. The third phase was the
creation of solutions, selecting those with
greater feasibility and evaluation of its
effectiveness. At this stage, it is important to
highlight the work done to invite practicing
professionals in occupational health sector to
identify possible solutions and assess its
feasibility for implementation, and the
participation of workers mainly in the
evaluation of the proposed solutions. From this
overall project, direct links with producers, with
whom studies were developed in parallel and
complementary to know, for example, were
created,
What were the main results of the work done?
The results of the work have been
presented at several technical reports
and manuscripts that have already been
published (9, 12, 13) or are in the
process of publication. Then the main
findings:
9.4 Studied operations are performed with
typical 4.2 to 8.4 cycles of cuts per minute,
and to 12.6 strokes per minute in sorting
and bunched, respectively. Although these
cycles were not
taken in periods of peak demand for
production are considered repetitive, but
lower than the cycles observed in other
highly repetitive industrial operations. (9)
2. The tasks of floriculture are located on average
About a level of effort between 12 and 14 (up
strong) on the Borg scale. This is a moderate
level in relation to highly demanding tasks
reported in the industry. However, it is higher
than the average level reported in tasks
outside of work(9).
3. Symptoms of typical diseases of
musculoskeletal disorders of the upper
extremities are high; similar to

50 / Rev. Cienc. Health. 2014; 12 (Special): 45-53


those found in other high-risk industries to
present this type of musculoskeletal (9)
disorders.
4. The cutting tools typically used in the sector
are very large for the size of the hands of
the working population (13). This implies a
mechanical disadvantage for the operation
of tools and highlights the need to develop
new instruments which conform to the
dimensions observed in our population.
5. There are extreme positions, especially
Pronation-supination 30 39
supination, particularly during
cutting tasks pink (9).
6. Application requirements force the cutting
operation are often high relative to other
industrial tasks considered as plaintiffs,
averaging forearm muscle activation
between 3.6 and 24% of the maximum
force of contraction voluntary (% MVC),
mainly affecting the muscles that help with
the creation of extension movements and
ulnar deviation of the hand (9).
7. Information on solutions that are effective
for reducing the mechanical workload in
the upper extremities during tasks
agriculture is low (14).
Table 1. Success factors in projects ergonomics
Success Factor
Inclusion of stakeholders
Creating participatory work teams
Homing productivity and health
Management support
Ergonomics in floriculture in Colombia: results and lessons
8. Alternative tools have high potential to
reduce the mechanical demands of work,
but require refining to capitalize on the
expected benefits (15).
9. Postural workouts can have a positive
impact especially on the level of
supination-pronation extreme (16).
What factors contributed to the success of
the work done?
Some authors suggest that work on
ergonomics should have some fundamental
characteristics to be successful. (17, 18) Below
is a list of some of these factors, subjectively
indicating the level at which they would have
been present in this effort (Table 1) is
presented. The factor that could have a lower
level is the Homing productivity, because,
although the philosophy of work cee
considered this important variable, it is true that
none of the documents of general or specific
study design it raised as an explicit objective.
In general, it is considered that the work done
in the context in which it was carried out was
successful, especially with the participation of
various actors and support they had from the
management of the production companies
involved.
Basic Average Advanced
X
X
X
X
Rev. Cienc. Health. 2014; 12 (Special): 45-53 / 51
Barrero LH.
Lessons learned from the work done?
The work has been fruitful. However,
important lessons can be abstracted
from this:
1. Psychosocial factors not received attention
in the study. The ergonomic theory points
to the importance of assessments that
consider all factors. However, given the
resources, time and focus of the study,
this was not possible. The question
remains on how to make the design of
2. All efforts should include the practical
presentation of results to impact the
industry attended. In the study, practice
dissemination materials were prepared.
However, it was challenging to present
simple and useful information without
compromising the precision and accuracy
required by the communication of
knowledge achieved.
3. The inclusion of experienced researchers
and researchers in learning is essential.
This ensures better teaching processes, the
involvement of new generations and
enrichment of creative work required in
these projects.
4. The work done in this case included the
broad participation of two officers of the
academy, one national and one
international; and collaboration with other
national academic agent. However, it is
possible to think of new efforts to include
more national and international
collaborations.
52 / Rev. Cienc. Health. 2014; 12 (Special): 45-53
such studies in the future will not sacrifice
key elements despite the limitations.
5. The participatory model scheme mainly
included production companies, the insurer,
professional occupational health
practitioners and academia. Workers,
meanwhile, although they had the
opportunity to participate and comment on
them solutions was proposed, had a less
major role in creating these. In the future, it
is necessary to aim to achieve broader and
plant workers in identifying their own risk
factors and solutions for their participation.
Conclusions
In this manuscript, a case of joint work
between industry and academia on the subject
of ergonomics is presented. Clearly there are
technical and scientific to important
developments in ergonomics in the country's
strengths. Although this presentation focuses
on a case study of such conditions in a
particular sector, there are several examples in
other sectors carried out by our group that
ratify this model of industry-academia joint
work. However, it is considered necessary to
validate and enrich the model exposed to new
experiences to ensure the success of the
work. Moreover, here the vision of the
academy with clearly positive results for the
performance of their work is presented.
 Ergonomics in floriculture in Colombia: results and lessons

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