MEM634: ERGONOMIC DESIGN PROJECT

OPEN & DISTANCE LEARNING (ODL) MINI PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

OBJECTIVES:
1. To conduct an ergonomic design study in an active workplace based on internet and/ or other
sources.
2. To apply the theories and knowledge gained through lectures, to a real occupational setting.

PROJECT GUIDELINES:
1. Student shall form a team of maximum 5 persons per group.
2. Select an active workplace.
a) Agriculture Industry
b) Health and social care industry
c) Automotive/ vehicle production industry
d) Warehouse / distribution centre
e) Furniture manufacturing industry / Woodworking
f) Chemical/ pharmaceutical industry
g) Food processing industry
h) Manufacturing industry (Plastic/metal/component/ stamping)
i) Transportation industry (airport/ LRT/ bus station etc)
j) Recycle industry etc
Note: You may also conduct your ergonomic project on the organization that you did your
internship.

3. Explain the total requirements of ergonomic principles and practices in the establishment.
One student may choose only one of the topics/tasks (A to E) from below.

A. Determine and select the task/process or activity to carry out workstation case study.
 An overview of the study.
 Identify the tasks/processes or activities performed at the workstation (task element).
 Provide a real time picture to support your analysis. Use RULA/REBA work sheet for
posture analysis, WERA or ERA analysis. (if required) ***
 Discuss the ergonomic problems and suitable improvement/ recommendation for the
workstation that you have chosen. *

B. What is the type of layouts that should be taken into consideration and how it can help in
maximizing the effectiveness and meet the needs of employee?

B1  An overview of the study

 Identify the precedence relationship for the tasks/processes or activities at the
workplace.
Or  Construct the current layout.
 Design new layout and elaborate how the design works.
 Discuss the ergonomic problems for the existing layout and the improvement of
the new layout that you have proposed.

B2  An overview of the study

 Identify the precedence relationship for the tasks/processes or activities at the
workplace.
 Construct the current layout.
 Design new layout and elaborate how the design works.
 Discuss the ergonomic problems for the existing layout and propose the
improvement for new layout. *
 MEM634: ERGONOMIC DESIGN PROJECT

C. Determine the extent of the ergonomic issues/ problems in the work procedures and
activities that indicate urgency of an ergonomic intervention.
 An overview of the study
 Some occurrences in the premise are indicators for requiring ergonomics
countermeasures. Focus on 3 indicators such as cases of production or work operations
problems, injury or accident, occupational illness or diseases, workers or management
complaints or others.
 Choose any ergonomic problems from the 3-5 working conditions/problems that you have
been encounter for improvements. (exclude workstation and layout)
 Discuss the ergonomic problems and the improvement for the issues/ problems that you
have encountered. *

D. Identify workplace manual handling activities and draw valid as well reliable conclusions
from the assessments.
 An overview of the study
 Manual handling relates to the moving of items either by lifting, lowering, carrying, pushing
or pulling. List 3 - 5 tasks or activities that relate with manual handling.
 Provide a real time picture to support your analysis. Use manual handling assessment
or/and pushing and pulling assessment to study the risk factors associated with manual
handling activities.
 Discuss the tasks/activities and what are the steps to reduce risks,
improvement/recommendation. *

E. What are the ergonomic, safety and health problems that have occurred and/or may occur
and what are the steps taken to avoid repeat occurrence?
 An overview of the study
 List 3- 5 more ergonomic, safety and health issues that may occur at the premise.
 Study their preventive procedure, identification/evaluation, analysis of the causes,
consequences/ hazards, remedies, prevention procedure, PPE required or others. *

Each student must type (in a project report) about one of the above themes (either A, B, C, D or E
only). The narrative (text) of the project report must be supported with relevant technical diagrams
/drawings /figures /tables of data /photos /images /charts /graphs /information /references.

* search at least 10 articles (proceeding, journal) as your references to support the discussion.

4. Only one report is required to be submitted that should include all the 5 topics above (A to E) using
the report layout as outlined below:
i. Cover page
ii. Introduction
iii. Main body of report: Topics A – E
iv. References
v. Appendix

Tentative date of submission: July 2022 [The class lecturer will inform the date]