The Assessment of Working Posture Effect to Musculoskeletal Disorder: An Indonesian “Batik Cap” Industry Case Study

The stamp scrapping task in traditional “Batik Cap” industries are mostly performed manually using unergonomics designed workbench that forced operator acting in un-healthy work posture. This condition will led to risks of work health in the long run as well as reduce productivity. Work health will be indicated by symptom of MSDs (Musculoskeletal Disorder) that measured by time to fatigue felt by operator. Meanwhile productivity will be measured by time to complete a job or just simply cycle time. In search of better solution, a new design of workbench was proposed to allow better working posture with 2.0 RULA (Rapid Upper Limb Assessment) score, instead of 6+ of existing one. To assess whether work quality can be improved by shaping better work posture, then an experimental study was conducted. It involved operators at scrapping stamp process by setting 3 type work posture shaped by different design of workbench functioning as a jig and fixture. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was employed to test the effect of working posture which resulting positive effect to MSDs. A further investigation using Turkey Test revealed that standing work posture is the most appropriate.