Design of Participatory Ergonomics to Promote Occupational Safety and Health Culture in Mechanical Engineering Workshops
Hasianna Nopina Situmorang (a*), Yoakim Simamora (b), Banu Nursanni (a), Lisa Melvi Ginting (a), and Manihar Situmorang (c)

a) Department of Mechanical Engineering Education, Universitas Negeri Medan, Medan, North Sumatera, INDONESIA
*hasiannanopina[at]unimed.ac.id
b) Department of Electrical Engineering Education, Universitas Negeri Medan, Medan, North Sumatera, INDONESIA
c) Department of Chemistry, Universitas Negeri Medan, Medan, North Sumatera, INDONESIA

Abstract

The active involvement of workers in creating ergonomic conditions that are appropriate to the conditions of their work environment needs to be supported in improving health, safety and productivity in the workplace. This research aims to develop the design of participatory ergonomics tools to promote a culture of occupational safety and health that is appropriate to the work environment of a Mechanical Engineering Workshop. The research was conducted at the Mechanical Engineering Workshop at Universitas Negeri Medan involving worker respondents related to machining work. Research procedures include analyzing ergonomics needs for machining workshop activities, developing participatory ergonomics tools that are appropriate for workshops in the mechanical engineering environment, standardizing and testing participatory ergonomics tools on a small scale before implementing them widely for academics in the mechanical engineering environment. The initial stage of research has succeeded in designing participatory ergonomics for machinery that can be used as a reference in promoting a culture of occupational safety and health in the mechanical engineering workshop environment. Standardization of participatory ergonomics devices has been carried out and provided a positive response from respondents. The trial phase for the application of participatory ergonomics tools has been carried out on a small scale with workers in machining workshops. The research results show that the application of the participatory ergonomics approach has succeeded in changing the work system of workers in the Mechanical Engineering workshop environment. Several aspects of ergonomics that are of concern to workers include a focus on safety, comfort, ease of use, productivity/performance, and aesthetics related to work in a workshop environment. The application of the participatory ergonomics system has an impact on creating harmony between people and their work in order to increase productivity and reduce risks to safety and health in the work environment. The results of data analysis provide good scores in almost all aspects, indicating that the participatory ergonomics approach is very reliable in achieving occupational safety and health in the mechanical engineering environment. This study is still in the refinement stage as a step to obtain a valid participatory ergonomics design to be implemented on a wider scale to create appropriate ergonomic conditions for workers according to the type of machining work in the Mechanical Engineering Workshop environment.

Keywords: Participatory ergonomics, Mechanical Engineering workshop, Work productivity, Occupational Safety and Health, Work productivity

Topic: Sciences, Engineering and Material Science