The Effect of Material Handling Strategies on Time and Labour Fatigue in Window Manufacturing

The Effect of Material Handling Strategies on Time and Labour Fatigue in Window Manufacturing Omar Azakir, Fatima Alsakka, Mohomad Al-Hussein Pages 474-481 (2024 Proceedings of the 41st ISARC, Lille, France, ISBN 978-0-6458322-1-1, ISSN 2413-5844) Abstract: Manual material handling in the workplace is a leading cause of musculoskeletal disorders among workers and a key driver of workers' compensation costs. As such, the primary objectives of this study are to assess the impact of manual material handling on both the time spent manually handling materials and the well-being of workers within the context of glass window manufacturing, as well as to examine potential strategies to reduce the adverse impact of manual material handling. The study focuses on the process of manually pushing carts fully loaded with 35 glass units over a 100-meter-long route at a case window-manufacturing facility. Two alternative strategies are examined: reducing the weight of the carts by partially loading them, and using power jacks to transfer fully loaded carts. The study analyzes the effects of these strategies on parameters such as total transfer time and the corresponding labour hours, as well as worker fatigue levels, measured on a scale ranging from 1 (low fatigue) to 5 (severe fatigue). The results reveal that the task of transferring the fully loaded carts along the route costs the company about $1,800 in labour every month, consumes more than 10% of the 8-h work shift of three workers, and causes high levels of fatigue among the workers engaged in this task. Keywords: Material handling, MMH, time efficiency, cost efficiency, labour fatigue, cart system, power jack, window manufacturing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22260/ISARC2024/0062 Download fulltext Download BibTex Download Endnote (RIS) TeX Import to Mendeley