Ergonomics and quality interventions in woodworking technological processes for lightening the workload

The aim of the research is to analyze quality and ergonomics improvements in woodworking technological processes of furniture production after the ergonomics interventions for lightening the workload. The medium size woodworking enterprise was chosen and the investigation was done in three year period. Ergonomics risk assessment methods and quantitative process analysis tools were applied to analyze the human well-being, productivity and financial aspects of ergonomics interventions in process quality improvements. Results of ergonomics risk assessment KIM method showed that ergonomics interventions in the furniture production line lightens the workload for sorting, packaging and assembling operators. The cost-benefit analysis proved that an ergonomics intervention in furniture production line pays off in one year, while the benefits will continue to grow in next five years. Despite technical improvements, some work phases in furniture production line still requires hard manual handling, thus participatory ergonomics should be applied.