Ergonomic Evaluation of Conventional and Improved Methods of Aonla Pricking

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Date
2012
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CCSHAU
Abstract
Indian food preservation industry is predominantly occupied with processed aonla products especially aonla preserve. Women are the vital and most productive workers in preserve making SMEs and do the most monotonous job of pricking individual aonla fruit for preserve making. Till date, the pricking of aonla fruits in these enterprises is done manually employing poorly designed hand tools thus, making the pricking task very tiresome and time consuming for workers resulting into lowered productivity. Therefore, a hand operated aonla pricking machine developed by AICRP on PHT, CCSHAU, Hisar was ergonomically tested with women workers. A study was conducted on ergonomic evaluation of conventional and improved methods of aonla pricking which was carried out in 3 phases i.e. field survey to study working conditions and work profile of workers in selected four preserve making units, experimental work to conduct ergonomic evaluation of conventional (fork and hand tool) and improved (pricking machine) methods of aonla pricking, user’s acceptability of machine, organoleptic evaluation of preserve prepared. Thereafter, a sit-stand workstation was developed using RSM and improvements were suggested for preserve making SMEs as per WISE methodology. The results revealed that working conditions, processing tools and techniques were not satisfactory in all the units. The workers were doing pricking by using poorly designed hand tools in awkward postures and there were no defined workstations in all the units. Ergonomic evaluation of all the tools in various postures in terms of physiological, biomechanical and psychophysical parameters with 15 women workers selected from four enterprises revealed that physiological parameters while working with all the tools were within the acceptable limits for women workers. The HR showed maximum increase while pricking with machine in squatting posture (90 beats.min-1). However, biomechanical and psychophysical parameters were higher while working with conventional tools as compared to the machine. The grip fatigue was found to be maximum with fork in squatting posture (26 %). The reason for this was attributed to use of poorly designed conventional tools and lack of proper workstation. Machine was found highly acceptable by the users due to more safety, comfort and higher economic benefits while working. The preserve prepared with machine pricked aonla obtained highest sensory score (8.5), highest ascorbic acid content (150 mg/100 gm of fresh fruit) and least water activity (0.53). A fully adjustable ergonomically designed workstation was developed and used for the experiment. RSM was used to find out the best combination of posture (200 mm-600 mm-1000 mm), duration of the pricking activity (1hr-2 hr- 3 hr) and light (100 lux-300 lux -500 lux) while working with conventional tools and machine that has yielded most favorable results. The most desirable combinations obtained were 500 mm height +500 lux light + 2 hr time with conventional tools in sitting posture and 200 mm height+300 lux light+1.45 hr time and 1000 mm height+300 lux light+1.30 hr time with machine in low stool posture and standing posture respectively. Improvements were also suggested for preserve making SMEs using WISE methodology concerning with material storage and handling, workstation design and work environment. This all has resulted into reducing drudgery of women workers involved in preserve making activity.
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Keywords
Yields, Animal husbandry, Livestock, Lactation, Genetics, Breeds (animals), Sire evaluation, Seasons, Biological phenomena, Phenotypes
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