Engineering Ergonomics Innovation for Reducing Musculoskeletal Risks in Dental Unit Handling Operations

Company X supplies and provides maintenance services for medical devices. Most of maintenance services activities are carried out by manual handling. The frequency of manual handling activities is quite frequent (average of 4x dental unit installation activities per month) carried out by two people, and the load being lifted is above the threshold value (69 kg), resulting in pain complaints on the Technician’s body. The main objective of this study was to determine the ergonomic risk factors for pain complaints among Technicians. The tool used to measure pain complaints is Nordic Body Map (NBM) checklist, for measuring work attitudes using Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) assessment method, and for data analysis using Fishbone Diagram method. The results showed that all Technicians experienced pain complaints in different parts of the body, but there were similarities: most complaints were on the left side of the body. One of the five activities studied is included in the high-risk category with a score of 10, and the other four activities are included in the very high-risk category with varying scores of 11-13. The recommendations are all work postures in dental unit service activities require corrective action, Technicians are not recommended to lift the loads over the threshold value by themself (minimum 3-4 persons per overloaded), perform REBA assessment on a regular basis in all areas, and use the appropriate lifting tools. With these recommendations, hoped that lifting loads can be reduced by 70% (become 21 kg), so that Technician’s health can be better maintained and safer working methods can be created.