Absenteeism and ergonomics in cork industry: methodologies and tools for improving working conditions

• Main Author: Silva, Alfredo António Maio Nunes da
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Download full: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/37856
• topic: Absenteeism; Ergonomics; Musculoskeletal problems; Ergonomic assessment tools

The increasingly demanding markets are forcing companies to simultaneously improve several indicators (for example, productivity, quality, operational efficiency) to remain competitive and thus guarantee their survival in a sustainable way. Among several aspects to be improved, in a company, there is a phenomenon that worries the managers of organizations due to its considerable impact on production costs, decrease in competitiveness, deterioration of the working climate and demotivation of workers. In fact, absenteeism has been studied on many occasions and its causes determined, however, few studies have established the degree of impact of these causes on the value of the absenteeism rate. To this extent, the main objective of this thesis is to clarify the relationship between the ergonomics of workstations and the high rate of absenteeism of a company in the cork sector and try to contribute to the improvement of these indicators. To achieve this objective, a systematic review of the literature was developed, and several studies were carried out in the most critical workstations using various ergonomic assessment tools. The results found in the literature and validated in the studies carried out showed that musculoskeletal problems represent a considerable share in the causes of absenteeism in the company and that the improvement of poorly designed workstations, in ergonomic terms, can lead to a reduction in the rate of absenteeism. In addition to the results obtained in this study, in an industrial context, and this need was noted, a decision support tool was also developed for the evaluation of workstations that, depending on their specificity, suggests to the user the best method to evaluate each workstation allowing then the ergonomic evaluation using this method. This tool was tested in the company, in workstations that presented high values of absenteeism due to musculoskeletal problems. Based on the results of this evaluation, a proposal for improving one of these workstations was also presented in order to improve it in ergonomic terms. This work presents contributions that are expected to be valuable for future research on ergonomics in workplaces. It is understood that the decision support tool developed in this work may constitute, when properly validated, a valuable instrument for the evaluation and ergonomic improvement of workstations, leading, evidently, to the reduction of absenteeism in the industry.