Compound manual material handling tasks: Does a worst-case analysis of sub-tasks lead to underestimation of risk?

Abstract

Many MMH tasks are composites of multiple sub-tasks: lifting, carrying, pushing, and pulling. Many current methodologies of evaluating risk in MMH tasks provide an estimate of the percent of workers capable of each sub-task independently, but do not directly evaluate synergistic effects of all sub-tasks on risk of injury. Additionally, no risk evaluation methodologies evaluate risk from braking. These limitations may lead to underestimates of the risk of injury in composite MMH tasks.

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