ABSTRACT
The aim of this paper is to present an ergonomic study applied to chemical laboratories of an oil and gas research center. The Ergonomic Work Analysis was the main methodological approach. The study was conducted on thirty laboratories of different areas. The Ergonomic Work Analysis methodology involved three stages: 1) reference situation diagnosis and recommendations; 2) ergonomic design concept establishment and 3) evaluation of the new work condition. The reference situation diagnosis is concerned with the analysis of different work activities conducted by laboratories’ teams. That work activities were previous selected by the laboratories technicians and managers. For the data collection a questionnaire previous tested by the ergonomics group and also video capture were applied. Data analysis was conducted at the Ergonomics Laboratory of INT. The results showed that even with each chemical lab specificities, some ergonomic problems were common, such as the lack of space between workstations and in the workstation; repetitive and static awkward postures as squatting, trunk and neck forward bending, shoulder flexion and abduction over 90 degrees; manual material handling activities, as lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling heavy loads. Other risk and safety problems were also found, as examples: workstations and trashcans located on 472escape routes; oil samples handling outside chemical chapels and intermediate oil sample storage in chapels and cabinets. Some environment conditions were also pointed out as common problems in special with reference to heat and noisy. The recommendations based on the diagnosis were presented as two different tools: the Reference Human Activities Database tool applied to the work-related situation diagnosis for storing and organizing the reference situations collected data. These recommendations were discussed by the ergonomic group, designers and the laboratories’ teams to establish ergonomic design concepts that were applied on 3D simulation tools. Those tools facilitate project validation process, minimizing design errors and conflicts between users and designers.
