The relation between the discomfort level of automotive industries operators towards their workstation design and work environment

Purpose: Study was carried out to analyze the key factor that contributes towards worker productivity by determining the correlation, relationship and interactional features between comfort level, environmental factors (noise, heat and lighting) and workstation dimension. The identification of discomfort level was carried out among the operators of three automotive companies in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach: Study was carried out to assess discomfort level based on ergonomical factors and to determine the distribution of body discomfort in relation to the tasks performed. The study was carried out based on questionnaire responses from the participating factories and the collected data was analyzed through the SPSS software. Findings: Findings from the analyzed data shows that the left arm is the most commonly used body part for activities involving lifting, pulling, twisting, carrying and holding. Furthermore, heat discomfort in the working environment is the dominant factor associated with worker productivity due to body discomfort arising from sweat. Developments towards improving the comfort level, environmental factors (noise, heat and lighting) and workstation dimension of the operators must be made to avoid further discomfort. Research limitations/implications: Work environment factors studied in this research are heat/sweat, cold environment, brightness/light, high level of noise, chemical radiation, thermal conductivity and work tool vibration. In addition, activities performed by the operators while working were also linked as the cause of body aches. Originality/value: It can be concluced that working enviroment that caused heat /sweat is the most significant discomfort in the job satisfaction analysis. Furthermore, through correlation analysis, the relationship and interactional features between comfort level, environmental factors (noise, heat and lighting), workstation dimension and activities performed by the operators while working were determined.