Ergonomics in apple sorting: A pilot study

Ergonomic studies were made of sorters working on grading tables in a commercial apple packing shed in New Zealand. Trials were conducted to test whether the perceived comfort or physical discomfort (e.g. reported muscle pains) and performance of sorters could be altered by changes to the table design. Sorters were questioned about their level of comfort after working on two crossflow grading tables and a cascade table. Sorters preferred to work on a table designed so that the maximum forward reaching distance had been reduced from 1090 to 590 mm, and to sit rather than stand. Sorters working on tables with 900 mm wide rollers and a reject conveyor before them, spent a considerable part of their time stretching to reach fruit outside their sustainable work zone. The reported level of comfort was significantly greater when forward stretch was restricted (p < 0.001). Sorters also found the cascade sorter more comfortable than the cross-flow system. However, no conclusive results of the effects on sorter performance and physical discomfort were found. Sorters in the shed were mostly working at too low a height relative to the table at the start of the season, but by the end of the season, roughly half chose to use boards to raise them into an ergonomically better working position. (C) 1998 Silsoe Research Institute.