Innovative Design Interventions to Address Safety-related Issues in FMCG Industrial Shopfloor: Ergonomics Perspective

Abstract

Ergonomics and Occupational Safety & Health (OSH) are critical in the current industrial environment to ensure the smooth operation of production processes. Consideration of these aspects enhances shopfloor working conditions and workers' well-being. A lot of ergonomics and OSH-related research has been carried out in diverse industrial sectors to improve shopfloor working conditions, workers' health, and productivity. However, there is a lack of OSH-related studies in the context of the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry, which is the key contributor to every country's GDP and employment. FMCG industries in Industrially Developing Countries (IDCs) typically operate in manual and semi-automated production/ operational settings and are vulnerable to various ergonomic stressors and safety hazards. Ergonomics-related ignorance persists in such industries, and adverse shopfloor scenarios prevail. In the current scenario, the FMCG-related research focuses on management-related issues to achieve production/ operation excellence and typically overlooks the ergonomics perspective. Various non-standardized job activities exist in manual and semi-automated FMCG units, which causes safety hazards and OSH concerns. In this regard, the present study intends to address safety challenges on the manual and semi-automated FMCG shopfloors through ergonomic design and the development of context-specific innovative tools/ devices as mitigation options. FMCG manufacturing units operate on varied production scales, including small-scale, large-scale, and mega-scale, and their work parameters differ. A single solution to meet their needs/ requirements may not be appropriate. In this purview, for devising innovative solutions to address safety-related issues for varying levels of production scale, it is hypothesized that the design and development of innovative tools/ devices in the context of OSH on the shopfloor of the FMCGs is constrained by the scale of production, cost, and available resources