A better way of fitting clips? A comparative study with respect to physical workload

The clip fitting task involving small components, which are used to secure two parts, is a frequently encountered assembly operation in the car industry and it causes numerous musculoskeletal disorders. During task laboratory simulations, neck and upper limb muscular activity and external force were compared for different clip installation methods including fitting with the bare hand, with an unpowered tool used at a company, with unpowered and powered prototype tools. None of the four clip fitting methods studied induces a lower overall physical workload than the other three. Fitting with an unpowered prototype tool generally imposed least workload on the dominant limb muscles and fitting with the bare hand generally imposed least workload on the non-dominant limb muscles. This study therefore suggests alternating between the latter two methods to create variation in physical workload, which would have a preventive effect on the risk of musculoskeletal disorder occurrence.