Ergonomic Characteristics and Mean Anthropometry Data of Gari-Frying Population in South-Western Nigeria

Abstract

Disregarding ergonomics in designing a workstation has been identified as a major cause of inefficiency, low productivity and injury to personnel, especially among indigenous food processing operators. Operations such as gari-frying require an ergonomic workstation but due to unavailability or insufficient data, this has not been possible. This study focused on the collection of anthropometric data of the gari-frying population in the six southwestern states of Nigeria to provide data needed for designing gari-frying facilities that fit the target population. Twenty-five body dimensions were measured among 120 gari-frying processors from six states. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS package. Results show that there is a statistically significant difference in variability of data across and within the states in all the body dimensions measured at P≤0.05, therefore. This work, thus recommended that the workstation should be designed with percentile values to cover a larger number of the target population.

Keywords: Ergonomic, Workstation, Gari-frying, Design to fit, Anthropometry.

DOI: 10.7176/ISDE/12-5-02

Publication date:August 31^st 2022