The common occupational tasks of industrial workers poses issues of Work-related Musculo-Skeletal Disorders (WMSDs). Tasks which requires difficult working postures and movements combined with heavy physical workload contributes immensely to the problem. It is the duty of health and safety professionals to look up to key risk factors such as force, posture, repetition, and duration of occupational tasks that are hazardous to human body. Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) can be applied in such case to determine if the workers are under high risk levels, and require changes in posture for the given work activity.
RULA focuses solely on static work postures and does not examine force, repetition and duration. This method can be fast, observational, and could be assessed without need of any instrumentation. Although easy to interpret, RULA should only be applied by a trained professional. Using RULA, the evaluator will assess the following body regions: upper arm, lower arm, wrist, neck, trunk, and legs to assess discomfort in the upper extremities of human body.
Before applying RULA, the evaluator should interview the worker to gain understanding of: 1) difficult work postures; 2) postures lasting for long duration; or 3) postures requiring large force.
Let us apply RULA method to a static posture of a worker (from the above picture) to determine the exposure to ergonomic risk factors. The evaluator is to assess the right side of worker posture using scores in Section A (Arm & Wrist) and Section B (Neck, Trunk & Legs).
It can be well-appreciated that the intents and purposes of the law is very noble and all-combining. Workers cannot be left alone to acquire the capability on their own, particularly now, when technology is getting more and more complex, technical and specialized, and also more and more risky in several ways to HSE and common public and people in the surroundings. All the concerned faculties must join together in this important task of building, updating and maintaining competent operator.
In this example, the final RULA score of 5 indicates medium risk and calls for implementing changes to work design to reduce or eliminate WMSDs risk.RULA remains a useful tool in assessing ergonomic risks for both left and right sides of worker, if applied and interpreted by trained professional. Although the method has certain limitations, it can be effectively applied for static job postures with lesser or no concern for force, repetition, and repetition. RULA can produce analysis for multiple job postures which may require additional assessment time and effort. It is the evaluator’s decision as to which posture(s) to analyse to decide high or low risk.