Keywords

1 Introduction

Garment manufacturing is a traditional industry with global competition [1]. It is complicated in nature, since it involves number of machines, hundreds of employees, and thousands of bundles of sub-assemblies producing different styles simultaneously [2]. With such global competition, garment firms need to adapt rapid changes in the fashion industry [3], leading to fast work pace with limited rest periods, and potentially long working hours [4]. In addition, it is difficult to convince the management for changing the workplace design according to ergonomics interventions, which do not give quick results [5]. These work organizations might be an important contributor to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) [4]. In general, garment manufacturing industry has two modes of payment; piece basis and hourly basis. The employees in the industries, which adopt payment per piece were reported about two times more developing elbow/forearm and hand/wrist disorders than those who paid by hourly rate [6]. Moreover, organizational and personal factors were found as the main risk factors of developing upper extremity disorders [6]. Musculoskeletal problems were reported in heavy physical demanding profession like, construction [7], sewing [6], and music playing [8] due to accumulation of stress on muscles, tendons, ligaments, and nerves [7].

The sewing section in garment manufacturing has discussed contributors and factors associated with the risk of developing WMSDs [6]. The sewing workstation is composed of a sewing table, the chair, and cardboard boxes/cart that hold incoming fabrics and finished products, and it is a very demanding job for both visually and physically challanged individuals [9].The main factors associated with sewing task were repetitive movement, awkward working postures, forceful exertions, and long durations [10]. Repetitive movement and mono nature of work in sewing machine operators were the causes for the developing high-risk in upper-extremity disorders [11,12,13]. Sewing machine operators need to adopt static posture and concentrate on their task that can lead to developing the risk of upper-extremity disorders [14], and 79.6% of sewing machine operators were reported musculoskeletal symptoms included low back, wrist/hand, upper arm, neck [15].

The prevalence of risk of developing MSDs is high when demand of a product is increased in the market. The market of Saudi Arabia has a trend of increasing demand in some period of a year such as Eid and Hajj. So the workers of the garment factory need to work extra, and sometimes they worked during night to accomplish the demand of the market. Such scenario leads to increase the risk of developing MSDs in the workers. Therefore, the aim of present study is to identify the ergonomics hazards, assess them, and reduce the hazards from the workplace. Also recommend suggestions to the management of the factory to prevent hazards and injuries among workers.

2 Methodology

Numerous visits to garment factory in Jeddah city were conducted to have a better understanding about different departments in the factory. Among several departments, sewing was one of the most critical departments in which workers highly exposed to the risk of developing MSDs. Several hazards were identified by visual survey of the work environment and working condition of labors.

A survey was conducted to get feedback from the labors at the garment factory, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The study included 39 male labors during 10 weeks. The survey was constructed in three languages (English, Arabic, and Hindi) to accommodate the majority of labors, as most of the workers are non-Saudi and non-Arabic speakers. All labors were older than 18 years within an average of 34.4 years old, and they were employed in the sewing area of the factory. Labors work for 9 h per shift including 1 h lunch break for 6 working days. The purpose of the survey was to identify and assess the regional pain in the body and the potential causing hazards that are related to WMSDs. The seven structured questions were formed to comprehend the situation.

3 Analysis and Discussion

In this section, findings of the labor nature in the garment factory and hazard identification of a workplace are presented. The ways to reduce the hazards and recommendations to the management are also presented.

3.1 Survey and Interviews Findings

Regarding the working period of labors, it was found that 46% of the total number of labors are working more than 5 years, 15% of the labor worked for more than 3 years and less than 5 years, 26% of labor are worked for 3 years, and 13% worked for less than 1 year. Results revealed that 46% of workers are exposed with risk of MSDs from more than 5 years, and there is no awareness of developing risk of MSDs due to inadequate working conditions.

3.2 Observations and Hazard Identification

The main step of minimizing hazards in workplace and improving the working conditions for workers is to identify different factors related to risks of developing WMSDs. Hazard identification and providing comfortable working environment contributes in improving safety and increasing their productivity [16]. In this section, various ways of hazard identification and risk of developing WMSDs are discussed and developed a guideline for employer to improve workers comfort and enhance working environment.

WMSDs and Workplace Design. Table 1 demonstrates the observed hazard in the sewing section, which reflected the major causes of risk development in WMSDs and faulty workplace.

Table 1 WMSDs and workplace design faulty observations
Full size table

The study revealed that operators work in awkward postures (standing and sitting) for long hours with cumulative stress posed on various body regions. The results described that 84.6% of the operators reported a general regional pain. The data suggested that these awkward postures lead to reported regional pain, based on distributed body map as described in the survey.

Table 2 demonstrates the occurrence of pain in different body parts for minimum 7 days along with the comparative result for the study [17] on musculoskeletal symptoms performed on sewing operators. The study revealed that the neck had a highest occurrence of pain comparative to other body parts. This might be due to 60° downward tilting posture of head from neutral posture for long durations, while the upper back region had the second highest position of pain occurrence. This is probably due to the stress posed on the upper back as a consequence of awkward postures caused the unsupported and unadjusted chairs. Additionally, the improper height of working table might be another cause of stress as explained in observation 5 of Table 1.

Table 2 Reported work-related issues in sewing section and comparison with a study [17]
Full size table

Working in these postures for 9 h per day and for many years eventually contributes to long-term problems to the stressed body regions. Furthermore, the impact of such posture increases as the period of exposure to a physical demanding profession increases [7] with no exception to sewing profession. This is showed from the results that 41% of sewing professionals who were exposed for more than 5 years have constant pain since the last 3–6 months, while, 80% of the workers who worked less than one year reported occasional pain. This is also supported by another study [6] conducted on sewing operators in Ethiopia, which revealed that the workers working for more than 16 years were five times likely more to develop elbow and wrist musculoskeletal disorders than those who worked for shorter durations (1–5 years).

Another major observation was repetitive movements by the operator, in which near constant lean posture was adopted in order to monitor the work on the machine. This was also revealed by the labors interview, a major cause of stress on the eye was due to continuous visual task. This is in line with the results of survey that 66.7% of worker’s reported eye-related pain. However, observations revealed further hazards, where the eye is extremely vulnerable to injury, when workers operated very close to the take-up lever (a part of the sewing machine that pops up and down at a very high speed). This hazard was very critical for workers in case of direct eye contact with the lever. This is also explained in observation 2 in Table 1.

Regarding the workplace design, it is concluded from the results of the survey that 54.4% of the workers reported about uncomfortable chairs due to which they feel constant pain in their body parts. Another issue of workplace design is that an insufficient space under the workstation for comfortable movement of legs and feet and no provision for resting of feet during the sewing task. In addition, housekeeping is important factor for adopting awkward posture for searching, doing, and finishing the sewing task.

4 Conclusion

The hazards identification would help to improve the work environment and maintain safer workplace. Moreover, it will lead to increase the labors satisfaction and productivity. Therefore, the management has to conduct monitoring and controlling sessions through frequent inspection of work environment in order to capture negative signs that may affect the workplace and take necessary actions.

Recommendations: The management should start taking actions that prevent or reduce causes of WMSDs and respiratory complication. Following are some recommendations to reduce the risk of WMSDs.

  1. 1.

    Provide chairs with adjustable height and tables of proper width.

  2. 2.

    Provide awareness training about awkward postures during work.

  3. 3.

    Reschedule rest–work time for workers to avoid repetitive posture (standing/sitting).