The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	Whose turn is it anyway : the impact of job rotation on the reduction of cumulative trauma disorders
Author:	DiMiceli, Francesco Jr.
View Online:	njit-etd2000-051 (x, 87 pages ~ 12.9 MB pdf)
Department:	Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Degree:	Master of Science
Program:	Occupational Safety and Health Engineering
Document Type:	Thesis
Advisory Committee:	Jeng, One-Jang (Committee chair) Van Houten, Norman J. (Committee member) Sengupta, Arijit K. (Committee member)
Date:	2000-05
Keywords:	Human engineering. Overuse injuries. Work environment.
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	In today's fast-paced world, repetitive activity on the job has become very demanding. Many workers are suffering from injuries known as cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs). Job rotation can be an effective and powerful tool when seeking to minimize CTDs by allowing workers to experience different activities, thereby distributing the physical demands on the workers' bodies. A case study was conducted on a northwestern New York manufacturing facility to identify the presence of excessive work stressors and to formulate potential corrective actions, including an analysis of their current job rotation system. The jobs were evaluated using the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment. This study provides valuable information on the benefits of an effective job rotation system, and the steps necessary to implement one. For the case study, a reduction of exposure to work stressors of 20.9% for the Overall Risk Index can be accomplished using the new job rotation system methods.