Ergonomics Awareness and Identifying Frequently Used Ergonomics Programs in Manufacturing Industries Using Quality Function Deployment

Ergonomics in Malaysia has been introduced over a decade ago with the establishment of the ergonomics division in the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on 1 December 1992. This study aims to evaluate the level of ergonomics awareness in Malaysian manufacturing industries and to determine the best practices of ergonomics program using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) among the manufacturing industries with the highest awareness of ergonomics. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to 200 manufacturing industries where the respond rate was only 22.5%. The evaluation showed that 35.6% of the industries were classified as having high level of ergonomics awareness, 51.1% with moderate levels and 13.3% having low level of ergonomics awareness. The results from the Ergonomics House of Quality (EHOQ) analysis showed that the orientation program (124 point) was the best practice in helping to increase the awareness of ergonomics amongst the employees. Besides, ergonomics need to be formalised via the creation of ergonomics team within the organisation. This is based on the results where, 62.2% of the respondents agreed that organised ergonomics team will help to improve the awareness of ergonomics.