i ErgoApps : A mobile application that create awareness and reminder on having ergonomic practices to avoid Work Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSD).

Occupational accidents and diseases keep consistently high and increasing in numbers. The stem of the diseases and accidents are from a lack of attention to ergonomics in the workplace. Nowadays, practicality during applying tasks in workplace where most people work is less focused rather than on research and high technology. Despite the application of ergonomic principles have great potential in improving productivity and the condition of workplace, but it still getting less attention from respective individual in charge especially in Malaysia. To date, the application and principles still reached only a limited number of workplaces among Malaysian employers and employees. To make it worse, the negative effect of not practicing ergonomic practices are Work Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WMSD) like carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive stress injuries, and back pain. WMSD are the main ergonomic diseases that need a high cost to deal with and Malaysian workers also never make a report on their ergonomic problem like minor symptoms of having ergonomic diseases. Another factor of lacking on ergonomic awareness were due to most small and medium industries had low capital and low budget constraints which disable them from hiring expertise or professional ergonomist to handle and ensure ergonomic improvements in their workplace. The lack of ergonomic awareness amongst Malaysian employees and employers may bring a long term negative effect to the firm’s productivity and performance. This may reduce the productivity of the country.
Hence to overcome the problem, the objectives of the project are to identify the current ergonomic practice amongst Malaysian employees and then increase their awareness on the importance of having ergonomic practice in workplace via cost-effective mobile application in avoiding WMSD. The proposed system ErgoApps is a mobile application which has been developed parallel with the requirement and objective of OSHA and DOSH in ensuring occupants’ health and safety but at the same time able to conduct the tasks successfully. Several manuals in managing workspace devices focusing in office
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and also ergonomic interventions like simple exercise after few hours of gap are presented in the system. The aim is to create positive effects without relying on costly and highly sophisticated solutions and also preventing WMSD. Realistic solutions are needed which can be applied in a flexible manner and contributes to improved working conditions and higher productivity. With that, the proposal of the project has been presented to the respective 110 respondent via pre-survey, and the final product being tested by the respective respondent via System Usability Scale with the compromising average score of 86.60% out of 100%. Since the respondents are from desk workers and staffs that highly involved with computer-related workload, they found that the application is very useful to be use daily during working time to enhance the efficiency and performance of their tasks. To add, the application also compliant with the rules embedded by DOSH, OSHA, and NIOSH in encouraging the employees to practice a safe working environment to avoid long-term negative effects in future which may involves dreadful cost in treating WMSD.