Occupational health is considered as a crucial element in almost every Small
and Medium Industries (SMIs) and it is believed to be one of vital challenges
that can influence productivity and competitiveness. It has been known that
the metal stamping industry involved a lot of materials handling tasks such as
carrying stamped parts from machine to packaging section, transferring moulds
from tools store to machines, sorting the finished products and others.
Appropriate materials handling equipments are not often provided in SMIs
because of the limitation of capital and lack of ergonomics awareness. The
workers have to handle the materials and goods manually. These practices
may lead to occupational injuries particularly back pain and musculoskeletal
injuries. The objectives of the research are to assess and analyze the muscles
activity of workers in metal stamping industry. Three male workers who
performed metal stamping process using manual technique were participated
in the research. Ergonomic assessment associated with Surface
Electromyography (SEMG) was used to capture and interpret the data related
to muscles activity at before and after the ergonomic intervention. For the
purpose of muscle activity assessment, SEMG electrodes were attached to eight
critical muscles: deltoid muscle-medial part (left), deltoid muscle-medial part
(right), trapezius muscle (left), trapezius muscle (right), erector spinae muscle
(left), erector spinae muscle (right), gastrocnemius muscle (left) and