ERGONOMIC WORK ANALYSIS APPLICATION IN A SMALL SHOE BUSINESS

Abstract

This paper aims to present the results after conducting an Ergonomic Work Analysis (EWA) in a small shoe business located in Porto Alegre. The ergonomic intervention performed based on Guérin et al. (2001) aimed to analyze the process organization and the layout of the shoemaker workstations to provide improvements to these areas. The starting point was the need of the small shoe business owner to hire one more shoemaker without increasing the company physical space. The EWA was used focusing on the work organization, how the flow of information ran from the entry of an order to the final stage of the product repairing. The diagnosis showed the company main problems were related to the shop assistant dependences on shoemakers to provide budget information and delivery time to customers and the layout organization. Among the results, a temporal analysis of two company recurrent tasks was performed in order to ascertain possible losses related to the displacement and the search for materials. A new layout scheme was also proposed, aiming the organization of work stations, making easier the stock, tools and equipment removals, providing a free space to hirenew shoemakers within the current company boundaries.