Design of a model of assignment of workers and operations that reduces the biomechanical danger in a panela productive unit of Colombia

Abstract

Productive processes in agro-industries, in their majority, are still handmade and they keep hazardous tasks health. In Colombia the cane sugar exploitation has a relevant importance, it allows to produce sugar, ethanol, paper, and another popular product called “Panela”. Panela’s production is one of the most traditional and important agro-industries in Latin America, generating about 353.000 jobs in Colombia, it is classified as one of the riskiest agricultural industries, reporting 9.524 occupational disease cases per 100.000 workers in 2012. This study propose a job assignment’s strategy to minimize the maximum cumulative postural risk differences between each pair of workers, considering the study case of a small panela productive unit of Colombia. The problem has been represented by a Mixed Integer Linear Programing Model (MILP) and solutions were obtained by using exact methods and a proposed GRASP, from which it was got reductions of about 65% respect to the current situation.