Ergonomic design of crane cabins: a case study from a steel plant in India

The study, carried out at the Batch Annealing Furnace (BAF) shop of Cold Rolling Mill (CRM) at an integrated steel plant of India, concerns ergonomic evaluation and redesign of a manually-operated Electrical Overhead Travelling (EOT) crane cabin. The crane cabin is a complex worksystem consisting of the crane operator and twelve specific machine components embedded in a closed workspace. A crane operator has to perform various activities, such as loading and unloading of coils, setting and removal of convector plates, and routine maintenance work. Initially, an operator had to work in standing posture with bent back most of the time. Ergonomically poor design of the chair and the controls, awkward work postures, and insufficient vision angle resulting in musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are some of the critical problems observed.. The study, conceived as an industry-academia joint initiative, was undertaken by a design team, the members of which were drawn from both the company concerned and the institute. With the project executed successfully, a number of lessons, such as how to minimize the anthropometric mismatch, how to improve the layout of the components and controls within enclosed workspace, and how to improve work posture minimizing risk of MSDs have been learned.