ARBAN-A New Method for Analysis of Ergonomic Effort

ARBAN is a method for the ergonomic analysis of work, including work situations which involve widely differing body postures and loads. The idea of the method is thal all phases of the analysis process that imply specific knowledge on ergonomics are teken over by filming equipment and a computer routine. All tasks that must be carried out by the investigator in the process of analysis are so designed that they appear as evident by the use of systematic common sense. The ARBAN analysis method contains four steps: 1. Recording of the workplace situation on video or film. 2. Coding the posture and load situation at a number of closely spaced 'frozen' situations. 3. Computerisation. 4. Evaluation of the results. The computer calculates figures for the total ergonomic stress on the whole body as well as on different parts of the body separately. They are presented as 'Ergonomic stress/ time curves', where the heavy load situations occur as peaks of the curve. The work cycle may also be divided into different tasks, where the stress and duration patterns can be compared. The integral of the curves are calculated for single-figure comparison of different tasks as well as different work situations.