Computerising RULA and QEC

Abstract

The need to analyse a large number of manual industrial tasks in manual assembly lines using Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) and Quick Exposure Check (QEC) initiated the need to develop a software for each technique to facilitate and speed up the process for obtaining the scores for each task. RULA and QEC are widely used to assess work-related musculoskeletal risks. RULA was available since 1993 while QEC was available since 1998. Both techniques require actual observation of the task in question and come with guidelines to enable the process of obtaining the scores for various work-related musculoskeletal disorders risks. However, this process is done manually consuming the time of the observer and having a possibility of committing mistakes. For each technique, a computer program in quick basic was written and tested. Then the program was transformed to a more practical and user friendly software using visual basic. Both softwares are very small in size (96KB for RULA and 40KB for QEC) and have an exe extension which makes them executable applications without the need for any additional software or program. In each software, the user or observer is required to input the relevant values which are previously gathered from actual task observations by simply selecting the relevant option buttons. Then the results are shown by the software promptly. Just recently, QEC was updated with a new version (QEC2003). This version is nearly the same as the previous one except for some minor changes with wording in some assessment questions and the addition of one item within worker's evaluation (about driving), but the overall format and score calculation remain the same. The QEC software was updated accordingly.