الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The garment industry is one of the largest strategic industries in developing countries, therefore, research work is needed in order to develop it. Many health problems are reported by workers of the garment industry in general, and the sewing operators in particular, due to the characteristics of the sewing tasks, including prolonged sitting while performing precision tasks, relatively fast. In order to reduce the operators’ musculoskeletal injuries and complaints, and increase their productivity, improve product quality, many researchers have suggested to design an ergonomic sewing workstation, providing more comfort to operators in order to reduce musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). Previous studies missed the link between the operator’s anthropometric body dimensions, the type of sewing machine used and the sewing workstation’s dimensions and settings. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to study the various workstation settings, as well as the operators’ anthropometric body dimensions, in order to ergonomically redesign the sewing machine workstation, so as to reduce the sewing operators’ MSDs complaints and increase their productivity rate. Four setting factors were studied; three of them related to the sewing workstation, including height and inclination angles, with three levels for each factor, two different machine types (chainstitch and overlock stitch) and one factor pertaining to operators’ BMI (Body Mass Index), with three different levels (normal, overweight and obese). Results show a significant relationship between the operators’ anthropometric body measurement data (eye height in the setting position (I) and operators’ body mass index (BMI in the sitting position) while performing sewing tasks. High correlations were found between the four factors, and the best interactions between the variables were determined. Guidelines for the design of an ergonomic sewing machine workstation were set in the form of second-degree regression equations and extracted for future reference.