Contribuição da ergonomia da atividade no uso de artefatos na colheita manual de laranja

Abstract

The International Labor Organization (ILO) presents rural labor as significantly more dangerous than other activities and estimates that millions of farmworkers suffer serious health problems. The challenge of Ergonomics is even greater in the agricultural universe when supporting worker’s well-being and productivity, due to the considerable variability of situations encountered and organizational relationships. It was observed a lack of studies regarding working conditions related to the use of artifacts in manual orange harvesting, even more noteworthy in a market of great economic importance both in Brazil and the world. From a qualitative analysis, were explored the relationships between the development of manual harvesting activity and the design of artifacts in real situation of use. As methodological reference was used the approach of activity analysis, aiming to acquire knowledge, from the case study, on the different operative modes and the variabilities present in the environment, the changes made in the artifacts and the artifact transformation into an instrument, associated to the regulatory process. The research recommends design features for the construction of manual orange harvesting artifacts, embracing the vision of continuous design, highlighting the worker’s logic of skills development and artifacts’ appropriation as a way of reducing physical demand and achieving higher productivity on the journey. This study also made possible to broaden the debate about ergonomics contribution to innovation and knowledge transfer in the artifacts work design in agricultural sector.