Martina Jakob - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Martina Jakob
Frontiers in Public Health
Work in agriculture is a significant area of research that highlights the problem of the integrat... more Work in agriculture is a significant area of research that highlights the problem of the integration of young people in the former, in particular, in the recent period. Work in agriculture is hard and not prestigious, and young people tend to leave rural areas in the search for alternative activities in urban areas. The study addresses the problem of how the youth should be integrated into agricultural workforce by focusing on identification of the reasons behind the (un)willingness to work in agriculture. The aim of the study is to assess the reasons behind the youth's (un)willingness of work in agriculture, using Lithuania as the case study. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire designed to investigate the perception and opinions toward work in agriculture. The Binary Logistic Regression was used to identify the factors affecting the youth's opinion about (un)willingness to work in agriculture. The study analyzed 430 young people 's responses to the quest...
W ork related musculo-sceletal-disorders as well as upper limb disorders are of great importance ... more W ork related musculo-sceletal-disorders as well as upper limb disorders are of great importance worldwide. The key indicator methods were developed to carry out risk assessment in practice. The existing methods were recently completed by a third attempt regarding the manual work processes , published in 2007 as a blueprint. Its application for manual work processes in agriculture is exemplified in this article. As part of the method development, a literature research was carried out. 37 risk assessment tools were found, published in German or English, evaluating the upper limb exposure. The new key indicator method is based on the knowledge gained from the literature research, on the results of studies carried out by the Federal Institute of Occupational Safety and Health as well as on time and motion studies and exposure levels relevant for the German working population. The aim of this approach was to enable the employee to carry out a risk assessment, focussing on key characteri...
Partially automated processing of horticultural products often contains simple and highly repetit... more Partially automated processing of horticultural products often contains simple and highly repetitive manual work processes. The handling of susceptible products, especially the feeding of conveying units, is difficult to mechanise. The machine capacities continuously increase and in consequence a higher material input is necessary. This is commonly realised by boosting the speed of material transport, but in practice a full capacity is rarely achieved. The manual material input is a shortcoming that needs to be optimised, taking into account that there are motivating aspects for the worker like a belt speed increase, but also risk factors resulting from the work task itself. Highly repetitive work can cause work related disorders. Job satisfaction is generally low in this work environment, offering no substantial task variation, with stress commonly present due to high production speeds. There should be a balance between task demands and worker's motivation and abilities. The purpose of this pilot study is to introduce a motion-based approach for assessing the effects of machine speed on worker's performance in a simple repetitive task. A conveyor belt and wooden sticks are used to simulate a simple and highly repetitive process of placing products on a moving belt. The influences of increasing machine speeds on the human performance and motion are investigated in this study. A 3-D-motion analysis system collects objective data (Jakob, 2005). Active infrared light emissive diodes are attached to the upper extremities of the subjects to record the motions.
Partially automated processing of horticultural products often contains simple and highly repetit... more Partially automated processing of horticultural products often contains simple and highly repetitive manual work processes. The handling of susceptible products, especially the feeding of conveying units, is difficult to mechanise. The machine capacities continuously increase and in consequence a higher material input is necessary. This is commonly realised by boosting the speed of material transport, but in practice a full capacity is rarely achieved. The manual material input is a shortcoming that needs to be optimised, taking into account that there are motivating aspects for the worker like a belt speed increase, but also risk factors resulting from the work task itself. Highly repetitive work can cause work related disorders. Job satisfaction is generally low in this work environment, offering no substantial task variation, with stress commonly present due to high production speeds. There should be a balance between task demands and worker's motivation and abilities. The purpose of this pilot study is to introduce a motion-based approach for assessing the effects of machine speed on worker's performance in a simple repetitive task. A conveyor belt and wooden sticks are used to simulate a simple and highly repetitive process of placing products on a moving belt. The influences of increasing machine speeds on the human performance and motion are investigated in this study. A 3-D-motion analysis system collects objective data (Jakob, 2005). Active infrared light emissive diodes are attached to the upper extremities of the subjects to record the motions.
M onotonous, boring and repetitive tasks within the horticultural harvest and postharvest sector ... more M onotonous, boring and repetitive tasks within the horticultural harvest and postharvest sector often demand a high degree of self-motivation from the workers. Their motivation, on the other hand, highly corresponds with the payment and the demanded performance. The works manager has to supervise, motivate and control the worker's performance to achieve the enter-prise's goals. Preliminary experiments [1] to optimise the placing of products on sorting and processing lines in the horticultural sector showed that the performance capacity of workers is corresponding with their motivation. An increased speed of the conveyor belt also increased the performance, but however it resulted in a greater scattering of performance data. This study clearly highlighted the importance of ergonomic design. The capacity of modern processing plants is continuously increasing whereby the wor-ker's performance has to increase at the same time. To make use of the full machine capacity more t...
Arbeitsbedingte Beschwerden und Erkrankungen im Bereich der oberen Extremitaten sind weltweit von... more Arbeitsbedingte Beschwerden und Erkrankungen im Bereich der oberen Extremitaten sind weltweit von groser Bedeutung. Die Leitmerkmalmethoden wurden entwickelt, um eine praxisgerechte Beurteilung von im Betrieb auftretenden Belastungen zu ermoglichen. Es gibt derzeit drei Anwendungsbereiche. Die Methode fur den Bereich manueller Arbeitsprozesse wurde erst kurzlich evaluiert und im Jahr 2007 als Entwurf veroffentlicht. Ihre Anwendung als Bewertungsinstrument fur Handarbeiten in der Landwirtschaft wird im Beitrag erklart und an Beispielen dargestellt.
Die Ernte von Einlegegurken mit Hilfe von Gurkenfliegern ist sehr arbeits- und kostenintensiv. Di... more Die Ernte von Einlegegurken mit Hilfe von Gurkenfliegern ist sehr arbeits- und kostenintensiv. Die Fruchte werden beidhandig im dichten Laub gesucht, gegriffen, moglichst ohne Stiel abgetrennt und anschliesend auf einem Band abgelegt werden. Durchschnittlich werden 13 Gurken pro Minute geerntet. Einlegegurken werden derzeit im Beetanbau auf Mulchfolie mit Abstanden in der Reihe von 30 cm kultiviert. Im Saisonverlauf wachsen die Einzelpflanzen ineinander, sowohl innerhalb einer Reihe als auch zwischen den Reihen, verhaken sich und die Fruchte sind unter den Blattern verborgen. In der Saison 2018 wurde am Forschungsstandort des ATB in Marquardt Untersuchungen durchgefuhrt , das Kulturverfahren derart zu verandern, dass die Ernte deutlich vereinfacht wird. Voraussetzung ist, dass sich Kosten und Arbeitsaufwand fur das optimierte Kulturverfahren und die Einsparung an Arbeitsstunden mindestens die Waage halten. Auserdem durfen Ertrag und Sortierung sich nicht verschlechtern. Weiterhin so...
Die optische Qualitatskontrolle von Obst und Gemuse ist eine vielfaltige und anspruchsvolle Arbei... more Die optische Qualitatskontrolle von Obst und Gemuse ist eine vielfaltige und anspruchsvolle Arbeitsaufgabe. Eines der wesentlichen Kriterien ist die Zuverlassigkeit, um innerhalb der Verfahrenskette nachhaltig den Qualitatsstandards gerecht zu werden. Fur gewohnlich ist die Qualitatskontrolle in die maschinelle Aufbereitung eingebettet. In sehr traditioneller Weise werden die Produkte auf Forderbandern an der Arbeitskraft vorbeigefuhrt und von ihr begutachtet. Die Anforderungen an die Arbeitskraft sind hoch und sie ist stark an den Takt der Maschinen gebunden. Haufig entstehen hier konstruktive Engpasse, da die Maschinenleistungen im Zuge der Technisierung stark gesteigert wurden, die menschliche Sortierleistung jedoch nur uber die Anzahl der Arbeitskrafte zu erhohen ist. Basierend auf Hinweisen aus der Literatur wurden konstruktive Veranderungen des Sortierarbeitsplatzes untersucht. Hierfur wurden drei unterschiedliche Materialtransportrichtungen bei drei Geschwindigkeiten bewegung...
According to manufacturers, up to 36,000 spears of white asparagus can be sorted per hour with op... more According to manufacturers, up to 36,000 spears of white asparagus can be sorted per hour with optical grading systems. Horticultural enterprises do not achieve these capacities. Large variations in human productivity and constructional shortcomings when placing the spears into the machine manually are two of the reasons. To efficiently exploit the high capacity of modern sorting machines further research and optimisation of the manual input step are required.
International Agrophysics, 2021
European growers are demanding selective mechanical harvesting solutions, such as robotic solutio... more European growers are demanding selective mechanical harvesting solutions, such as robotic solutions, because hand harvesting is extremely labour intensive. Mechanical harvesting depends on low fruit retention forces between fruit and plant. Over two consecutive growing seasons, including a winter greenhouse trial, more than 1 600 samples were taken to determine the fruit removal force of early stage cucumbers for pickling and canning. Compared to studies with other fruit the fruit removal force of cucumbers was fairly high and also showed a large degree of variation. A significant percentage of the harvest had stalk residues, which cause the expenditure of extra man-hours on the processing lines. It was therefore concluded, that mere pulling is not sufficient to disconnect the fruit. Harvesting robots require an extra device for ease of separation.
Continuously increasing machine capacities with a remaining part of manual work in the horticultu... more Continuously increasing machine capacities with a remaining part of manual work in the horticultural harvest and postharvest sector demand the optimisation of the man-machine interfaces. Within the mass production the rationalisation of movements is of special interest. For this, Methods Time Measurement (MTM) is regarded as an appropriate method. Placing spears of asparagus on a conveyor belt serves as a practical example to compare the calculation of time needed for the process based on MTM and the results obtained by a 3D motion analysis.
Increasing herd sizes have changed the working environment in milking parlours. Consequences such... more Increasing herd sizes have changed the working environment in milking parlours. Consequences such as job sharing, high cow throughput and shift-work help optimising staff utilisation. At the same time there is a high incidence of muscular-skeletal-disorders among milking parlour operatives. The number of affected women is significantly higher. Therefore a precise analysis of the work place helps adjusting it to the worker in order to improve the health status on the long run.
Agricultural Engineering International: The CIGR Journal, 2009
Workers in modern German milking parlours – especially women – were found to be overrepresented i... more Workers in modern German milking parlours – especially women – were found to be overrepresented in those suffering from musculoskeletal disorders [MSD]. The number of cases was compared to the whole employed population . The objective of this study was therefore to assess the effects of workstation geometry on female milking parlour operatives. Motion analysis in combination with Electromyography [EMG] data recording was applied to evaluate three different working heights and two weights of milking units. Results showed that especially the weight of the milking unit strongly influenced the workload. The optimal working height for attaching the cluster was found to have the teat ends at shoulder level of the parlour operative.
Annals of agricultural and environmental medicine : AAEM, 2021
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE Agriculture and forestry are among the most dangerous professions in E... more INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE Agriculture and forestry are among the most dangerous professions in Europe, with a high level of accidents affecting the sustainability and viability of the sector. International conventions, EU directives and national legislation build the fundamental basis for prevention. The aim of the study is to describe and categorize national mechanisms of occupational safety and health (OSH) for agricultural workers in Europe, to assess the extent of implementing safety regulation, the body in charge, and to give examples of health and safety initiatives. MATERIAL AND METHODS Results of a questionnaire-survey on basic safety regulations on farms sent by e-mail to the representatives of 30 participating European countries in the context of the Sacurima COST action network (CA 16123) are presented. Due to the complexity, only selected countries are described in this study highlighting the regulative bodies, occupational health services or specific training offers, a...
Frontiers in Public Health
Work in agriculture is a significant area of research that highlights the problem of the integrat... more Work in agriculture is a significant area of research that highlights the problem of the integration of young people in the former, in particular, in the recent period. Work in agriculture is hard and not prestigious, and young people tend to leave rural areas in the search for alternative activities in urban areas. The study addresses the problem of how the youth should be integrated into agricultural workforce by focusing on identification of the reasons behind the (un)willingness to work in agriculture. The aim of the study is to assess the reasons behind the youth's (un)willingness of work in agriculture, using Lithuania as the case study. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire designed to investigate the perception and opinions toward work in agriculture. The Binary Logistic Regression was used to identify the factors affecting the youth's opinion about (un)willingness to work in agriculture. The study analyzed 430 young people 's responses to the quest...
W ork related musculo-sceletal-disorders as well as upper limb disorders are of great importance ... more W ork related musculo-sceletal-disorders as well as upper limb disorders are of great importance worldwide. The key indicator methods were developed to carry out risk assessment in practice. The existing methods were recently completed by a third attempt regarding the manual work processes , published in 2007 as a blueprint. Its application for manual work processes in agriculture is exemplified in this article. As part of the method development, a literature research was carried out. 37 risk assessment tools were found, published in German or English, evaluating the upper limb exposure. The new key indicator method is based on the knowledge gained from the literature research, on the results of studies carried out by the Federal Institute of Occupational Safety and Health as well as on time and motion studies and exposure levels relevant for the German working population. The aim of this approach was to enable the employee to carry out a risk assessment, focussing on key characteri...
Partially automated processing of horticultural products often contains simple and highly repetit... more Partially automated processing of horticultural products often contains simple and highly repetitive manual work processes. The handling of susceptible products, especially the feeding of conveying units, is difficult to mechanise. The machine capacities continuously increase and in consequence a higher material input is necessary. This is commonly realised by boosting the speed of material transport, but in practice a full capacity is rarely achieved. The manual material input is a shortcoming that needs to be optimised, taking into account that there are motivating aspects for the worker like a belt speed increase, but also risk factors resulting from the work task itself. Highly repetitive work can cause work related disorders. Job satisfaction is generally low in this work environment, offering no substantial task variation, with stress commonly present due to high production speeds. There should be a balance between task demands and worker's motivation and abilities. The purpose of this pilot study is to introduce a motion-based approach for assessing the effects of machine speed on worker's performance in a simple repetitive task. A conveyor belt and wooden sticks are used to simulate a simple and highly repetitive process of placing products on a moving belt. The influences of increasing machine speeds on the human performance and motion are investigated in this study. A 3-D-motion analysis system collects objective data (Jakob, 2005). Active infrared light emissive diodes are attached to the upper extremities of the subjects to record the motions.
Partially automated processing of horticultural products often contains simple and highly repetit... more Partially automated processing of horticultural products often contains simple and highly repetitive manual work processes. The handling of susceptible products, especially the feeding of conveying units, is difficult to mechanise. The machine capacities continuously increase and in consequence a higher material input is necessary. This is commonly realised by boosting the speed of material transport, but in practice a full capacity is rarely achieved. The manual material input is a shortcoming that needs to be optimised, taking into account that there are motivating aspects for the worker like a belt speed increase, but also risk factors resulting from the work task itself. Highly repetitive work can cause work related disorders. Job satisfaction is generally low in this work environment, offering no substantial task variation, with stress commonly present due to high production speeds. There should be a balance between task demands and worker's motivation and abilities. The purpose of this pilot study is to introduce a motion-based approach for assessing the effects of machine speed on worker's performance in a simple repetitive task. A conveyor belt and wooden sticks are used to simulate a simple and highly repetitive process of placing products on a moving belt. The influences of increasing machine speeds on the human performance and motion are investigated in this study. A 3-D-motion analysis system collects objective data (Jakob, 2005). Active infrared light emissive diodes are attached to the upper extremities of the subjects to record the motions.
M onotonous, boring and repetitive tasks within the horticultural harvest and postharvest sector ... more M onotonous, boring and repetitive tasks within the horticultural harvest and postharvest sector often demand a high degree of self-motivation from the workers. Their motivation, on the other hand, highly corresponds with the payment and the demanded performance. The works manager has to supervise, motivate and control the worker's performance to achieve the enter-prise's goals. Preliminary experiments [1] to optimise the placing of products on sorting and processing lines in the horticultural sector showed that the performance capacity of workers is corresponding with their motivation. An increased speed of the conveyor belt also increased the performance, but however it resulted in a greater scattering of performance data. This study clearly highlighted the importance of ergonomic design. The capacity of modern processing plants is continuously increasing whereby the wor-ker's performance has to increase at the same time. To make use of the full machine capacity more t...
Arbeitsbedingte Beschwerden und Erkrankungen im Bereich der oberen Extremitaten sind weltweit von... more Arbeitsbedingte Beschwerden und Erkrankungen im Bereich der oberen Extremitaten sind weltweit von groser Bedeutung. Die Leitmerkmalmethoden wurden entwickelt, um eine praxisgerechte Beurteilung von im Betrieb auftretenden Belastungen zu ermoglichen. Es gibt derzeit drei Anwendungsbereiche. Die Methode fur den Bereich manueller Arbeitsprozesse wurde erst kurzlich evaluiert und im Jahr 2007 als Entwurf veroffentlicht. Ihre Anwendung als Bewertungsinstrument fur Handarbeiten in der Landwirtschaft wird im Beitrag erklart und an Beispielen dargestellt.
Die Ernte von Einlegegurken mit Hilfe von Gurkenfliegern ist sehr arbeits- und kostenintensiv. Di... more Die Ernte von Einlegegurken mit Hilfe von Gurkenfliegern ist sehr arbeits- und kostenintensiv. Die Fruchte werden beidhandig im dichten Laub gesucht, gegriffen, moglichst ohne Stiel abgetrennt und anschliesend auf einem Band abgelegt werden. Durchschnittlich werden 13 Gurken pro Minute geerntet. Einlegegurken werden derzeit im Beetanbau auf Mulchfolie mit Abstanden in der Reihe von 30 cm kultiviert. Im Saisonverlauf wachsen die Einzelpflanzen ineinander, sowohl innerhalb einer Reihe als auch zwischen den Reihen, verhaken sich und die Fruchte sind unter den Blattern verborgen. In der Saison 2018 wurde am Forschungsstandort des ATB in Marquardt Untersuchungen durchgefuhrt , das Kulturverfahren derart zu verandern, dass die Ernte deutlich vereinfacht wird. Voraussetzung ist, dass sich Kosten und Arbeitsaufwand fur das optimierte Kulturverfahren und die Einsparung an Arbeitsstunden mindestens die Waage halten. Auserdem durfen Ertrag und Sortierung sich nicht verschlechtern. Weiterhin so...
Die optische Qualitatskontrolle von Obst und Gemuse ist eine vielfaltige und anspruchsvolle Arbei... more Die optische Qualitatskontrolle von Obst und Gemuse ist eine vielfaltige und anspruchsvolle Arbeitsaufgabe. Eines der wesentlichen Kriterien ist die Zuverlassigkeit, um innerhalb der Verfahrenskette nachhaltig den Qualitatsstandards gerecht zu werden. Fur gewohnlich ist die Qualitatskontrolle in die maschinelle Aufbereitung eingebettet. In sehr traditioneller Weise werden die Produkte auf Forderbandern an der Arbeitskraft vorbeigefuhrt und von ihr begutachtet. Die Anforderungen an die Arbeitskraft sind hoch und sie ist stark an den Takt der Maschinen gebunden. Haufig entstehen hier konstruktive Engpasse, da die Maschinenleistungen im Zuge der Technisierung stark gesteigert wurden, die menschliche Sortierleistung jedoch nur uber die Anzahl der Arbeitskrafte zu erhohen ist. Basierend auf Hinweisen aus der Literatur wurden konstruktive Veranderungen des Sortierarbeitsplatzes untersucht. Hierfur wurden drei unterschiedliche Materialtransportrichtungen bei drei Geschwindigkeiten bewegung...
According to manufacturers, up to 36,000 spears of white asparagus can be sorted per hour with op... more According to manufacturers, up to 36,000 spears of white asparagus can be sorted per hour with optical grading systems. Horticultural enterprises do not achieve these capacities. Large variations in human productivity and constructional shortcomings when placing the spears into the machine manually are two of the reasons. To efficiently exploit the high capacity of modern sorting machines further research and optimisation of the manual input step are required.
International Agrophysics, 2021
European growers are demanding selective mechanical harvesting solutions, such as robotic solutio... more European growers are demanding selective mechanical harvesting solutions, such as robotic solutions, because hand harvesting is extremely labour intensive. Mechanical harvesting depends on low fruit retention forces between fruit and plant. Over two consecutive growing seasons, including a winter greenhouse trial, more than 1 600 samples were taken to determine the fruit removal force of early stage cucumbers for pickling and canning. Compared to studies with other fruit the fruit removal force of cucumbers was fairly high and also showed a large degree of variation. A significant percentage of the harvest had stalk residues, which cause the expenditure of extra man-hours on the processing lines. It was therefore concluded, that mere pulling is not sufficient to disconnect the fruit. Harvesting robots require an extra device for ease of separation.
Continuously increasing machine capacities with a remaining part of manual work in the horticultu... more Continuously increasing machine capacities with a remaining part of manual work in the horticultural harvest and postharvest sector demand the optimisation of the man-machine interfaces. Within the mass production the rationalisation of movements is of special interest. For this, Methods Time Measurement (MTM) is regarded as an appropriate method. Placing spears of asparagus on a conveyor belt serves as a practical example to compare the calculation of time needed for the process based on MTM and the results obtained by a 3D motion analysis.
Increasing herd sizes have changed the working environment in milking parlours. Consequences such... more Increasing herd sizes have changed the working environment in milking parlours. Consequences such as job sharing, high cow throughput and shift-work help optimising staff utilisation. At the same time there is a high incidence of muscular-skeletal-disorders among milking parlour operatives. The number of affected women is significantly higher. Therefore a precise analysis of the work place helps adjusting it to the worker in order to improve the health status on the long run.
Agricultural Engineering International: The CIGR Journal, 2009
Workers in modern German milking parlours – especially women – were found to be overrepresented i... more Workers in modern German milking parlours – especially women – were found to be overrepresented in those suffering from musculoskeletal disorders [MSD]. The number of cases was compared to the whole employed population . The objective of this study was therefore to assess the effects of workstation geometry on female milking parlour operatives. Motion analysis in combination with Electromyography [EMG] data recording was applied to evaluate three different working heights and two weights of milking units. Results showed that especially the weight of the milking unit strongly influenced the workload. The optimal working height for attaching the cluster was found to have the teat ends at shoulder level of the parlour operative.
Annals of agricultural and environmental medicine : AAEM, 2021
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE Agriculture and forestry are among the most dangerous professions in E... more INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE Agriculture and forestry are among the most dangerous professions in Europe, with a high level of accidents affecting the sustainability and viability of the sector. International conventions, EU directives and national legislation build the fundamental basis for prevention. The aim of the study is to describe and categorize national mechanisms of occupational safety and health (OSH) for agricultural workers in Europe, to assess the extent of implementing safety regulation, the body in charge, and to give examples of health and safety initiatives. MATERIAL AND METHODS Results of a questionnaire-survey on basic safety regulations on farms sent by e-mail to the representatives of 30 participating European countries in the context of the Sacurima COST action network (CA 16123) are presented. Due to the complexity, only selected countries are described in this study highlighting the regulative bodies, occupational health services or specific training offers, a...