Assessment of the Need for Ergonomically Functional Relaxing Chair for Kitchen Related Standing Activities in Restaurants

Abstract

A restaurant worker, who works in the kitchen, doing the different activities in continuous standing posture and spent most of the time inside the buildings and therefore experiences the greatest amount of exposure while performing various activities is at greatest risk. They do the work which is very labor intensive. The workers working in the restaurants withstand the pressure, string of working for long hours, suffering from high blood pressure due to prolong standing posture, lifting heavy pots and kettles and working near hot ovens and grills. An occupational hazard includes slips and falls, cuts and burns. Restaurant relaxing chair is one of important furniture design that cause people especially who work in the restaurant feel uncomfortable after prolong stand. Each parts of chair should be designed properly so that it can have more ergonomics characteristics to ensure the user get a good posture. It also can assist the user to minimize fatigue and injury by fitting the chairs to the body size, strength and range of movement. Correct sitting and standing posture is an important factor for the prevention of musculoskeletal symptoms. Therefore, the study was undertaken to develop and design of ergonomically, functional and aesthetically relaxing chair for kitchen related standing activity. For the present study 120 workers from the four south Indian restaurant i.e. Sri Nidhisagar, Raaga the family restaurant, Tamarind and Inchara the family restaurant, Bangalore city Karnataka State. Research design used was descriptive cum experimental. Purposive sampling was used and data was gathered by interview method. The workers were mainly literate and aged from 25-40 years. The data further showed the existing condition of the restaurant workers were satisfactorily regarding the work environment. Besides this occupational risks were involved which can result in health hazards. Statistical analysis showed the significant difference in physiological cost of work and different activities such as preparation, cooking, serving and dishwashing performed by the restaurant workers.