Motion Study of Oil Palm Manual Harvesting

Good harvesting technique and timing is necessary to result good productivity in oil-palm industies.The harvesting activity is mostly conducted by 'human powered' manual handling which quite arduous and risky in term of work safety and musculoskeletal disorders (MSD).This research deals with anthropometry and motion study to analyse manual harvesting activity in oil palm plantation so the activity can be done in more safety, efficient and productive.Motion study using Natural Range of Motion (ROM) is applied to know the level of motion risk based on ROM indeks and appropriate antropometry.Manual harvesting tasks by using conventional tools named 'dodos' and 'egrek' were studied in this research.The aims of this research is to know the pattern and risks distribution of the work motions, and then to determine a good harvesting procedure to minimize the risk.The anthropometry result show that the harvester posture is ideal and uniform.The 'cutting with egrek (CuE)' was found as the most risky work element in the manual harvesting task, and the MSD risks occur on the neck, shoulder, forearm, back and ankle.Such work procedures should be designed and appropriate working distance and length of tool are required to prevent the risks.Work motion simulation revealed that 1.5, 2.5, 5.5, and 8.5 mare suitable working distance to harvest 3, 6, 12 dan 18 mheight of targeted bunches, respectively.