The influence of gender and individual differences on, risks of injury due to layout in assembly work

This paper examines variation in elbow and shoulder joint angles between genders for a simulated light assembly task within normal reach at three bin. distances. Joint angle ranges were estimated for 5th, 50th and 95th percentile values pooled from males and females for each of the 17 task elements. Large differences in risk levels were found between the 5th and 95th percentile estimates. Male elbow angles were smaller than the females', but the male shoulder angles were greater than the females', on average. These results have important implications for workplace design.