Modified NIOSH Lifting Equation with MATLAB

Work-related musculoskeletal diseases despite decades of efforts, represent a leading workplace risk. The NIOSH modified lifting equation, available in various forms and platform, can be used to assess the risk from manual material handling. While assessing just a few lifts per shift or homogeneous lifting situations is relatively simple; however, in a mixed, high-frequency lifting situation, the risk assessment involves significant data collection and requires complex data processing. In this paper, we present the MATLAB processing of manual handling data retrieved from a production program through an assembly line job as an example. We show the transfer functions for each risk factor and the importance of accurate input data and evaluate their impact on the ultimate risk.