Ergonomic assessment for the task of repairing computers in a manufacturing company: A case study

The Impact of Environmental Factors on Academic Performance of University Students Taking Online Classes during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Mexico

The COVID-19 pandemic and the quarantine period determined that university students (human resource) in Mexico had adopted the online class modality, which required them to adapt themselves to new technologies and environmental conditions that are different from classrooms at their university. Specifically, these new environmental conditions can be uncomfortable and have an impact on the students’ academic performance. Consequently, the present study aims to determine the impact that the lighting, noise, and temperature levels (independent variables) have on academic performance (dependent variable) in university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. To do this, a questionnaire was developed, which was applied to 206 university students online, and a structural equation model was built that integrates the four variables through three hypotheses, which were statistically validated through the partial least squares method. Results showed that temperature, lighting, and noise have significant direct effects on university students’ academic performance. As a conclusion, it was obtained that the three independent variables have an impact in the sustainability of university students (human resource).

An Overview of REBA Method Applications in the World

The objective of this work is to review literature, worldwide, in which the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) ergonomic assessment method was applied and count the number of times that REBA was applied together with other methods and subsequent incidence. The database used was the "Web of Science-Core Collection". Only scientific articles and bibliographic reviews were included, analysing a total of 314 documents and selecting only 91. The use of the REBA method is indicated in terms of knowledge, country, year and journal sectors. It was most used in the knowledge areas of "Manufacturing" (24.18%), "Agriculture, forestry and fishing" (21.98%) and in "Other activities" (19.78%). One of the benefits of REBA is that it evaluates different body parts: upper limbs (arm, forearm and wrist), lower extremities, trunk and neck. It is a useful method to identify the forced postures adopted by workers to thus develop improvement measures if necessary. It is concluded that REBA method use has increased over the last decade, probably due to the digitization of knowledge. It is almost always applied in combination with other methods, and its use can be a positive indicator of company sustainability.