Ergonomic Analysis of Work in a Central Kitchen of school lunch production

Abstract

Over time, several organizations have shown numerous occurrences of complaints related to safety and health, so many employees have been removed and, in some cases, received compensation. This article aimed to recognize how the work of the cooks is performed in a Central Kitchen of production of school meals, thus suggesting improvements that would reduce the risks related to safety and health, bringing greater comfort during office hours. Ergonomics was the science used in this research, seeking concepts related to the adaptation of work to the individual that brought numerous advantages to interested parties. Informal interviews, photographic records, survey of reports and observations for the application of the EWA tool were performed, and several data on demand, activities, and tasks to be fulfilled were collected. The methodology used was the case study that it was possible to perform an Ergonomic Analysis of Work for the knowledge of the current working post of the cooks and what would be their limitations so that it was possible to bring suggestions and improvements to the environment and activities. The most notable problems were related to the postures adopted for the performance of the work, loading drums full of food to the transporter vehicle, absence of equipment, thermal conditioning, work overload, among others. For this, several recommendations were presented, such as hiring employees, acquiring, and performing equipment maintenance, lighting modifications, among others. Ergonomic proposals were suggested for the problems encountered, which contributed to the proposed improvements.