Search results for: sustainability performance assessment

Authors: Ana Bobirca, Paul-Gabriel Miclaus

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International competitiveness receives much attention nowadays, but up to now its assessment has been heavily based on manufacturing industry statistics. This paper addresses the need for competitiveness indicators that cover the service sector and sets out a multilevel framework for measuring international services trade competitiveness. The approach undertaken here aims at comparatively examining the international competitiveness of the EU-25 (the twenty-five European Union member states before the 1st of January 2007), Romanian and Bulgarian services trade, as well as the last two countries- structure of specialization on the EU-25 services market. The primary changes in the international competitiveness of three major services sectors – transportation, travel and other services - are analyzed. This research attempts to determine the ability of the two recent European Union (EU) member states to contend with the challenges that might arise from the hard competition within the enlarged EU, in the field of services trade.

Keywords: Bulgaria, EU-25, international competitiveness, international services trade, Romania.

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Authors: A. Buruzs, M. F. Hatwágner, A. Torma, L. T. Kóczy

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The development, operation and maintenance of Integrated Waste Management Systems (IWMS) affects essentially the sustainable concern of every region. The features of such systems have great influence on all of the components of sustainability. In order to reach the optimal way of processes, a comprehensive mapping of the variables affecting the future efficiency of the system is needed such as analysis of the interconnections among the components and modeling of their interactions. The planning of a IWMS is based fundamentally on technical and economical opportunities and the legal framework. Modeling the sustainability and operation effectiveness of a certain IWMS is not in the scope of the present research. The complexity of the systems and the large number of the variables require the utilization of a complex approach to model the outcomes and future risks. This complex method should be able to evaluate the logical framework of the factors composing the system and the interconnections between them. The authors of this paper studied the usability of the Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) approach modeling the future operation of IWMS’s. The approach requires two input data set. One is the connection matrix containing all the factors affecting the system in focus with all the interconnections. The other input data set is the time series, a retrospective reconstruction of the weights and roles of the factors. This paper introduces a novel method to develop time series by content analysis.

Keywords: Content analysis, factors, integrated waste management system, time series.

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Authors: Sanaa Ali Ahmed Alrashid

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The present study aimed to investigate the effect of synchronous music in Gymnastics' motor skill performance among undergraduate female students in physical education college at Basra University. The researcher used experimental design. 20 female students of physical education divided equally into two groups, (10) experimental group with music, (10) control group without music. All participants complete 6 weeks in testing. Data analysis based on T-test shows significant difference at (α = 0.05) in all skills level between experimental and control groups in favor of experimental group. Results of this study contribute to developing the role of synchronous music in improving gymnastic skills performance.

Keywords: Performance, motor skill, music, synchronous.

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Authors: Radek Němec

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Today's business environment requires that companies have access to highly relevant information in a matter of seconds. Modern Business Intelligence tools rely on data structured mostly in traditional dimensional database schemas, typically represented by star schemas. Dimensional modeling is already recognized as a leading industry standard in the field of data warehousing although several drawbacks and pitfalls were reported. This paper focuses on the analysis of another data warehouse modeling technique - the anchor modeling, and its characteristics in context with the standardized dimensional modeling technique from a query performance perspective. The results of the analysis show information about performance of queries executed on database schemas structured according to principles of each database modeling technique.

Keywords: Data warehousing, anchor modeling, star schema, anchor schema, query performance.

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Authors: Sunday. E. Ogundipe, Abiola Idowu, Lawrencia. O. Ogundipe

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This study examines the impact of working capital management on firms- performance and market value of the firms in Nigeria. A sample of fifty four non-financial quoted firms in Nigeria listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange was used for this study. Data were collected from annual reports of the sampled firms for the period 1995-2009. This result shows there is a significant negative relationship between cash conversion cycle and market valuation and firm-s performance. It also shows that debt ratio is positively related to market valuation and negatively related firm-s performance. The findings confirm that there is a significant relationship between Market valuation, profitability and working capital component in line with previous studies. This mean that Nigeria firms should ensure adequate management of working capital especially cash conversion cycle components of account receivables, account payables and inventories, as efficiency working capital management is expected to contribute positively to the firms- market value.

Keywords: Cash Conversion Cycle, Firms' Performance, Market Valuation, Working Capital Management

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Authors: Andreea Maier, Stelian Brad, Mircea Fulea, Diana Nicoară, Dorin Maier

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Today, any organization - regardless of the specific activity - must be prepared to face continuous radical changes, innovation thus becoming a condition of survival in a globalized market. Few managers have a wider vision that includes innovation, to enable better performance of the critical activities, namely the degree of novelty that it must submit an innovation to be considered as such. Companies need not only radical changes in the products or their services, but also to their business strategies. Not all managers have an overall view on the real size of necessary innovation potential. Unfortunately there is still no common understanding (and correct) of the term of innovation among managers. Moreover, not all managers are aware of the need for innovation. In these conditions, increasing the processes adaptability of firms (through innovation) to meet the needs and performance requirements is difficult without a systematic framework. To overcome this disadvantage, the authors propose a framework for designing an innovation management system,, to cover all the important aspects of a business system, to reach the actual performance of an organization.

Keywords: Innovation, innovation framework, innovation management system.

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Authors: Sudipta Majumdar, Amarendra Kumar Mishra

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This paper proposes empirical mode decomposition (EMD) together with wavelet transform (WT) based analytic signal for power quality (PQ) events assessment. EMD decomposes the complex signals into several intrinsic mode functions (IMF). As the PQ events are non stationary, instantaneous parameters have been calculated from these IMFs using analytic signal obtained form WT. We obtained three parameters from IMFs and then used KNN classifier for classification of PQ disturbance. We compared the classification of proposed method for PQ events by obtaining the features using Hilbert transform (HT) method. The classification efficiency using WT based analytic method is 97.5% and using HT based analytic signal is 95.5%.

Keywords: Empirical mode decomposition, Hilbert transform, wavelet transform.

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Authors: G. Reinhart, S. Schindler

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Due to dynamic evolution, the ability of a manufacturing technology to produce a special product is changing. Therefore, it is essential to monitor the established techniques and processes to detect whether a company-s production will fit future circumstances. Concerning the manufacturing technology planning process, companies must decide when to change to a new technology for maintaining and increasing competitive advantages. In this context, the maturity assessment of the focused technologies is crucial. This article presents an approach for defining the maturity of a manufacturing technology from a strategic point of view. The concept is based on the approach of technology readiness level (TRL) according to NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), but also includes dynamic changes. Therefore, the model takes into account the concept of the technology life cycle. Furthermore, it enables a company to estimate the ideal date for implementation of a new manufacturing technology.

Keywords: Maturity Assessment, Manufacturing Technology Planning, Technology Life Cycle, Technology Readiness Level.

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Authors: Rani Astya, S.C. Sharma

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The wireless adhoc network is comprised of wireless node which can move freely and are connected among themselves without central infrastructure. Due to the limited transmission range of wireless interfaces, in most cases communication has to be relayed over intermediate nodes. Thus, in such multihop network each node (also called router) is independent, self-reliant and capable to route the messages over the dynamic network topology. Various protocols are reported in this field and it is very difficult to decide the best one. A key issue in deciding which type of routing protocol is best for adhoc networks is the communication overhead incurred by the protocol. In this paper STAR a table driven and DSR on demand protocols based on IEEE 802.11 are analyzed for their performance on different performance measuring metrics versus varying traffic CBR load using QualNet 5.0.2 network simulator.

Keywords: Adhoc networks, wireless networks, CBR, routingprotocols, route discovery, simulation, performance evaluation, MAC, IEEE 802.11, STAR, DSR

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Authors: Milorad Pavlovic, Sebastiano Trevisani, Antonella Cecchi

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In this paper, a procedure for the evaluation of seismic behavior of slender masonry structures (towers, bell towers, chimneys, minarets, etc.) is presented. The presented procedure is based on a full three-dimensional modal analyses and frequency measurements. As well-known, masonry is a composite material formed by bricks, or stone blocks, and mortar arranged more or less regularly and adopted for many centuries as structural material. Dynamic actions may represent the major risk of collapse of brickworks, and despite the progress achieved so far in science and mechanics; the assessment of their seismic performance remains a challenging task. Then, reliable physical and numerical models are worthy of recommendation. In this paper, attention is paid to the historical bell tower of the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari - usually called Frari - one of the greatest churches in Venice, Italy.

Keywords: Bell tower, FEM, masonry, modal analysis, non-destructive testing.

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Authors: M. N. Norshita, B. Z. Halimah, T. S. Tengku Mohammad

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The implementation of electronic government started since the initiation of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) by the Malaysia government. The introduction of ICT in the public sector especially e-Government initiatives opens up a new book in the government administration throughout the world. The aim or this paper is to discuss the implementation of e-government in Malaysia, covering the result of public user self assessment on Malaysia's electronic government applications. E-services, e-procurement, Generic Office Environment (GOE), Human Resources Management Information System (HRMIS), Project Monitoring System (PMS), Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX) and e-syariah(religion) were the seven flagship application assessed. The study adopted a crosssectional survey research approach and information system literature were used. The analysis was done for 35 responden in pilot test and there was evidence from public user's perspective to suggest that the e-government applications were generally successful.

Keywords: Electronic government, flagship, multimedia super corridor, public user.

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Authors: T. Tambovceva, A. Tambovcevs

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The activities which are mostly related to the environmental performance need to be pointed, especially how logistics systems influence on environmental performance. This paper analyses how company could lead the initiative in this area by incorporating environmental management principles into their daily activities. The analysis is based on literature review about logistics and environment, the information from company R website as well as face-to-face interviews. A case study is given to show how they can turn practices into green while simultaneously meet the efficiency objectives. The research results show that the adoption of EMS and ISO 14001 certification is an effective tool for the logistics management. Such practices simultaneously reduce the negative contribute to better company performance. The results also show that the emissions to air and water, and energy consumption are the main logistics impacts to the environment.

Keywords: environmental management system, green logistics, information technology, information systems.

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Authors: E. Kaygan, A. Gatto

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An investigation of adaptable winglets for morphing aircraft control and performance is described in this paper. The concepts investigated consist of various winglet configurations fundamentally centred on a baseline swept wing. The impetus for the work was to identify and optimize winglets to enhance controllability and the aerodynamic efficiency of a small unmanned aerial vehicle. All computations were performed with Athena Vortex Lattice modelling with varying degrees of twist, swept, and dihedral angle considered. The results from this work indicate that if adaptable winglets were employed on small scale UAV’s improvements in both aircraft control and performance could be achieved.

Keywords: Aircraft, rolling, wing, winglet.

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Authors: Radek Fisera, Petr Stluka

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This paper describes a methodology for remote performance monitoring of retail refrigeration systems. The proposed framework starts with monitoring of the whole refrigeration circuit which allows detecting deviations from expected behavior caused by various faults and degradations. The subsequent diagnostics methods drill down deeper in the equipment hierarchy to more specifically determine root causes. An important feature of the proposed concept is that it does not require any additional sensors, and thus, the performance monitoring solution can be deployed at a low installation cost. Moreover only a minimum of contextual information is required, which also substantially reduces time and cost of the deployment process.

Keywords: Condition monitoring, energy baselining, fault detection and diagnostics, commercial refrigeration.

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Authors: Isabel Díez Vial, Marta Fernández Olmoss

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This research tries to analyze the role that knowledge about foreign markets has in increasing firms- exports in clustered spaces. We consider two interrelated sources of knowledge: firms- direct experience and indirect experience from other clustered firms – export externalities. In particular, it is proposed that firms would improve their export performance by accessing to export externalities if they have some previous direct experience that allows them to identify, understand and exploit them. Also, we propose that this positive influence of previous direct experience on export externalities keeps only up to a point, where it becomes negative, creating an inverted “U" shape. Empirical evidence gathered among wine producers located in La Rioja tends to confirm that firms enjoy of export externalities if they have export experience along several years and countries increase their export performance. While this relationship becomes less relevant as they develop a higher experience, we could not confirm the existence of a curvilinear relationship in their influence on export externalities and export performance.

Keywords: Clusters, curvilinear relationship, absorptive capacity

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Authors: Hind Bouami, Patrick Millot

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Handling life-critical systems complexity requires to be equipped with appropriate technology and the right human agents’ functions such as knowledge, experience, and competence in problem’s prevention and solving. Human agents are involved in the management and control of human-machine system’s performance. Documenting human agent’s situation awareness is crucial to support human-machine designers’ decision-making. Knowledge about risks, critical parameters and factors that can impact and threaten automation system’s performance should be collected using preventive and retrospective approaches. This paper aims to document operators’ situation awareness through the analysis of automated organizations’ feedback. The analysis of automated hospital pharmacies feedback helps identify and control critical parameters influencing human machine interaction in order to enhance system’s performance and security. Our human machine system evaluation approach has been deployed in Macon hospital center’s pharmacy which is equipped with automated drug dispensing systems since 2015. Automation’s specifications are related to technical aspects, human-machine interaction, and human aspects. The evaluation of drug delivery automation performance in Macon hospital center has shown that the performance of the automated activity depends on the performance of the automated solution chosen, and also on the control of systemic factors. In fact, 80.95% of automation specification related to the chosen Sinteco’s automated solution is met. The performance of the chosen automated solution is involved in 28.38% of automation specifications performance in Macon hospital center. The remaining systemic parameters involved in automation specifications performance need to be controlled. 

Keywords: Life-critical systems, situation awareness, human-machine interaction, decision-making.

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Authors: Abdolreza Hatamlou, Yusef Farhang, Mohammad Reza Meybodi

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Variable ordering heuristics are used in constraint satisfaction algorithms. Different characteristics of various variable ordering heuristics are complementary. Therefore we have tried to get the advantages of all heuristics to improve search algorithms performance for solving constraint satisfaction problems. This paper considers combinations based on products and quotients, and then a newer form of combination based on weighted sums of ratings from a set of base heuristics, some of which result in definite improvements in performance.

Keywords: Constraint Satisfaction Problems, Variable Ordering Heuristics, Combination, Search Algorithms

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Authors: Santirat Nansaarng, Sittichai Kaewkuekool, Supreeya Siripattanakunkajorn

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The purpose of this research was to study the inspector performance by using computer based training (CBT). Visual inspection task was printed circuit board (PCB) simulated on several types of defects. Subjects were 16 undergraduate randomly selected from King Mongkut-s University of Technology Thonburi and test for 20/20. Then, they were equally divided on performance into two groups (control and treatment groups) and were provided information before running the experiment. Only treatment group was provided feedback information after first experiment. Results revealed that treatment group was showed significantly difference at the level of 0.01. The treatment group showed high percentage on defects detected. Moreover, the attitude of inspectors on using the CBT to inspection was showed on good. These results have been showed that CBT could be used for training to improve inspector performance.

Keywords: Training, Feedback, Computer based Training (CBT)

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Authors: S. Halioui, I. Arikan, M. Schmidt

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Tourism sector in Tunisia faces several problems that range from economic challenges to environmental degradation and social instability. These problems have been intensified because of the increased competition in the tourism market, the political instability, financial crises, and recently terrorism problems have aggravated the situation. As a consequence, a new framework that promotes sustainable tourism in the country and increases its competitiveness is urgently needed. Planning for sustainable tourism sector requires the integration of complex interactions between economic, social and environmental aspects. Sustainable tourism principles can be implemented with the help of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process, which ensures the full integration of economic, social and environmental considerations while planning for the tourism sector in Tunisia. Results of the paper have broad implications for policy makers and tourism professionals.

Keywords: Sustainable tourism, strategic environmental assessment, tourism planning, policy.

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Authors: Reza Ziaie Moayad, Azam Kouhpeyma

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In-situ testing is preferred to evaluate the liquefaction potential in cohesionless soils due to high disturbance during sampling. Although new in-situ methods with high accuracy have been developed, standard penetration test, the simplest and the oldest in-situ test, is still used due to the profusion of the recorded data. This paper reviews the Iranian standard of evaluating liquefaction potential in soils (codes 525) and compares the liquefaction assessment methods based on standard penetration test (SPT) results on cohesionless soil in this standard with the international standards. To this, methods for assessing liquefaction potential are compared with what is presented in standard 525. It is found that although the procedure used in Iranian standard of evaluating the potential of liquefaction has not been updated according to the new findings, it is a conservative procedure.

Keywords: cohesionless soil, liquefaction, SPT, Iranian liquefaction standard

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Authors: Mohammed Alkahtani, Ali Ahmad, Saber Darmoul, Shatha Samman, Ayoub Al-zabidi, Khaled Ba Matraf

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Education systems are complex and involve interactions between humans (teachers and students); media based technologies, lectures, classrooms, etc. to provide educational services. The education system performance is characterized by how well students learn, which is measured using student grades on exams and quizzes, achievements on standardized tests, among others. Advances in portable communications technologies, such as mobile phones, tablets, and laptops, created a different type of classroom, where students seem to engage in more than just the intended learning activities. The performance of more than one task in parallel or in rapid transition is commonly known as multitasking. Several operations in educational systems are performed simultaneously, resulting in a multitasking education environment. This paper surveys existing research on multitasking in educational settings, summarizes literature findings, provides a synthesis of the impact of multitasking on performance, and identifies directions of future research.

Keywords: Education systems, GPA, multitasking, performance.

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Authors: P. R. Jayathilaka, K.L. Jayaratne, H.L. Premaratne

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This research presented in this paper is an on-going project of an application of neural network and fuzzy models to evaluate the sociological factors which affect the educational performance of the students in Sri Lanka. One of its major goals is to prepare the grounds to device a counseling tool which helps these students for a better performance at their examinations, especially at their G.C.E O/L (General Certificate of Education-Ordinary Level) examination. Closely related sociological factors are collected as raw data and the noise of these data are filtered through the fuzzy interface and the supervised neural network is being utilized to recognize the performance patterns against the chosen social factors.

Keywords: Education, Fuzzy, neural network, prediction, Sociology

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Authors: Fauzy M. Wan, Reem S.A. Baragash

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This study examined the effects of two dynamic visualizations on 60 Malaysian primary school student-s performance (time on task), retention and transference. The independent variables in this study were the two dynamic visualizations, the video and the animated instructions. The dependent variables were the gain score of performance, retention and transference. The results showed that the students in the animation group significantly outperformed the students in the video group in retention. There were no significant differences in terms of gain scores in the performance and transference among the animation and the video groups, although the scores were slightly higher in the animation group compared to the video group. The conclusion of this study is that the animation visualization is superior compared to the video in the retention for a procedural task.

Keywords: Dynamic visualization, Procedural Task, Retention, Transference

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Authors: A. Rouili

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In the present paper the results of a numerical study are presented, numerical models were developed to simulate the behaviour of vertical massive dikes. The proposed models were developed according to the geometry, boundary conditions, loading conditions and initial conditions of a physical model taken as reference. The results obtained were compared to the experimental data. As far as the overall behaviour, the displacements and the failure mechanisms of the dikes is concerned, the numerical results were in good agreement with the experimental results, which clearly indicates a good quality of numerical modelling. The validated numerical models were used in a parametric study were the displacements and failure mechanisms were fully investigated. Out of the results obtained, some conclusions and recommendations related to the design of massive dikes are proposed.

Keywords: Water conservation, dikes, risk assessment and numerical modelling.

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Authors: Wiem Daoud Ben Amor, Luis Martínez López, Jr., Hela Moalla Frikha

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Most of the multi-criteria group decision making (MCGDM) problems dealing with qualitative criteria require consideration of the large background of expert information. It is common that experts have different degrees of knowledge for giving their alternative assessments according to criteria. So, it seems logical that they use different evaluation scales to express their judgment, i.e., multi granular linguistic scales. In this context, we propose the extension of the classical additive ratio assessment (ARAS) method to the case of a hierarchical linguistics term for managing multi granular linguistic scales in uncertain context where uncertainty is modeled by means in linguistic information. The proposed approach is called the extended hierarchical linguistics-ARAS method (ELH-ARAS). Within the ELH-ARAS approach, the decision maker (DMs) can diagnose the results (the ranking of the alternatives) in a decomposed style i.e., not only at one level of the hierarchy but also at the intermediate ones. Also, the developed approach allows a feedback transformation i.e., the collective final results of all experts are able to be transformed at any level of the extended linguistic hierarchy that each expert has previously used. Therefore, the ELH-ARAS technique makes it easier for decision-makers to understand the results. Finally, an MCGDM case study is given to illustrate the proposed approach.

Keywords: Additive ratio assessment, extended hierarchical linguistic, multi-criteria group decision making problems, multi granular linguistic contexts.

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Authors: H. Alabed, K. Abuzayan. L. Fgie, K. Zarug

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Ramadan requires individuals to abstain from food and fluid intake between sunrise and sunset; physiological considerations predict that poorer mood, physical performance and mental performance will result. In addition, any difficulties will be worsened because preparations for fasting and recovery from it often mean that nocturnal sleep is decreased in length, and this independently affects mood and performance.

A difficulty of interpretation in many studies is that the observed changes could be due to fasting but also to the decreased length of sleep and altered food and fluid intakes before and after the daytime fasting. These factors were separated in this study, which took place over three separate days and compared the effects of different durations of fasting (4, 8 or 16h) upon a wide variety of measures (including subjective and objective assessments of performance, body composition, dehydration and responses to a short bout of exercise) - but with an unchanged amount of nocturnal sleep, controlled supper the previous evening, controlled intakes at breakfast and daytime naps not being allowed. Many of the negative effects of fasting observed in previous studies were present in this experiment also. These findings indicate that fasting was responsible for many of the changes previously observed, though some effect of sleep loss, particularly if occurring on successive days (as would occur in Ramadan) cannot be excluded.

Keywords: Drinking, Eating, Mental Performance, Physical Performance, Social Activity, Blood, Sleepiness.

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Authors: Belin Tavakoly Sany, Aishah Salleh, Abdul Halim Sulaiman, Ghazaleh Monazami Tehrani

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The pollution of sediments sampled from the North Port by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was investigated. Concentrations of PAHs estimated in the port sediments ranged from 199 to 2851.2 μg/kg dw. The highest concentration was found which is closed to the Berth line, this locations affected by intensive shipping activities and Land based runoff and they were dominated by the high molecular weight PAHs (4–6- rings). Source identification showed that PAHs originated mostly from the pyrogenic source either from the combustion of fossil fuels, grass, wood and coal (majority of the samples). Ecological Risk Assessment on the port sediments presented that slightly adverse ecological effects to biological community are expected to occur at the vicinity of the stations 1 and 4. Thus PAHs are not considered as pollutants of concern in the North Port.

Keywords: PAHs, North Port, Ecological Risk, sediment

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Authors: Jae Young Park, Hwansu Jung, Jong Tae Kim

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In the Solid-State-Drive (SSD) performance, whether the data has been well parallelized is an important factor. SSD parallelization is affected by allocation scheme and it is directly connected to SSD performance. There are dynamic allocation and static allocation in representative allocation schemes. Dynamic allocation is more adaptive in exploiting write operation parallelism, while static allocation is better in read operation parallelism. Therefore, it is hard to select the appropriate allocation scheme when the workload is mixed read and write operations. We simulated conditions on a few mixed data patterns and analyzed the results to help the right choice for better performance. As the results, if data arrival interval is long enough prior operations to be finished and continuous read intensive data environment static allocation is more suitable. Dynamic allocation performs the best on write performance and random data patterns.

Keywords: Dynamic allocation, NAND Flash based SSD, SSD parallelism, static allocation.

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Authors: P. Brinks, O. Kornadt, R. Oly

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This research focuses on the optimization of glazed surfaces and the assessment of possible solar gains in industrial buildings. Existing window rating methods for single windows were evaluated and a new method for a simple analysis of energy gains and losses by single windows was introduced. Furthermore extensive transient building simulations were carried out to appraise the performance of low cost polycarbonate multi-cell sheets in interaction with typical buildings for industrial applications. Mainly energy saving potential was determined by optimizing the orientation and area of such glazing systems in dependency on their thermal qualities. Moreover the impact on critical aspects such as summer overheating and daylight illumination was considered to ensure the user comfort and avoid additional energy demand for lighting or cooling. Hereby the simulated heating demand could be reduced by up to 1/3 compared to traditional architecture of industrial halls using mainly skylights.

Keywords: Solar Architecture, Passive Solar Building Design, Glazing, Low-Energy Buildings, Industrial Buildings.

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Authors: M. Zare, S. Biau, M. Croq, Y. Roquelaure

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A wide variety of observational methods have been developed to evaluate the ergonomic workloads in manufacturing. However, the precision and accuracy of these methods remain a subject of debate. The aims of this study were to develop biomechanical methods to evaluate ergonomic workloads and to compare them with observational methods.

Two observational methods, i.e. SCANIA Ergonomic Standard (SES) and Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), were used to assess ergonomic workloads at two simulated workstations. They included four tasks such as tightening & loosening, attachment of tubes and strapping as well as other actions. Sensors were also used to measure biomechanical data (Inclinometers, Accelerometers, and Goniometers).

Our findings showed that in assessment of some risk factors both RULA & SES were in agreement with the results of biomechanical methods. However, there was disagreement on neck and wrist postures. In conclusion, the biomechanical approach was more precise than observational methods, but some risk factors evaluated with observational methods were not measurable with the biomechanical techniques developed.

Keywords: Ergonomic, Observational Method, Biomechanical method, Workload.

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