Anthropometry of civilian Singaporeans : body measurements for ergonomic design

• Main Author: Low, Jerome
• Other Authors: Chen Chun-Hsien
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/67280
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Singapore is a South-East Asian country with a population of 5.53million people relying on manufacturing and knowledge-intensive industries for its economy. As such, the productivity of its workforce is of utmost importance for the continual growth for the economy of Singapore. Reducing occupational hazards from prolonged hours of work by improved work station designs is one step towards a higher productivity rate. Singapore being a multi-cultural society populated by people of different races makes it difficult to use anthropometric data of its neighbouring countries to design ergonomic workstations. Hence, the urgent need to establish a Singapore Anthropometric database such that designers can have an accurate anthropometric reference when constructing ergonomic workstations to improve the wellbeing and comfort of the Singapore workforce. This study collates data from one hundred adult Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents above 17 years old that were selected at random. A total of 36 different body measurements were taken and analysed to determine the mean and standard deviations of the data. The final results were compared to the results of other countries and used to plot regression graphs to determine relationships between dimensions. It was found that Singapore has larger body dimensions as compared to neighbouring countries but was smaller in size when compared to western countries.