Page 70 - DCAP210_INTRODUCTION__TO_MICROPROCESSORS

Introduction to Microprocessors

Notes They are rinsed, filled, pasteurized, packed into boxes, palleted, and shrink-wrapped for
shipment. In another room, employees pack bagged sauerkraut into boxes and lift them onto
a conveyor line.
Grant Work: After an initial gap analysis and interview several issues arose, the business had
recently broke away from being part of a major corporation, leaving the business with limited
staffing resources, causing some problems with keeping paperwork and procedures up to
date. Aside from that problem the business had a decent health and safety program left over
from the parent company, the person left in charge of the safety and health program was also
the director of human resources, they were beginning to bring in other people to help with
running the safety and health programs. The business conducts scheduled safety meetings
and has a good system for addressing and investigating any accidents. There appears to be
good communication of safety issues to employees.
The business had recently received an OSHA inspection, which cited several guarding issues
around the facility, by the time the RIT assistants scheduled a visit majority of the cited issues
were corrected. This showed that the business was interested in improving upon its safety
and health. OSHA did not cite several other issues that the RIT assistant felt needed addressing.

The first of the issues involved injuries, the most common injuries are lifting and ergonomic
related. The worst of the ergonomic issues was in the palleting area, the employees had to lift
cases of jars from the conveyor line and in most cases had to spin 180 degrees and lower the
cases to a pallet that is located on the floor. The cases weighed between 15 and 50 lbs. The RIT
assistants ran the NIOSH lifting equation on a worst and best case scenario to help determine
and design the best lift system possible for their operation. For the worst case scenario, which
was present in the facility, the recommended weight limit (RWL) was only 2.68 pounds, for
the best case which was not found the RWL to be 113.06 pounds. From an attempt to design
for best case was begun, the RIT assistant with the HR director and Operations supervisor,
the owners of the facility would only accept a very low cost solution which prevented the
purchases of lift tables, this case was later referred to the RIT Centre for Integrated
Manufacturing studies which provides ergonomic services under a NYS Hazard Abatement
grant for more expertise. The business has realized this to be a problem before participating
in the Harwood grant and has sent employees to undergo ergonomic training by an outside
consultant.

Much of the facility had a noise level that was over 85dBs. The cutting and coring room which
was not operating at the times of visits was described to be of deafening sound levels, in this
room there is much mechanical motor noise and noise from metal cutting blades hitting metal
tables during the coring process. Discussion about sound dampening and guarding techniques
was held. Hearing protection is required around much of the facility but there was no formal
audiometric testing at the time. The facility has contracted with an outside consultant to conduct
baseline hearing assessment and annual test. Since half of their staff is seasonal that will
provide some problems.

Questions:
1. Explain the basic concept of Small Cabbage Processor.
2. What are the basic uses of Small Cabbage Processor in business?

4.5 Summary

• Microprocessor architecture research has always been shaped by underlying technology
trends, making it a rapidly changing and vigorous field.

• Microprocessors function as the “brain” of a computer system.

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