Optimizing the Risk of Occupational Health Hazard in a Multiobjective Decision Environment Using NSGA-II


Abstract

We present a novel system to lessen the risk of occupational health hazards (OHH) of workers in the labor intensive industrieswith a job-combination approach. The work is carried out in a brick manufacturing (BM) unit at Hathras, India. The risk of OHH is assessed in terms of perceived discomfort level (PDL) of workers. PDL is computed with factor rating (FR) method. It is observed based on an initial survey in the BM unit that the workers, in general, aim to maximize their earnings by subjecting themselves to extreme work conditions due to economic reasons, and hence are exposed to greater risk of OHH resulting in higher values of PDL. We employ NSGA-II, an evolutionary multiobjective optimization (EMO) technique, to search for optimal PDL-earning tradeoff (PET) profile with two conflicting objectives, viz. minimization of PDL, and maximization of earnings.