Source: E-mail dt. 7 June 2012
Mitigation Strategies for Safety Management
Dr.
R. Karuppasamy M.Com., MBA, M.Phil.,
Ph.D., PLME
Director, Management
Studies, SNS College of
Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India
and
Mr. C. Arul Venkadesh
MBA, PGDPM (IRLL), (PhD)
Assistant Professor – Department of
Management Sciences, CIET College, Coimbatore,
Tamilnadu, India
Introduction
“The Desire is to provide a safe, productive
work environment, while reducing the liability and the hidden bottom-line
losses of downtime is driving the facility managers and the owners to establish
a comprehensive safety and health management process ad programmes”
~ Joseph F.
Gustin
The importance of Safety was very much
realized in the beginning of twentieth century because every year millions of
accidents occur which results in either death or in temporary and permanent
disablement that involves a BEST amount of cost such as resulting from wasted time
and growth rate etc. Negligence of safety in any stage in a place can result
into disaster leading to loss of life and property and decrease of
production while environment of industrial safety cerates fearless work
environment and helps to achieve reduced level of occupational stress.
Employees moral confidences and efficiency in operation is increased which
improves quality of work as well as quality of work-life of employees. This
leads to increase rate of production, to reduce cost of production and to
prevent premature death of trained workers, who are the backbone of any
industry. Safety needs to be managed by evolving appropriate safety systems and
methods. Hence, safety is the responsibility of all managerial Personnel,
supervisory staff and workers in an industry. Dependence of people upon
industries is increasing day by day. For example we can presume the importance
of a photo state machine in a Student’s Life, we cannot imagine a modern
kitchen without cooking gas and gas stove, we cannot imagine traveling of
travelers with cars, buses, trains and aero planes etc. All these have become
possible due to continue development and growth of the various industries, and
trained workers who are working in these industries. As the required
number of various industries in India and all over the world is increasing day
by day the required number of safety personnel and trained workers are also
increasing day by day. Obviously there are excellent job possibilities in this
profession. The development of systems to
prevent accidents, injuries, and other adverse Occurrences in an institutional
setting. The concept includes prevention or reduction of adverse events or
incidents involving employees, patients, or facilities. Examples include plans
to reduce injuries from falls or plans for Fire safety to promote a safe
institutional environment.
Best Management Practices
Best safety Management
Practice (GMP) boils down to doing the right things, the right way. Best safety Management Practices are part of BEST safety management with the objective to reach
identified goals. Since we are talking about safety, directed at reducing
unwanted events that we call accidents or incidents. Reducing accidents means management
activities that: prevent the unwanted
events from happening, allow early
detection of deviations form accepted standards, planned actions to cope with
the results shoud the unwanted event nevertheless occur, and learn form those
events to imporve preventative actions.
Basically this is
simple: if you want to go somewhere, you need to do something. Or rather: you
need to carry out well-defined activities in a well-defined manner by
well-trained people. Results can only be obtained if you:
Use of SMS (safety
management system) can be generally interpreted as applying a quality
management approach to control safety risks. Similar to other management
functions, safety management requires planning, organising, communicating and
providing direction.
The SMS development
begins with setting the organisational safety policy. It defines the generic
principles upon which the SMS (safety management system) is build and operated. This first step
outlines the strategy for achieving acceptable level of safety within the
organisation.
Safety planning and
implementation of safety management procedures are the next key steps in the
processes designed to mitigate and contain risk in operations. Once these
controls are ready, quality management techniques can be utilised to ensure
that they achieve the intended objectives and, where they fail, to improve
them. This is accomplished by deployment of safety assurance and evaluation
processes which in turn provide for a continuous monitoring of operations and
for identifying areas of safety improvement.
Put simply, effective
safety management systems are using risk and quality management methods to
achieve the safety goals. In addition, SMS (safety Management System) Also Provides The organisational framework to
establish and foster the development of a positive corporate safety culture. The
implementation of an SMS (safety management system) gives the organisation’s management a
structured set of tools to meet their responsibilities for safety defined by
the regulator.
Roles
Responsibilities Accountabilities and Authorities (R2A2's)
Where an employee,
·
Is the only comprehensive document that achieves the
following;
·
A clear communication of management expectations through the
assignment of one or more roles for each employee, and the responsibilities,
accountabilities, and authorities associated with each role;
·
Employee understanding and acceptance of what is expected of
them.
·
Employee R2A2 are intended to be used to
·
Establish, communicate, and document management expectations
and employee understanding and acceptance;
·
Form a basis for establishing employee goals;
·
Form a basis for employee performance appraisals; Communicate
and document changes in employee responsibilities during the course of a
performance year; Identify training needs,
·
Help to determine employee job classifications; Inform job
candidates about prospective positions; Assess employee workload so that
managers can make staffing decisions.
Integrated Safety Management System (ISMS) Software
The Integrated Safety
Management System (ISMS) Software is a tool used by managers at Sandia to
assist in their implementation of ISM. The tool currently has two major
modules: Primary Hazard Screening (PHS) module and the Hazards Analysis (HA)
module. The primary focus of the PHS is to document the identification and
control of hazards, identify required training, establish the type of
Facility:, and determine a hazard classification of an operation. If the hazard
classification of the operation is higher than ‘standard industrial hazards’
then a hazards analysis using the HA module is required. The HA is a modified
Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA) performed for each low hazard
identified by the PHS. ISMS Software replaces the previous fractional methods
of hazard data collection, and is a solution to the general unavailability of
hazard-related data to ES&H professionals, other corporate entities, and
DOE. ISMS Software is accessed through Sandia’s internal web.
Merits:
Work Management Reporting System
Electronic Work
Management Program Reporting Tool (PRT) deployed through a computer desktop
reporting tool, available to all Work Management users on Site. The tool
provides a broad spectrum of Work Management information to the user based on
user profiles which narrows the information to the appropriate Facility. The
tool also provides access to the electronic Work Management System, a set of
auto-generated weekly and monthly performance indicators for each Facility on
Site, etc.
The PRT tool
standardizes and automates reporting and metrics and provides "real
time" Work Management information to the end user.
Provides the broad
spectrum of Work Management reporting to the end users desktop computer. Identification and standardization of work
processes and customer needs was a significant challenge. Also, since SRS does
not have programs which are integrated, information sources & flows needed
to be analyzed and determined. PRT serves as the reporting integration tool for
the wide variety of Programs which make up the Work Management Process.
Success is measured
through customer use of the tool. The
program makes available the entire spectrum of Work Management reporting to the
~6,000 Work Management end users on Site. Continued development and reporting
needs of the users is identified through a "PRT Feedback" process
which is included with the tool, where users can individually submit any
request or issue they may have & whatever is submitted, is scheduled and
tracked to closure, at which time the user receives electronic feedback. PRT
Feedback, scheduled work off of items and responses to feedback is
electronically available to all users.
E - Worker Feedback
Electronic Worker Feedback
with Work Planner electronic closure response mechanism is a feature of the
Electronic Work Management Program Reporting Tool (PRT). If worker feedback is
not responded to by Work Planner, a "flag" e-mail reminder of the
action is auto-generated to the Work Planner each Friday.
Provided an electronic
method within the Work Management System to provide, track, close, monitor
& report worker feedback. Reporting is accomplished through the Site
Program Reporting Tool (PRT). A screen print of the PRT desktop tool is below,
showing the Worker Feedback reporting button:
Worker feedback is now
entered by the worker at the same time they enter their work hours and history.
Work Planners are notified electronically of any feedback and return comment to
the mechanic via e-mail. Worker Feedback, continuous improvement is a primary
element of the ISMS process. Success was measured by the workers using the tool
& work planners responding and closing the loop. Reporting of the process
allows anyone within a Facility: to view feedback and responses.
Safety Culture Framework
From
the review of the main existing and emerging Safety Culture frameworks in
aviation and beyond, we know that Safety Culture is a multi-dimensional
construct. To capture the common and key-elements of the various leading
frameworks, six dimensions are needed.
These
Dimensions are called Characteristics. The six Characteristics are:
- Commitment reflects the
extent to which every level of the organization has a positive attitude towards
safety and recognizes its importance. Top management should be genuinely
committed to keeping a high level of safety and give employees motivation and means
to do so as well.
- Behavior reflects the extent
to which every level of the organization behaves such as to maintain and
improve the level of safety. From the management side, the importance of safety
should be recognized and everything needed to maintain and enhance safety
records should be put in place.
- Awareness reflects the extent to which
employees and management are aware of the risks for themselves and for others
implied by the organization’s operations. Employees and management should be
constantly maintaining a high degree of vigilance with respect to safety
issues.
- Adaptability reflects the
extent to which employees and management are willing to learn from past
experiences and are able to take whatever action is necessary in order to enhance
the level of safety within the organization.
- Information reflects the
extent to which information is distributed to the right people in the
organization. Employees should be encouraged to report safety concerns. Work
related information has to be communicated in the right way to the right people
in order to avoid miscommunication that could lead to hazardous situations.
- Justness reflects the extent to which
safe behavior and reporting of safety issues are encouraged or even rewarded
and unsafe behavior is discouraged
Recommendations
and Conclusion
Safety planning and implementation
of safety management procedures are the next key steps in the processes
designed to mitigate and contain risk in operations. Once these controls are
ready, quality management techniques can be utilized to ensure that they
achieve the intended objectives As with any corporate process the user must be
convinced of the ‘value-added’ to their operation. However, after the
usefulness of the process had been established, many other requirements such as
identification of quality assessment requirements, programmatic requirements,
roll up of hazards, integration with other processes have been requested.
Careful corporate management of the process is required to ensure only
‘value-added’ changes from the user’s perspective are implemented.
Additionally, it was necessary to integrate specific ES&H working groups
(i.e. Electrical Safety Committee, IH Working Group, etc.) into the development
of the question set to ensure consistency and accuracy.
References