Continuous safety improvement

Since accidents database is constantly npdated from agencies that collect data, there will be a gradual reduction of the highest characteristic values over time, due to a reduction of the number of the most important accidents. This means that characteristic values related to other modes of injury will increase so subsequently appUcations of RATE on the same system will give evidence to secondary problems to solve, leading a continuous safety improvement. 

Continual safety improvement Continuoussafety improvement means constantly reviewing, revising, and evaluating your work processes and established safety procedures. It means establishing a corporate environment that is committed to, and focused on, safety for all employees — which will translate into less people getting hurt, and vehicles getting wrecked. ... 

Programs or activities that are undertaken to prevent an incident. Sometimes referred to as leading safety indicators. These may include preparation and implementation of safety policies, standards and procedures, safety communication activities, risk assessments, management of change, audits and inspections, training, continuous safety improvement activities, etc. See also Leading Indicator. 

Figure 3-3. A commonly used approach for hazard control and continual safety improvement.

Behavioral safety involves measuring safety-related behaviors. Krause notes that the behavioral inventory is how we measure behavioral safety performance. Benefits of using a Critical Safety Behavior inventory for continuous safety improvement include ... 

The current regulations do not mandate actual risk reduction or continuous safety improvement. 

Oregon OSHA Web site, http //www.cbs.state.or.us/external/osha/educate/training/pages/ mateiials.html. Continuous Safety Improvement, Training program lOOw, pubhc domain. 

Moving from a Traditional Approach to a Behavioural Approach to Continuous Safety Improvement... 

In the behaviour-based approach to continuous safety improvement, many more people take responsibility for safety and keep their eye on the ball, every day, every shift. Shop-floor personnel take turns to act as observers within their own work group and continually measure safety performance through the use of a checklist which is regularly updated to take into account the changes that might take place in the work environment. In these ways the approach stays alive and is not allowed to become stale or jaded. Neither can it be labelled as a flavour of the month campaign. 

These are just a few of the developments and changes made to our original approach to continuous safety improvement. Each organization finds new... 

The next chapter provides a guideline for the implementation of the behaviour-based approach to continuous safety improvement. 

To summarize the message of this chapter, the reason, we believe, that this approach to continuous safety improvement is so successful is because we start from the position of recognizing and accepting the dependence which frequently exists in organizations. By a process of training and... 

Commits the executive management, line managanent and anployees to a process of continual safety improvement. 

Continuous safety improvement process and hi ily adaptive to changing business environment All levels of the organization proactively support safety and embed in daily routine Strong and transparent just culture... 

The other function of the office is to track, trend, and analyze all industry safety and risk data and maintain current risk profiles of industry organizations. The office is responsible for conducting industry-level risk assessments and determining the efficacy of current safety regulations and the accreditation process. Advanced research and new approaches to safety oversight or SMS implementation are also developed in this office. In other words, this office can be viewed as a continuous safety improvement office. Information from this office should feed back into the other safety offices reporting to the executive director. 

Figure 1.8 presents data from a plant with safety teams involved in a continuous improvement effort. Managers and supervisors also participated, and these teams were given responsibihty for continuous safety improvement in different work areas of the facility. The graph shows the success of these teams and the characteristic cycle of injuries that invariably prompts renewed safety improvement efforts. In some cases, such cycles are simply normal variations that characterize companies using traditional safety programs. In other cases, the variances correlate with inconsistent levels of attention being paid to safety. 

Tom Krause is well known for his work in behavior-based safety. He documented the first long-term success of behavioral safety. His data showed that 73 companies were able to sustain and continue safety improvements for five years following implementation (Krause et ak, 1999). This work is particularly significant because many of the early interventions appeared to be short lived, lasting only for the duration of the research study. 

Job Safety/Hazard Analysis is an accident prevention technique used in many successful safety programs. The JSA/JHA process is not drHrcirlt if it is taken with a common sense approach on a step-by-step basis. The JSA/JHAs should be reviewed often and updated with input from both supervisors and workers who do the job everyday. The implementation of the JSA/JHA process will mean continuous safety improvements at your workplace with the ultimate goal ofzero accidents. Job Safety Analysis takes a little extra effort, but the results are positive and helpful for everybody. 

Geller, E. S., Key processes for continuous safety improvement behavior-based recognition and celebration, Prof. Saf, 42(10), 40,1997. 

Specific projects or assignments may come and go, but safety teams need to work persistently on their general missions in order to achieve continuous safety improvement throughout a work culture. The membership of these teams will change periodically and team goals will vary, but the challenges of behavioral observation and fe back, incident analysis and corrective action, ergonomics analysis and intervention, and behavior-based... 

Hence, a key to continuous safety improvement is finding an ongoing objective and impartial measure of performance tiiat allows for regular evaluations of relative success. This is why advocates of behavior-based safety emphasize the need to... 

All the tools we have provided in this book are based on solid evidence. Their results have been peer-reviewed, and the tools are being extended almost daily in our work with clients in healthcare and other complex industries characterized by rapid technological change. Taken together, the elements of this approach provide a powerful mechanism for producing continuous safety improvement. 

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