On Quality Management and the Practice of Safety

There is a remarkable kinship between the principles for the practice of safety and the principles for quality management. Safety professionals who have responsibilities in quality management have become aware that the processes to achieve superior quality are the same processes out of which injuries, illnesses, property damage, and environmental incidents occur. 

Another author eloquently writes that there are plenty of similarities between the safety and quality fields. In an article titled Combining Quality, Safety and Finance, which was published in Industrial Engineering Magazine in December 2010, Jack ReVelle says  

When considering quality-related responsibilities, the objective is to ehminate, or at least significantly reduce, defects and variation as well as errors of omission or commission in the products and services we create and deliver. Simultaneously, there are considerations related to safety, health and environmental affairs wherein the objective is to eliminate, or at the very least significantly reduce, employee and customer accidents, incidents and sources of damage to health, including the environment, that contribute to deaths, injuries and ill health. (2) 

On the Practice of Safety, Fourth Edition. Fred A. Manuele. 

To establish the similarities between the principles of quality management and the principles for the practice of safety, this chapter will  

There is a remarkable kinship between the principles of quality management and the principles for the practice of safety. Safety professionals involved in soundly based quality management initiatives have opportunities for professional growth and recognition beyond the usual, since that participation allows them to assist in solving problems that impact broadly on quality, productivity, and cost efQciency, as weU as safety. 

Surely, American industry has been on a drive to attain recognition for the quality of its products and services. As an example, receiving The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, given by the United States Department of Commerce, has become a mark of prestige. In 2001, entities interested in the award or in improving their quality management systems requested over 73,000 copies of the award Criteria from the Department of Commerce. 

To assist those who had been using the Baldrige Criteria and wanted to evaluate how much progress had been made in their organizations, a 

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Chapter 20, Applied Ergonomics Significance and Opportunity, and Chapter 21, On Quality Management and the Practice of Safety, address the design, engineering, and risk assessment aspects that are fundamental in those endeavors. Comments are included in Chapter 18, Prevention through Design The Standard, on the extensive involvement at the National Institute for Safety and Health (NIOSH) on its PtD initiative. 

This chapter is intended to be a primer on quality assurance concepts and to establish that they have a remarkable kinship with the principles for the practice of safety. In some instances, opportunities arise for safety professionals to be involved in quality management initiatives and by doing so they benefit professionally. For other safety professionals, it is to their advantage to become knowledgeable of quality management principles as they relate to the counsel they give. 

The UK government enquiry into the Piper Alpha disaster in the North Sea in 1988 has had a significant impact on working practices and equipment and has helped to improve offshore safety around the world. One result has been the development of a Safety Management System (SMS) which is a method of integrating work practices, and is a form of quality management system. Major oil companies have each developed their own specific SMS, to suit local environments and modes of operation, but the SMS typically addresses the following areas (recommended by the Cullen Enquiry into the Piper Alpha disaster) ... 

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