Quality initiatives manager, professional

Many safety professionals are now engaged in quality management initiatives. Some say that they derive greater satisfaction from their work, that their status within their organizations has improved, and that they are viewed as more effective members of the management team. 

Safety professionals engaged in sound quality management initiatives think differently about the root causal factors for incidents that result in injury or damage. They become indoctrinated in the concept of continuous improvement of processes to improve quality and safety. 

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. 

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 Engineering Council advises that engineers should, within the constraints of their work responsibility, seek to identify possible hazards and ways to reduce risk. They should not take the attitude that risk management is someone else s business rather, they should take the initiative. There is no substitute for professional practice in this regard. A systematic and documented approach will be more cost-effective, auditable and more likely to come to the right conclusions. As a minimum, key risk decisions together with their reasoning should be recorded. It should not be an unreasonable burden. If it is unnecessarily bureaucratic, the system must be modified to be more flexible and so that it can cost-effectively contribute to product quality. 

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