Safety performance practice stages

Fear often strikes the heart of those who are called upon to fill out a checklist, and they find themselves specifying higher levels of performance than is really required. Performance has a price and that practice leads to unnecessary cost, particularly when the designer incorporates a safety factor to ensure that the required standard is met. (Safety factors are added in the design stage.) In some cases, requirements are raised to a level which causes a more expensive material or process to be used. Occasionally, they are lifted to a level which cannot be reached using plastics. 

The benchmarking process involves comparing a company s safety experiences with other companies and organizations. Organizations use the performance results from others to define their benchmarks and strive to meet those levels. Best practices in benchmarking can be set, at each stage, by posing four fundamental performance questions (Holloway, Lewis, and Mallory 1995,129) ... 

Working hours are maiidy nine to five-thirty, with local variations. Those involved in research often work in a flexible environment and longer hours may be necessary at certain stages of a project. For practical reasons, safety and maintenance work on hospital eqnipment is likely to be performed ont of hours. The workplace may be an office, laboratory, workshop, hospital or clinic, or more likely a combination of the above. 

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