CHAPTER 1

INDUSTRIAL SAFETY: A STEP AHEAD TOWARDS SUCCESSFUL

OPERATION MANAGEMENT

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Industrial safety deals with how to prevent injuries and accidents that occur in the
organizations. These injuries and accidents have cost the organization rare values in
human resource and information. Therefore safety should be in the forefront of any
manager’s thinking and a priority in the organization’s strategy. Not only because of the
humanitarian reasons but also because of the financial benefits. It is the manager’s
responsibility to see that he does everything within his power to provide a safe working
environment for his workforce. The factors that motivate safe practices at the job site are
generally identified as follows:

• Humanitarian concerns.
• Economic costs and benefits
• Legal and regulatory considerations.

This chapter evaluates the line managers knowledge in industrial safety, identifies the
weakness points and provides a general knowledge to skill the line management in
different organizations.

Understanding sources of accidents have become a major area of research in the field of
Operation Management. Therefore this chapter also develops a training program and a
step by step employer and employee responsibilities in order to minimize the losses in
human and financial resources. Finally a summary of practical criteria of best practice for
industrial safety strategy implementation and a general discussion and conclusions have
been drawn.

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In the last two decades the term of industrial safety has been adopted as a result of the
increase of use of the new technology in all kinds of establishment, institutions, factories
etc., whether educational, health industrial, commercial etc. or any organization in which
human or properties are the major resources. Recently the term of Health, Safety and
Environment which has many definitions i.e. “ the guidelines that develop the safety
criteria (precautions and measures) that provides a safe working environment from all
risks and danger that could threaten the health and life of the workforce” has gained more
reputation in many third world countries industry such as UAE and KSA, but is
understood to be only for;

• Related to industries.
• It is related to fire safety.

With the development of society, the term industrial safety is concerned with human and
properties of an organization. Safety deals with securing or reducing accidents at work
environment, which has a negative impact on the organization operations at many levels.
Accidents cost money to any organization and could affect the worker moral through:

1. Damage the machinery or buildings.

2. Delay in the production or business.
3. Losing experienced workers partially or totally.
4. Compensation to the injured worker or public.
5. Organizations losing part of there reputation.
6. Legal expenses.

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1.2. LINE MANAGEMENT ROLE

The role of line management is not only to govern the workers, but also to protect the
workers and the organization properties.

LINE MANAGERS REQUIREMENT

The manager takes responsibility for planning, monitoring, and controlling the business
performance. Usual first tasks are to set the goals and objectives’ to prepare a preliminary
budget, schedule and select the group members, setting a general training program if
required. Also ensure required supplies are available and generally try to do whatever is
needed to maximize the group performance and safety in order to keep the business
moving. To do this the manager has to have certain skills and characteristics. Two
viewpoints have been advanced outlining skills and characteristics required being a
good manager

1- Personal characteristics. The personal characteristics are necessary to manage

the group. Such personal attributes include aggressiveness, confidence, poise,
decisiveness, resolution, toughness, integrity, versatility and quick thinking.

2- Skills and Problems. Skills and problems are fundamentally interconnected for
the following reasons:

• The managers require certain skills in order to deal efficiently with the
human factors most likely to create problems for them in managing the
group.
• Because certain problems are most likely to confront the managers, they
required particular skills in order to handle them.

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The most important skills for successful managers are:

• Risk Management Skills- involve eradication or minimization of the adverse

effects of the pure risks to which an organization and staff are exposed.
• Communication skills- being a good communicator is an essential management
skill.
• Organizational skills- are vital to good management. Characteristics included in
this skill are planning and goal-setting abilities, along with the ability to be
analytical.
• Group or team building skills- involve developing empathetic relationships with
other members of the group. Being sensitive to the needs of others, motivating
people, and building a strong sense of team spirit.
• Leadership skills-several different attributes and behaviors can be catalogued
under leadership skills. These included setting a good example, seeing the big
picture, being enthusiastic, having a positive outlook, taking initiative, and
trusting people.
• Coping Skills-successful managers require coping or stress-management skills.
Respondents indicated that both flexibility and creativity were involved in
effectively coping with change, as were patience and persistence.
• Technical skills-successful managers require a good background in their field.

1.3. LINE MANAGERS KNOWLEDGE IN INDUSTRIAL SAFETY

A survey has been conducted in small and medium sizes of Health, Technical Education,
Industrial and Commercial sectors in order to evaluate the line management knowledge in
industrial safety of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as an example of Arab countries. The
questioner questions of the survey were as follows:

• What is the nature of your industry?

• Do you consider your staff safety is one of main factor in your business strategy?
How?

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 • Do you have industrial safety procedures in place?
• Do you have a safety review system?
• Have you conducted any industrial Safety to your staff to keep them inform about
the hazardous substances and the preventive methods?
• Do you provide your staff with protective gears, devices, equipment and
materials? What are they?
• Have you conducted any medical check up for your employees, such as hearing
test, eyes test, etc.
• Do you have an accident registry?
• Do you have a safety officer or a safety committee?

RESULTS

The results as shown in Table (1) were rather shocking for the following reasons:

• Most of the organizations were hesitant to fill in the questioner and some were
reluctant for various excuses.
• Lack of understanding the meaning of industrial safety (IS). A large number
considers the IS as a preventive measures from fire only.
• Lack of information about the hazardous substances.
• Contradiction in the answers which make the % of error –25.

In order to analyze the results, we have classified the questioners into four sections,

• Preventive procedures (1),

• Training (2),
• Industrial Safety Officer and Auditing (3),
• Accident Registry (4).

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1.4. DISCUSSION AND SUGGESTIONS

One factor that can set an organization apart from its competitors whether in health,
technical education, industrial and commercial, in the private or public sectors is its
employees. Then the safety of the organization employees can have a significant impact
on the organization productivity, level of reputation and survival. Although is known
accidents will never be entirely eliminated, but can be isolated or minimized.
Nevertheless accident prevention could be regarded as a necessity measured by money,
reduce suffering, work atmosphere and quality of life. Accident elimination on any
organization should be in the forefront of any manager’s thinking for preventing or
reducing accidents.

Several observations can be made from the results that obtained from the questioner,
which are reported in Table 1 and Figures 1-4.

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• The preventive procedures (1) percentage of technical education is higher than
other sectors. This is due to the fact that the technical education is aware of the
importance of industrial safety, but there was lack of training, industrial safety
officer and accident registry. The Health, Industry and Commercial sector results
were alarming as can be seen in table (1), action need to be taken immediately.

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 • In the industrial sector, the training, industrial safety officer and auditing were
relatively higher than the results of other sectors, but still low if the percentage of
error is considered. . This is because of level of danger that encounter in this field.
• In all sectors one of the line management responsibilities is to protect their staff.
This is can be done by employing a industrial officer or conducting a industrial
safety training. The results have obviously indicated none or weak of that took
place which means that the line managers have a lack of knowledge in the
importance of industrial safety to their organization.

1.4.1 PRACTICAL CRITERIA OF BEST PRACTICE FOR INDUSTRIAL SAFETY

This section summaries practical criteria that is seen to be important to create a good
polices and practices of industrial safety implementation.

A- EMPLOYER RESPONSIBILITIES

In order to get action taken in the field of accident prevention, then the safety policies
and practices MUST BE included in the organization’s strategy. The managers have
three fundamental factors on which to base their strategies for generating and
maintaining management activity in industrial safety. These three factors for accident
prevention are generally identifies as follows:

Legal: the legal argument is based on the statutory requirement of the government
legislation.

Humanitarian: humanitarian is based on the notion that any employer/employee is

responsible to ensure the general well-being of his fellow men.

Economic; the argument is based here on the fact that accident cost an organization
money.

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• Any organization or establishment, regardless of its business should study,
identify and minimize and eliminate the sources of risk and danger that could
cause accidents and could endanger the health or life of human present in the
organization. These sources can be identified as follows:

o Machinery and equipment

o Electrical connections, wiring and electrical equipment
o Heating, Cooling and ventilation systems.
o All piping and pressurized piping.
o All kind of transportation, lifting machinery both inside and outside
buildings.
o Anything that causes fire
o Anything that is considered Hazardous material that causes explosion,
oxidation, irritative, flammable, toxic, poisonous etc.
o Any source that cause physical harm such as noise, vibration etc.

• Setting a budget for training on health, safety and environment issues.

• Adequate training the employee in workplace environment and in health and
safety regulations.
• Management at all levels MUST enforce attendance at appropriate training
sessions
• Supervisors are responsible for having their employees attend required training.
• Providing and maintaining a safe working environment.
• Providing and maintaining work facilities for the employees safety.
• Ensuring that plant, workshop, storage etc used by employee at work is so
arranged, designed , made and maintained that it is safe for the employee to use.
• Developing procedures for dealing with emergencies that may rise while
employees are at work.
• Providing the employees with information to their employees and students on the
specific hazards associated with their activities and the safety procedures to be
followed.

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 • During each employee's performance evaluation, the supervisor needs to consider
the individual's adherence to prescribed safety responsibilities.
• Creating a database system to help the line managers to generate internal reports
on frequency of injuries, severity of injuries (in days lost), contributing factors
(events, sources demographics) and costs (treatment and worker compensation).
This report can be used by safety managers to answer questions such as: What
factors contribute to these injuries? Does my company have an effective safety
programs?. etc.
• Disciplinary/Dismissal action up to and including termination may be appropriate
for failure to comply with or follow required safety procedures/policies.
• Safety surveys or inspections by outside activities including regulatory agencies
will be brought promptly to the attention of the offices indicated below to ensure
proper coordination.

B- EMPLOYEES RESPONSIBILITIES

The employee should take all the following practicable steps,

• Ensuring that your actions do not put yourself or others at risk.

• Knowing the emergency procedures if an emergency arises.
• Using all protective gear, devices, equipment and materials.
• Knowledge of hazardous substances and the preventive methods.
• It is the responsibility of every employee to report unsafe conditions and actions
to their supervisor or the safety officer.

1.4.2 INDUSTRIAL SAFETY TRAINING OF MANAGERS AND STAFF MEMBERS

In today’s fast-paced economy the competition is an issue of services and products. Much
attention has been directed to a better service and best product and how this can be
achieved through utilizing the human resources. Managers and staff members are one of
these human resources and their knowledge in industrial safety is the main factor to

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eliminate the accidents. Then the organization should create a complete model of team
development.

The most important element of the team development is training which includes all
activities designed to improve the skills, knowledge, and capabilities of the managers and
staff members. Improvements can come from many sources and can affect many areas of
job performance, for example

• Improvements in individual skills may allow specific managers to perform their

assignment more safely, effectively and efficiently.
• Improvement in manager’s behavior may allow team members to devote a greater
percentage of their effort to safety and technical activities.
• Improvement in either individual skills or team capabilities may facilitate
identifying and developing safer ways of doing the job.

The industrial Safety Training Program can be summarized in following points’

A- Responsibilities of managers in Industrial Safety.

Aim: To raise management awareness of their responsibilities for Industrial Safety.

B- Business Strategy and competitive advantage.

Aim: To raise management knowledge in business strategy and the relationship between
the strategy and the staff member safety.

C- Risk Management
Aim: To advise the manager on the need for and how to minimize, eliminate and control
the risk.

D- Effective and Efficient Management

Aim: To provide managers with the sufficient background on how to carryout their duties
effectively and efficiently.

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E- Hazardous Control
• Fire Prevention
• First Aid and CPR
• Using Fire extinguisher.
• Emergency procedure

1.5 ACCIDENT COSTS

The fact that by preventing accidents we are preventing human suffering, misery, and
deprivation is a fine heart-warming thing. But the main driving force behind the industrial
safety movement is the fact that accidents are expensive. Substantial savings can be made
by preventing them. An appeal to the emotions is effective at times, but the kind of
persistent day by day effort necessary to eliminate preventable injuries is most surely
obtainable by enlisting on the side of safety the ever-present desire and necessity for
reducing waste.

Everyone can easily see that accident costs are wholly waste. It is not so easy to see how
large these wastes are. Compensation and medical costs (spoken of as direct costs) are
obvious. It has, however, taken careful studies by experienced cost accountants and
industrial executives to show how large the other costs (spoken of as indirect costs) are. It
is now clear that on the average the indirect costs of accidents in industry are not less
than four times the direct costs. The items of costs likely to be present in each case of
accidental injury are:

A. Compensation
B. Medical expense
C. Lost time of injured employee (day of injury).
D. Lost time of fellow employees who stop work.
(1.) To aid injured worker
(2.) Out of sympathy or curiosity
(3.) For other incidental reasons.

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 E. Time of foreman, executives, or other staff personnel.
(1.) Assisting injured employee
(2.) Investigating cause of accident
(3.) Arranging for continuance of injured employee's work
(4.) Selecting, training, or breaking in new employees
(5.) Preparing accident report
(6.) Attending hearings on injury (serious or contested cases).
F. Lost production due to upset, shock, or diverted interest of workers.
G. Lost production due to stoppage of machine or process in charge of injured
person.
H. Damage to machine, equipment, or material directly occasioned by accident. I.
Spoiled product or material due to emotional upset of fellow workers.
J. Lessened effectiveness of injured employee for a period after his return to
work.
K. Business or good will lost through failure to fill order on time; lost bonuses;
payment of forfeits for non-delivery, etc.
L. Legal expense, court fees, expense of preparation of case, settlements,
judgments, etc., in cases contested at law.
M. The employer's share of the loss and expense to society in each case of death
or continued loss in earning power.

The loss of human values involved should also be included even though no definite
money figure can be set down for it. Any person who takes the trouble to trace a number
of injury cases through the experience of the injured workers and their families become
profoundly impressed with the seriousness of this side of the accident picture. Every
permanent disability lessens the desirability of the victim in the labor market. His earning
power is usually reduced. His morale is lessened. His family suffers in the numberless
and continuing ways in which families always suffer when their small income is cut still
more. Graphic supporting evidence can be had in any average group of unemployed old
men. The proportion of work-connected physical impairments usually run high and

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particularly so among those from high hazard industries as, for instance, wood and metal
working, construction and mining.

1.6 INJURY RATES

In order to judge the effectiveness of any continuing activity one must have means of
measuring results, a basis of comparison. Cost accountants think in terms of unit cost
(cost per article, per pound, per gallon or per year). An important measure to the
production executive is the number or amount produced per day or per man, the rate of
production. Similarly one must have a means of judging safety performance. Obviously
the injuries that the workers in any establishment or occupation suffer constitute a
measure of its safety. In order to use this measure, however, we must take three things
into consideration. These things are:

A. The frequency with which the injuries occur, which is the "Frequency Rate."
B. The seriousness of these injuries, which is the "Severity Rate."
C. What injuries to count.

The following explanations of these three things have received national acceptance:

Suppose we have two plants which we will call Plant A and Plant B. Last year 10 men
were hurt in Plant A and 20 in Plant B. Which plant had the worse injury record? Plant
B? But suppose Plant A had 100 workers and Plant B had twice as many. Each plant,
therefore, had the same number of injuries per hundred men working. But suppose Plant
A worked 40 hours per week and Plant B, 44 hours. That would make Plant B's record
better because each man worked more hours; that is, was exposed to the chance of getting
hurt (at work) a total of 44 hours each week instead of 40. Thus, in order to make a true
comparison of the rates at which injuries occurred in Plant A and B last year, we must
take into account the total "man-hours" worked in each plant. The unit of measure called
"frequency rate" or "frequency" does this. It is "the number of lost-time injuries for each
million man-hours worked." Written as a formula, it is:

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Example. If Plant A had 10 injuries last year and worked 200,000 man-hours during the
year, we get, using the above formula:

This simply means that during the year the workmen in Plant A received lost-time
injuries at the rate of 50 for each million hours that they were at work. Another more
understandable way of putting it is that in that plant each man, on the average, suffers one
lost-time injury every 10 years, or 1 man of each 10 is injured each year. This
corresponds to a frequency rate of 50, provided each man worked an average of 2,000
hours per year (a 40-hour week, 50 weeks in the year).

1.7 SEVERITY OF INJURY

Now we come to the question of the seriousness of severity of injuries. Severity is

measured by the time-loss caused and by the degree of permanent disability (if any)
which results. Severity is the time loss per million man-hours. It is written in a formula:

If in the case of Plant A, the 10 injuries caused a total of 200 days lost time we get, using
the formula:

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That is, the time lost because of injuries in Plant A last year was 1 day for each 1,000,000
hours worked. If each man worked 2,000 hours during the year, the average time-loss
was 2 days per man for the year.

In the above example no account was taken of permanent disability, such as a stiff leg, a
lost finger, or a lost eye. The actual loss of time while the injury is healing is not an
adequate measure of its seriousness. Therefore, a schedule of time-loss charges has been
agreed upon (American Standard) for all permanent injuries. The American Standard
schedule of time charges is -

• Death - Deaths resulting from work injuries shall be assigned a time charge of
6,000 days each.

• Permanent-total disability - Permanent-total disabilities resulting from work

injuries shall be assigned a time charge of 6,000 days each.

• Permanent-partial disability - Permanent-partial disabilities resulting from work

injuries shall be assigned time charges in accordance with the following tables
and definitions below. These time charges shall replace actual time lost as a result
of permanent-partial disabilities, and shall apply whether or not any time actually
is lost.

Suppose in our example we included an injury requiring the amputation of the index
finger and two phalanges of the middle finger. The charge would be 750 days, which,
added to the actual time loss for the remaining 9 injuries which we will assume to have
been 180 days, gives a total of 930 days, and our severity becomes -

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1.8 INVESTIGATING ACCIDENTS

It is obvious that every accident which occurs should be carefully investigated to find out
how to prevent a recurrence. Such investigations must not be allowed to become a mere
formality. They must be made by persons who are intelligent, painstaking and keenly
safety minded. Usually an accident has more than a single cause. A combination of
circumstances was necessary to bring it about. The employer should try to correct every
condition or circumstance that might lead to injury. He should particularly not be content
with finding the human fault or failure that was involved, for in almost every case, both a
material and a human fault will be found. If the material fault or lack is corrected, the
human fault or lack usually fails to produce injury. Of course, effort should be made to
correct the human fault also. Usually correction of the material or mechanical fault
involves expense so that the constant temptation is to blame the individual at fault and let
the matter end there. This is not in the best interest of safety and the tendency to take that
course must continuously be resisted.

The idea of seeking to fix blame should definitely be avoided, for where it is allowed to
enter, an attitude of "covering up" develops, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to
get all the facts. If every person involved - foremen, workmen, investigators - knows that
the sole purpose is to prevent and not to blame, there will be no incentive to withhold
essential information, and the investigator will have all the facts to aid in further
preventive activities.

If in any given establishment, a policy of thoroughly investigating each accident is

adopted, a fund of information on prevention will gradually be built up. If this practice is
accompanied by systematic and thorough inspection to discover hazardous conditions,
and if the findings of the accident investigations are consistently applied to the work of
inspection, its effectiveness will continually increase. When investigations and
inspections are adequately supplemented by corrective action, accidents steadily decline.
This fact is so true that investigation, inspection, and analysis leading consistently to
corrective action, may properly be termed vital foundation stones of accident prevention.

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Accident investigation is a simple procedure, but certain principles should be followed if
maximum results are to be secured.

A. Common sense and clear thinking are prime requisites. An investigator must
be able to collect his facts, weigh the value of each, and reach conclusions
justified by the evidence.

B. Familiarity with the equipment, operation, or process should be at least

sufficient to permit an understanding of the possible hazards in any given
situation.

C. An understanding of the type of condition or situation likely to yield accidents

is also necessary.

D. Neither the investigation nor the investigators should be under the control of
the foreman or other supervisor involved, because few persons can be unbiased
and objective about a situation or condition involving their own work. The
attitude should be one of cooperating with the foreman to discover and secure the
correction of the causative factors.

E. Each clue should be investigated fully. A conclusion that appears reasonable

will often be changed by exploring a factor of apparently little importance.

F. Since both a physical hazard and an unsafe act are present in the great majority
of accidents, both should be investigated fully. Every effort should be made to
find means of eliminating the physical hazard. Similarly, appropriate means of
correcting the unsafe practice should be sought.

G. No investigation is ever satisfactorily completed unless definite

recommendation is made for corrective action.

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 H. More than one person should investigate, on the principle that "two heads are
better than one."

I. Promptness is essential. Conditions may change quickly and details are soon
forgotten. Finally, and vitally important, is the fact that the immediateness of the
investigation will be taken by the workmen as indicative of the importance the
management attaches to the matter of their safety.

J. Every accident should be investigated in appropriate degree whether or not it is

serious, since "chance" is often the sole difference between a trivial accident and
serious or even fatal injury.

The great majority of all injuries in industry arise out of conditions and activities which
are common to almost all establishments. The chief injury sources are: Handling
Materials (25 to 30%), Mechanical Equipment (20 to 25%), Falls (12 to 15%), Hand
Tools (5 to 10%). Detailed studies of these reports show that in nearly every case the
injury could have been prevented by careful attention to one or more of the following
items:

1.9 RULES

RULE 1. Before putting any new or repaired or overhauled machine, tool or other device
in operation it shall be safeguarded in full compliance with the applicable provisions of
the safety codes of the State of Arkansas. Machinery, tools, or other devices not covered
by those codes shall be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable provisions of the
"American Standards Association Safety Code applying thereto."

RULE 2. Every employer shall investigate or cause to be investigated every accidental

injury which his employees suffer in connection with their employment to determine
what means should be taken to prevent a recurrence.

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RULE 3. Every employer shall report on forms furnished by the State Department of
Labor, and in the manner directed by such forms, each injury his employees suffer in
connection with their employment.

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