Automobile manufacturing is an exact science, and it’s time the safety practices surrounding it become one too. Employees have been exposed to dangerous conditions for far too long – it’s time to align behavior-based safety with new age data.
In this day and age with advanced machinery and a number of dangerous jobs occurring simultaneously on the factory floor, technology such as Environmental, Health and Safety software is key in preventing injuries before they take place. With so many businesses turning to big data as a means of finding actionable insights, it makes sense for automotive manufacturers and autobody shops to do the same and improve their safety culture.
“H. W. Heinrich founded the behavior-based safety culture.”
Behavior-based safety culture has been around for a while. Used in conjunction with modern statistical analysis, it can be leveraged to ensure that once an accident happens, it doesn’t happen again. H. W. Heinrich is credited as the researcher behind the widely adopted method
Heinrich found a correlation between incident and cause as he reviewed 63,000 injury reports in the 1930s and 40s. Each accident, he found, had a root cause that was directly attributable to the safety culture. He stated there are five factors that create an incident – social environment was the first in the line of dominoes. Using Heinrich’s research, modern day safety managers can make a connection between root cause and the environment supporting it.
Through applying this knowledge to data on incident reports, facilities can actively detect any future incidents that may occur. This is only possible through a behavioral-based approach, which allows managers to intervene and understand the situation better than the numbers can. In this instance, it is also imperative that reports are filed for near-misses as well, as any data helps to mitigate the possibility of a reoccurrence.
There shouldn’t be any guessing about whether an accident will occur on any given day. With a sound strategy and enterprise hazard analysis software backing an organization’s decisions, companies can keep their workers safe.
It’s important to understand which injuries and poor practices are most common among automotive industry employees. Most of them are easily preventable, according to the Israel Institute for Occupational Safety and Hygiene:
By analyzing data gathered from past injury records, safety managers can quickly produce risk assessments that identify where and how the most common and dangerous accidents occur. Instead of waiting for the next incident to shed some light on where most injuries originate, organizations can get out ahead of the action and place employee safety on a pedestal with EHS software.
https://www.processmap.com/solutions/health-safety/hazard-analysis/Musculoskeletal disorders can come from unorthodox methods and are usually avoidable.
Creating a strong culture of employee safety and accountability is easier than it sounds. After obtaining executive buy-in, all that’s left is to provide workers with the tools they need to stay safe on the job. First and foremost, make sure there’s transparency from top to bottom when it comes to injury report data. Even submitting records on near misses can help stop a future incident from taking place if employees know it has already almost happened.
Is there an area of the facility that commonly facilitates the same type of accident? Retrain workers on how to use the equipment andsafety gear associated with those types of procedures. You may find that some employees simply didn’t know there was a different way of accomplishing a task or safety gear available for the job. This is commonly the case with musculoskeletal injuries, which workers can reduce by relying more on machinery and learning the right way to lift heavy objects, according to the IIOSH.
Grease and oil can often get on the floor and create nightmares for people regularly walking around. Make sure everyone wears no-slip, nonskid shoes to combat the problem head-on. Most incidents that occur are simple fixes like additional equipment or processes that need to be involved – risk assessment software can help you identify what your organization needs to prevent the next employee injury from taking place.
Want more insights on how to reduce incidents? Watch our webinar 7 Steps to Incident & Claims Reduction.
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