MOS 5201, Safety Engineering 1
Course Learning Outcomes for Unit VIII Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:
8. Examine the relationship between safety management and safety engineering. 8.1 Discuss the primary functions of safety management and safety engineering. 8.2 Examine costs associated with injuries and accidents by using appropriate calculations. 8.3 Interpret the findings of the cost calculations.
Course/Unit Learning Outcomes
Learning Activity
8.1
Unit Lesson Chapter 2, pp. 14–22 Chapter 35, pp. 506–519 Unit VIII Assessment
8.2
Unit Lesson Chapter 2, pp. 14–22 Chapter 35, pp. 506–519 Unit VIII Assessment
8.3
Unit Lesson Chapter 2, pp. 14–22 Chapter 35, pp. 506–519 Unit VIII Assessment
Reading Assignment Chapter 2: Safety and Health Professions, pp. 14–22 Chapter 35: Safety Management, pp. 506–519
Unit Lesson Safety management, as defined by the National Safety Management Society, is a function that enhances company performance by predicting operational, procedural, or environmental risks and threats before they occur (Sheahan, 2017). Safety management is a strategic process that identifies and addresses safety issues for employees and the company. Aside from being a preemptive and preventative process, safety management also corrects deficiencies and performance errors (Sheahan, 2017). In a nutshell, safety management includes identifying hazards, assessing hazards, controlling hazards, and reducing and eliminating hazards using the hierarchy of controls that were explained in Unit IV. Each of the roles of the safety process requires knowledge and understanding, along with the proper tools. For example, a safety manager may need to identify a hazard. The identification of hazards requires a group of standards. Often, these can be regulatory standards or company-based standards that meet or exceed regulatory standards. Management, in general, involves planning, obtaining, organizing, and orchestrating the elements necessary to achieve the goals (Brauer, 2016). In recent years, many, if not most, companies have implemented safety management systems. A safety management system is an organized set of programs that interact in a systematic fashion to achieve the overall goal of injury reduction. A typical safety management system includes policies, objectives, plans, procedures, organization, responsibilities, and measurements. A safety management system is not designed as a quick fix solution to all problems. It is intended to provide a systematic method of continuous improvement. Continuous improvement requires the establishment of objectives and goals, measurements (checks), and corrective measures (monitoring). Again, a typical safety
UNIT VIII STUDY GUIDE
Review of the Relationship between Safety Management and Safety Engineering
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management system uses Deming’s PDCA (plan, do, check, and act) model to achieve continuous improvement. Management of any department, including safety, requires the setting of specific goals. To achieve these goals, performance must be measured often enough to take corrective actions in time to ensure the goals and objectives are achieved. Of equal importance is determining what to measure. There are two basic types of measurements that are conducted, including leading and lagging indicators. To use a simple explanation, leading metrics (measurements) are a proactive approach, whereas lagging indicators/metrics are corrective in nature. Leading metrics are used to perform the following actions:
• anticipate, prevent, or eliminate risks and loses;
• monitor and evaluate performance;
• motivate safe behavior, personal commitment, and continuous improvement; and
• communicate results to management and workers (Brauer, 2016). Training hours is an example of what to measure for leading indicators/metrics used by many. While training hours can be a useful measurement, the value of this measurement is limited. This measurement simply means that many hours were used for training and does not address the quality of the training. An alternative to training hours would be to measure training effectiveness. This can be accomplished in several ways, such as auditing scores of the workforce on the shop floor or monitoring test scores from the class. Examples of other leading metrics include the number of environment, health, and safety (EHS) observations submitted and closed, the number of safety work orders completed, or the number of safety actions submitted and closed. Lagging indicators are those measurements that indicate what has already happened. These measurements have their own value, and most are mandated by regulatory action. These include total recordable incident rates (TRIR), days away restricted or transferred (DART) rates, and severity rates. Gone are the days of the safety manager or safety professional just making recommendations on using the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) and conducting simple risk assessments or weekly inspections of work areas. Today’s safety manager must be more involved in the operations and business side of the company. The safety manager of yesteryear would request money from upper management to implement a project to fix a safety-related problem because the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) required it. Today’s safety manager must learn to present the costs in a language that decision makers and financial managers understand. Some of these tools include terminologies such as cost, benefits, and return on investment (ROI). This lesson will walk you through some examples on how to present information in these terms. Expressing Costs Expressing costs in the right terms can help people understand the importance of safety and its contribution to company profits. One example is to express the cost of workers’ compensation in terms of cost per $100 of payroll, such as $12.85 for each $100 of salary. In addition, you may express the cost of lost-time incidents in the same terms, such as $8.50 for each $100 of salary (Brauer, 2016). In the manufacturing industry, costs are often expressed in terms of cost-per-parts produced. You can calculate this measurement using the equation below.
𝐶𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑠 = 𝑃(𝑁)𝑈 Where:
P = the profit margin in percent N = the number of its products necessary to cover the loss U = the unit selling price for the products
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Example The company looks for a profit margin of 12% on every part produced. You have an injury requiring three stitches. The actual direct cost of the injury is $2,500, which does not include any indirect costs, such as lost productivity or the supervisor’s time. The part is manufactured and sold to the customer at a cost of $8.75 per part. How many parts must be produced to cover the injury (Brauer, 2016)? In order to work this calculation, you must plug in the known information in the correct place.
$2500 = (0.12)(𝑁)($8.75)
$2500 = 1.05(𝑁)
$2500
$1.05 =
$1.05(𝑁)
$1.05
2381 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑠 = 𝑁
This means that the $2,500 injury would require the company to produce an addition 2,381 parts to cover this cost. Another method of expressing cost is to show the volume of business needed to cover the loss. This is shown mathematically as shown below.
𝐶𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 = 𝑃(𝑉) Where:
P = the profit margin in percent V = the dollar volume of business
An example illustrated on page 513 of your textbook is that a construction company expects a 5% profit on all jobs. If the cost of an accident is $100, the volume of business necessary to cover the cost is $2,000. See the calculation below.
𝐶𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 = 𝑃(𝑉)
$100 = (0.05)(𝑉)
$100
0.05 =
0.05 (𝑉)
0.05
$2,000 = 𝑉
$2,000 of business is needed to cover a loss of $100. ROI One of the things that most decision makers and financial managers will ask you to calculate is the ROI any project, including safety projects. Therefore, it is necessary for safety managers to understand the calculation. Mathematically, it is shown below.
𝑃𝑉 = 𝑋
∑(1 + 𝑑)𝑛
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Where:
X = the dollar amount in a future year D = the discount (interest) rate N = the year in the program
Example To implement a corrective measure, a company will invest $5,000 initially and expects to reduce injury costs by $1,000 for the first two years. What is the present value of the expected savings for the two-year period? The interest rate is 4%. Year 1
𝑃𝑉 = 𝑋
∑(1 + 𝑑)𝑛
𝑃𝑉 = $1000
∑(1 + 0.04)1
𝑃𝑉1 = $961.54
Year 2
𝑃𝑉 = 𝑋
∑(1 + 𝑑)𝑛
𝑃𝑉 = $1000
∑(1 + 0.04)2
𝑃𝑉2 = $925.93
Safety engineering is the application and engineering knowledge, principles, and methods to identify and eliminate or reduce and control hazards. Safety engineers need to know a lot about other engineering fields. They often work together with engineers from other specialties. Their roles are similar to those of safety professionals. In addition, they participate or coordinate with designers and others in non-engineering disciplines (Brauer, 2016). The role of the safety manager has already been discussed and includes the overall management of hazard identification, anticipation, and control of the hazard. In many cases, this requires a specialty understanding of engineering principles. For example, the design of a fire suppression system cannot normally be performed by a safety manager. The safety manager will call in a specialist to design this system. The safety manager will outline the scope of the project and the desired outcome, but it is the safety engineer who does the actual specification and design of the system. The safety manager and the safety engineer work hand-in-hand to solve the problems of an organization. Other examples of where safety managers and safety engineers work together are in the design of fall arrest systems; determining failure rates of equipment components, such as valves; and conducting detailed root cause analyses for more complicated injuries and accidents.
References Brauer, R. L. (2017). Safety and health for engineers (3rd ed.) Wiley. Sheahan, K. (2017). What is safety management? BizFluent. https://bizfluent.com/about-6503265-safety-
management-.html
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Suggested Reading In order to access the following resources, click the links below. The following article discusses program development, which is the process of integrating safety, health, and environmental quality programs into a safety management system. Hansen, M. D. (2006). Management systems: Integrating safety, health, environmental and quality programs.
Professional Safety, 51(10), 34–41. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc t=true&db=bsu&AN=22559781&site=ehost-live&scope=site
The following article discusses the role of safety professionals in the workplace and correction action management. It discusses steps in an incident investigation and ways to determine whether corrective action has been implemented. Stainaker, C. K. (2000). The safety professional’s role in corrective action management. Professional Safety,
45(6), 37. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direc t=true&db=bsu&AN=3208022&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Learning Activities (Nongraded) Nongraded Learning Activities are provided to aid students in their course of study. You do not have to submit them. If you have questions, contact your instructor for further guidance and information. Click the following link to review the qualifications to become a Certified Safety Professional (CSP): https://www.bcsp.org/Portals/0/Assets/DocumentLibrary/Complete-Guide-CSP.pdf. You are also requested to review the other certifications offered by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals. Visit the following website: https://www.assp.org/. Review the information on this website to get a complete understanding of the requirement necessary for a safety professional in an organization.
