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IN THIS ISSUE:
· Ford's Virtual Tools and Ergonomic Injury-Prevention
· Boy Scout Safety
· Scott's Corner
· Protect Your Employees in the Hot Weather
· The Holistic Approach to Safety
· Shocking Stats for Electrical Fires
· The Politics of Safety: The Las Vegas Strip
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May 5, 2008
Volume 6, Number 9
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Ford's Virtual Tools and
Ergonomic Injury-Prevention
The car company taps an ingenious technology for workplace safety.
Ford led the way in the automobile manufacture and today, may again just be at the vanguard of a new field: that of ergonomic safety.
The legendary car company has improved both its profitability and worker safety through the use of virtual manufacturing tools. This ingenious system,
in use since 2000, involves advanced motion capture technology, human modeling software and digital employees Jack and Jill.
A Ford ergonomics technical specialist showcased the wonder in a virtual assembly plant. An engineer, donning a digitized harness, gloves, and headgear, set up a virtual center console. A computer then registered his movements, drew a digital "Jack" and displayed him on a large screen.
The entire process allows Ford to foresee the ergonomic impact of chronic repetitive movements and to ensure the compatibility between product design and the assembly plant process.
The impact of the virtual build tool set has been enormous, fueling Ford's quality rise by 11 percent in the U.S. last year. It has also resulted in fewer injuries, lower tooling changes cost, enhanced quality and faster
marketing time.
This article is based on the following article. Click here to see the full story.
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Boy Scout Safety
If they can do it, so can the grown-ups.
An Occupational Hazards article wrote how Boy Scout merit badges ought to inspire both employees and safety professionals.
Getting these things, it turns out, are not child's play. They require rather tough requirements, as stringent as OSHA standards are to the grown-ups' safety industry.
For instance, to get an Electronics merit badge, a boy scout must explain safety precautions in "using, building, altering or repairing electronic devices." And for the Composite Materials badge, he must "explain the precautions in handling, storing and disposing of resins, reinforcements and other materials used in composites." Boy Scouts must also discuss the purpose of a Material Safety Data Sheet and explain the "importance of health, safety and environmental responsibility and awareness."
It makes one wonder if the adults can do the same, if not better. Can they discourse on electrical precautions, composite material standards and MSDS use as well as merit badge recipients?
Either way, the article advocates the incorporation of a similar approach to employee protection. It recommended, for instance, that before employees begin on a task, they should be aware of potential risks and necessary precautions, just as the Boy Scouts are.
Indeed, the article issued a challenge. "If the Boy Scouts can do it, why can't American employers make safety tops of the list of job tasks."
Click here
to see the full article.
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SCOTT'S CORNER
The Power of a "Guilt Trip"
I bet most of you have used the term "guilt trip" when explaining personal feelings or when attempting to understand the behavior of others. What do we mean? Can leaders use this metaphor to improve safety?
Yes.
Put aside the negative connotations of "guilt trip." I think leaders can put people (including themselves) on a beneficial guilt trip for safety. Personal responsibility for injury prevention will be increased in the process.
What is guilt?
The term "guilt trip" reflects more than behavior. It suggests a feeling state. Presumably it motivates certain
subsequent behavior. This is reflected in the fourth definition of guilt in my dictionary – "remorseful awareness of having done something wrong." Of course, the key word here is "remorseful" – which means one feels "moral anguish arising from repentance for past misdeeds."
When do we feel guilty?
According to these definitions, a guilt trip motivates personal responsibility to ease inner tension and conflict and do something to reduce a perceived discrepancy between personal conviction and behavior.
In particular, if leaders can make a person feel guilty about performing a certain at-risk behavior, they will increase the likelihood that individual will accept personal responsibility for behavior change. Leaders might even activate safety-related action beyond correcting one behavior. To eradicate guilty feelings, a person might feel he or she needs to do more for safety than adjust one behavior.
Does this sound far-fetched? I'll discuss some practical ways to make this happen.
From value affirmation to responsibility
Get people to declare safety as a value linked to the changing priorities of each workday. Then define behaviors
compatible versus incompatible with this value statement. A guilt trip can be activated whenever you point out behavior inconsistent with safety as a core value.
After observing an at-risk behavior you might remind the performer of the group consensus that safety is a value. If the person realizes the inconsistency, he or she should feel guilty and proceed to resolve the tension or attitude/behavior imbalance by substituting safe for at-risk behavior.
Taken from Leading People-Based Safety: Enriching Your Culture.
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Click here or call
888-201-1150 to learn more about the next evolution in safety... People-Based Safety?.
Click here to visit the People-Based Safety™ blog!
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WARM WEATHER SAFETY
Get the right safety training for outdoor work.
Discover Coastal's safety training e-learning, DVD and print resources that will keep your workers safe while working outdoors, exposed to the elements this summer.
Back injuries, heat stress and insects are a few of the hazards outdoor work entails. Give your employees the tools and knowledge they need to stay safe
this spring and summer.
Click here to see a complete list of products and to order your FREE 7-day previews!
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THE HOLISTIC APPROACH TO SAFETY
An organization stresses the importance of culture, leadership and management for safety initiatives.
In a Senate-hearing testimony, the Behavioral Science Technology, Inc. testified that organizational leadership and its corporate culture affect a company's safety programs, adding that a "holistic approach" reduces injuries more dramatically and effectively than traditional set-ups.
A holistic approach includes:
- giving leaders an active role in safety functioning
- identification of systems issues that predispose at-risk behavior
- cultivating a culture that minimizes at-risk behavior
- setting up "exposure-reduction mechanisms, predictive diagnostic tools" and culture and leadership interventions.
BST showed in a study of more than 150 clients all over the U.S that "a comprehensive employee-engagement approach" resulted in an average of 25% fewer accidents in the first year of implementation, and in an average of 65% improvement after five years.
Indeed, as BST chief operating officer Scottt Stricoff says, "business systems, management decisions and the culture as a whole all influence how effectively safety systems perform. Engaging executives, managers, and supervisors helps companies align the business to work with, not against, the safety objective."
BST has worked with/in industries, assessed NASA culture and recommended an "intervention approach" in responding to the conclusions of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
This article is based on a Safety Online article, click here to view article.
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SHOCKING STATS FOR ELECTRICAL FIRES
The USFA releases a jolting and scalding report.
As part of its efforts to "explore facets of the U.S. fire problem," The United States Fire Administration analyzed the causes and characteristics of electrical fires.
The report focused on those that occur in residential buildings, estimating an annual 28,300 incidents, 360 fatalities, 1,000 injuries and $995 million in direct losses.
The report, which is derived from 2003 to 2005 data of the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NIFRS), added that 47 percent of the residential electrical fires involving equipment ignition originate in wiring problems. Moreover, thirty-eight percent of the occurrences start in bedrooms, dining rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, laundry areas, etc.
The shocking statistics thus led Greg Cade, a U.S. fire administrator, to call for better safety precautions. He recommended that residents check for overloaded circuits, fix faulty electrical cords, and enlist licensed electricians who will set up equipment safety and efficiently.
The full report can be viewed here This article is based on an Occupational Healthy & Safety article. Click here to view it.
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The Politics of Safety: The Las Vegas Strip
In the complex relations among unions, management, and workers, it is the last who suffers.
Despite the presence of powerful Las Vegas-service unions, nine worker deaths in sixteen months, and a troubling pattern of safety violations, construction trade unions are still hesitant to "confront contractors over safety."
The unions, however, have insisted on their diligence, saying that they conduct safety meetings and trainings. They have also stated that if job sites were deemed dangerous, they would at once pull out their workers.
Even so, some workers believe that union efforts could be more aggressive, which are hampered by contracts with no-strike clauses and prohibitions of so-called secondary boycotts. Moreover, the laxity is caused by unions? efforts to "maintain tight relations" with big national contractors, who have weakened local contractor industry and can jeopardize unions by hiring non-union members. The presence of union staff-turned-contractors (and vice-versa) is a factor as well. Meanwhile, many workers are afraid of losing job opportunities and are thus not pressing for changes. And some who do demand reforms have ended up getting fired.
As it is, labor experts and labor movement members are calling for more fundamental revamps. And things indeed may be looking up. Some unions are meeting both with construction companies to discuss safety concerns and with OSHA to lobby for more involvement in the agency's investigation process.
Click here to view the entire article in the Las Vegas Sun.
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