Following regulations and guidelines will not reduce productivity

There is always a tussle between the production manager and that of safety / regulator. It may not appear openly, but in private discussions, this is the reality. Each will have choicest words or opinions about the other.

When role reversal happens, they will assume new position and behave accordingly. This is because of short term / immediate gains one may achieve by overlooking SOPs or due to the infrequent losses suffered from incidents/accidents by not following safety which they feel that it can be absorbed.

Production managers realize only when the losses are huge and may lead to framing of charges or closure of the factory. But, it will be late.

It is proven that following safety always makes sense and leads to increase in productivity.
And this can be made realized by charging penalties on every violation from the salary of the individuals and as a percentage of turnover  of the factory.

This will help in creating work atmosphere safe as well as for public also and at the same time will make others to learn from the sufferers.

Training and its effectiveness

Training the employees for skills is a major task for any organization. And imparting skills to do the work safely is much more bigger task. Generally, class room safety training provides only basics, do's and dont's, SOPs, etc along with case studies. But, for the person to work safely, on the job training i.e. shopfloor training can be effective rather than class room training. And the person under on-the-job training requires proper guidance and supervision till he understands the implications and is moulded. This type of training may be costly for the managements as the number of persons trained under one instructor will be limited to a few at any given time. If the number of trainees increases, then the amount of time and attention by the instructor on each of the trainee will be reduced.

Though, nobody is interested in getting involved in accidents, still the occurrence of accidents indicate about the lack of knowledge and may be complacency developed over a period of time. With the on-the-job training and subsequently effective supervision can lead to accident-free workplace.

Hazard communication - Way to reduce accidents

Accidents recur regularly on same or similar process / machine. A friend of mine said once that operators and supervisors can be reminded about the hazards by displaying on every equipment/machine, the list of persons injured - causes for accidents - protective measures taken subsequently so that people will not forget, do not opt for shortcut methods, do not bypass safety systems.

Further, flowsheet / block diagram, hazards, safe operating procedures (SOPs), dos' and don't's, safety systems and controlling parameters, location of emergency switches, checklist to be used before start of every shift, etc can be displayed on the particular equipment in the languages understood by the concerned persons to ensure safety at the workplace. I am sure, this will definitely help in reducing the accidents, though the information sheets displayed are more. One has to spend time in preparation of these information sheets once and they need to be changed only when they are required and approved by higher authorities.

Concerned operators and supervisors should be involved in preparing these information sheets so that they are relevant and are understood. Further, they feel that they are part of the system and are therefore responsible for ensuring safety.

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