Occupational Health And Safety Management Case Study

1. One of the most significant hurdles to the successful implementation of the ANSI/AIHA Z10 standards in a manufacturing environment would be the safety culture of the organization. “Top management leadership is crucial because they set an organization’s safety culture and because continual improvement processes cannot be successful without sincere top management direction” (Manuele, 2014, p. 21). To ensure the success of the Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) there has to be buy in from employees at all levels within the organization the top management echelon to the newest hire on the floor. “Management must provide direction and leadership, assume responsibility for the OHSMS, and ensure effective employee
“As low as reasonably practicable (ALARP), ALARP is defined as that level of risk which can be lowered further only by an increment in resource expenditure that is disproportionate in relation to the resulting decrement of risk” (Manuele, 2014, pp. 48-49). A considerable pitfall of the ALARP process would be the failure to perform a thorough risk assessment of the processes that will be conducted. In the real world risks cannot be completely eliminated, however, they can be mitigated. Risk must assessed at the appropriate level and by qualified persons. “Risk acceptance is the deliberate decision to assume a risk, assumed risk is acceptable if the probability of a hazard-related incident/exposure occurring and the severity of harm or damage that may result are as low as reasonably practicable” (Manuele, 2014, p.
Organizational cultures with a higher tolerance of risk may face a greater challenge in overcoming these situations. The accepted ways of doing things or established norms of the organization may be deeply rooted within the culture. To reduce these incidents and improve our safety culture we initiated cross-talks to disseminate information throughout not only our squadron, but the entire Maintenance Group. Every “near miss” or actual incident was investigated to find the root cause to prevent further instances. These talks not only garnered buy-in from all parties involved, but served as opportunities to enhance and improve safety. We utilized tools such as the root cause analysis (5 whys) and “Swiss Cheese” model which includes: organizational influences, unsafe supervision, preconditions for unsafe acts and unsafe acts; these categories encompass nearly every possible cause surrounding a safety