evaluation of importance of safety behaviors in a steel manufacturer by entropy

This study aimed to evaluate the workers safety behavior and to determine the importance of each unsafe behavior in an Iranian steel manufacturing company. This study was conducted in Mobareke steel manufacturing company, which is located in the middle of Iran, in 2007. The methodology was based on the safety behavior sampling [SBS] technique and entropy. After specifying the unsafe behaviors and with reference to the results of a pilot study a sample of 3248 was determined, with a sampling accuracy of 5% and confidence level of 95%. The results indicated that 41.8% of workers behaviors were unsafe, The most frequent unsafe behaviors were inappropriate use of personal protective equipments [PPEs] with 32% of total unsafe behaviors. The results also notified a significant relationship between age, job experience and educational level on unsafe behaviors [P<0.05]. The highest weight, which is obtained by entropy, belongs to using inappropriate tools with weight of 0.1425. The ultimate findings of the study showed that a considerable number of workers' behaviors were unsafe, which is one of the main antecedents of industrial accidents. Considering catastrophic consequences of accidents in steel manufacturing industry, the results emphasize on diminishing unsafe behaviors and recommends applying behavior based safety principles

integrated and multivariate model along with designing experiments approach for assessment of micro-and macro-ergonomic factors: the case of a gas refinery

The objectives of this paper are three folds. First, an integrated framework for designing and development of the integrated health, safety and environment [HSE] model is presented. Second, it is implemented and tested for a large gas refinery in Iran. Third, it is shown whether the total ergonomics model is superior to the conventional ergonomics approach. This study is among the first to examine total ergonomics components in a manufacturing system. This study was conducted in Sarkhoon and Qeshm Gas refinery- Iran in 2006. To achieve the above objectives, an integrated approach based on total ergonomics factors was developed. Second, it is applied to the refinery and the advantages of total ergonomics approach are discussed. Third, the impacts of total ergonomics factors on local factors are examined through non-parametric statistical analysis. It was shown that total ergonomics model is much more beneficial than conventional approach. It should be noted that the traditional ergonomics methodology is not capable of locating the findings of total ergonomics model. The distinguished aspect of this study is the employment of a total system approach based on integration of the conventional ergonomics factors with HSE factors

Integrated health, safety, environment and ergonomic management systems for industry

Conventional health, safety and environment [HSE] are a widely used approach to enhance availability and efficiency of complex systems. The integrated HSEE system is defined however as integration of conventional HSE with ergonomics approach. The presented HSEE system introduces a unique, effective and systemic mechanism, which integrates the structure of the human and organizational systems with conventional HSE system. It is utilized to enhance reliability, availability, maintainability and safety through the proposed integrated framework of this study. The integrated HSEE is developed by integration of conventional HSE with job systems by re-engineering organizational structures and teamwork through electronic data interchange [EDI]. To show the need for and superiority of HSEE over conventional HSE to gas Treatment Company was studied and questionnaires were collected and examined with respect to distinct components of HSEE. The main result of this study is a framework for development of integrated intelligent human engineering environment in complex critical systems. The presented HSEE system introduces a unique, effective and systemic mechanism, which integrates the structure of the human and organizational systems with conventional HSE system

Modeling an integrated health, safety and ergonomics management system: application to power plants

This study presents a framework for development of integrated health, safety and ergonomic [HSE] in complex critical systems. Total ergonomics model considers conventional ergonomics factors as well as management and organizational factors. Control room operation and maintenance department of a thermal power plant was chosen as the case of our study. To achieve the above objectives, an integrated approach based on total ergonomics factors was developed. Second, it was applied to the thermal power plant and the advantages of total ergonomics approach were discussed. Third, the impacts of total ergonomics factors on local factors were examined through non-parametric statistical analysis. Moreover, the importance and impacts of total ergonomics factors were shown through statistical tests. It is shown that total ergonomics model is much more beneficial than conventional approach. It should be noted that the traditional ergonomics methodology is not capable of locating the findings of total ergonomics model. The distinguished aspect of this study is the employment of a total system approach based on integration of the conventional ergonomics factors with HSE factors

Impacts of Macroergonomics on environmental protection and human performance in power plants

Human and his performance is a vital factor in protection of asset including environmental properties. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of total system design factors [TSD] on human performance in a power plant. The TSD factors are defined as design factors, which have impact on overall performance of the power plants in context of total human engineering or macroergonomics. The systems being studied are the control rooms and maintenance departments of a 2000 MW thermal power plant. To achieve the above objective, the TSD factors were addressed and assessed through a detailed questionnaire. The relationships between TSD factors and human performance were then ex-amined through non-parametric correlation analysis [Kramer's Phi] and Kruskal-Wallis test of means. The results of this study show that the macroergonomic factors such as organizational and safety pro-cedures, teamwork, self-organization, job design and information exchange, influence human per-formance in the power plant. The findings also suggest that the selected macroergonomic factors are correlated to human performance and must be considered, designed and tested concurrently with the engineering factors at the design phase of the system developmental cycle. Consequently, total system's faults and organizational errors are reduced to an acceptable level and human performance is signifi-cantly increased. The main goal in such program is customer's satisfaction [Internal customers]. How-ever, more elaboration on the scientific tools for implementation of TDS factors in context of human performance is also under investigation