System safety principles: A multidisciplinary engineering perspective

System safety is of particular importance for many industries. Broadly speaking, it refers to the state or objective of striving to sustainably ensure accident prevention through actions on multiple safety levers (technical, organizational, and regulatory). While complementary to risk analysis, it is distinct in one important way: risk analysis is anticipatory rationality examining the possibility of adverse events (or accident scenarios), and the tools of risk analysis support and in some cases quantify various aspects of this analysis effort. The end-objective of risk analysis is to help identify and prioritize risks, inform risk management, and support risk communication. These tools however do not provide design or operational guidelines and principles for eliminating or mitigating risks. Such considerations fall within the purview of system safety.In this work, we propose a set of five safety principles, which are domain-independent, technologically agnostic, and broadly applicable across industries. While there is a proliferation of detailed safety measures (tactics) in specific areas and industries, a synthesis of high-level safety principles or strategies that are independent of any particular instantiation, and from which specific safety measures can be derived or related to, has pedagogical value and fulfills an important role in safety training and education. Such synthesis effort also supports creativity and technical ingenuity in the workforce for deriving specific safety measures, and for implementing these principles and handling specific local or new risks. Our set of safety principles includes: (1) the fail-safe principle; (2) the safety margins principle; (3) the un-graduated response principle (under which we subsume the traditional “inherently safe design” principle); (4) the defense-in-depth principle; and (5) the observability-in-depth principle. We carefully examine each principle and provide examples that illustrate their use and implementation. We relate these principles to the notions of hazard level, accident sequence, and conditional probabilities of further hazard escalation or advancement of an accident sequence. These principles are a useful addition to the intellectual toolkit of engineers, decision-makers, and anyone interested in safety issues, and they provide helpful guidelines during system design and risk management efforts.     

安全文化的激励机制在企业中的应用

通过行为模型,分析了企业中安全管理者与职工心态对立的原因,认为目前管理者奖罚手段运用失衡是产生这种局面的重要原因。从安全文化的角度提出了相应对策。     

Framework for creating a Best-in-Class safety culture

To answer the question, “What are the practical attributes of Best-in-Class safety management,” consensus principles have been identified and lessons learned harvested from a broad spectrum of organizations with exemplary safety programs. Through years of studying the underpinnings of a strong safety culture, the authors have identified ten attributes that are important to create a Best-in-Class safety culture. Instead of expecting one organization to possess all of the attributes or employ all of the techniques identified, the authors suggest these principles be treated as guidelines that can be used to improve the safety culture in organizations.     

The mediating role of psychological capital between perceived management commitment and safety behavior

Introduction: Among attempts that address high incidences of fatalities and injuries in coal mines, increasing attention has been paid to management commitment to complement the traditional focus on technological advances in safety management. However, more research is needed to explain the influence of perceived management commitment, with extant research drawing commonly on Griffin and Neal (2000) to focus on safety knowledge, skills, and motivation. This study draws on social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) to investigate psychological capital as a link between thought process and safety behavior. Method: This study uses survey data from 400 frontline workers in China’s coal mines to test hypotheses. Result: Results suggest that perceived management commitment to safety correlates positively with workers’ safety compliance and participation, and four constituents of psychological capital—self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience—explain the influence of perceived management commitment on safety compliance and participation. Practical Applications: Findings offer both researchers and practitioners an explanation of how perceived management commitment influences safety behaviors, and clarify the roles psychological capital constituents play in explaining the influence of perceived management commitment on safety compliance and safety participation.     

Diagnosis of safety culture in safety management audits

Based on the sociotechnical systems approach, an understanding of safety culture as deeply rooted assumptions about the interplay of people, technology, and organization in their relation to safety is presented. As a complement to audit methods aimed at assessing formal safety management, a questionnaire was developed which allows some indications of these assumptions to be captured by providing data on perceptions regarding operational safety, safety and design strategies, and personal job needs. Analyzing response patterns of different occupational, hierarchical, and organizational groups within a company in combination with formal audit results and the communicative validation of both in a feedback meeting can help the auditors as well as the members of the company to gain a deeper understanding of safety management and safety culture in that company. Results from seven audits in petrochemical plants are presented and discussed with respect to the validity and practicability of the chosen approach.     

The association between subcontractor safety management programs and worker perceived safety climate in commercial construction projects

Problem: Safety management programs (SMPs) are designed to mitigate risk of workplace injuries and create a safe working climate. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the relationship between contractors’ SMPs and workers’ perceived safety climate and safety behaviors among small and medium-sized construction subcontractors. Methods: Subcontractor SMP scores on 18 organizational and project-level safety items were coded from subcontractors’ written safety programs and interviews. Workers completed surveys to report perceptions of their contractor’s safety climate and the safety behaviors of coworkers, crews, and themselves. The associations between SMP scores and safety climate and behavior scales were examined using Spearman correlation and hierarchical linear regression models (HLM). Results: Among 78 subcontractors working on large commercial construction projects, we found striking differences in SMP scores between small, medium, and large subcontractors (p < 0.001), related to a number of specific safety management practices. We observed only weak relationships between SMP scales and safety climate scores reported by 746 workers of these subcontractors (β = 0.09, p = 0.04 by HLM). We saw no differences in worker reported safety climate and safety behaviors by contractor size. Discussion: SMP only weakly predicted safety climate scales of subcontractors, yet there were large differences in the quality and content of SMPs by size of employers. Summary: Future work should determine the best way to measure safety performance of construction companies and determine the factors that can lead to improved safety performance of construction firms. Practical applications: Our simple assessment of common elements of safety management programs used document review and interviews with knowledgeable representatives. These methods identified specific safety management practices that differed between large and small employers. In order to improve construction safety, it is important to understand how best to measure safety performance in construction companies to gain knowledge for creating safer work environments.     

Empirical investigation of construction safety management activities and performance in Australia

The construction industry seems to suffer from a general inability to manage workplace health and safety to a level where an achieved improvement in safety performance by a way of pro-active measures can result in zero accidents. This paper investigates the effectiveness of safety management activities as currently adopted by Australian contracting organisations. A safety management survey has been conducted of contracting organisations operating in the State of Queensland, Australia. Based on a research model depicting statistical analysis techniques, a safety management index reflecting the intensity of level of safety management activities has been developed to provide a means whereby individual organisations can be assessed and graded on their safety management commitment and attitudes. The paper reports on a detailed empirical analysis carried out to examine the relationship between the intensity of safety management commitment and the overall safety performance, pro-activeness and record.     

Making safety training stickier: A richer model of safety training engagement and transfer

Introduction: Compared to other types of occupational training, safety training suffers from several unique challenges that potentially impair the engagement of learners and their subsequent application or “transfer” of knowledge and skills upon returning to the job. However, existing research on safety training tends to focus on specific factors in isolation, such as design features and social support. The aim of this research is to develop an overarching theoretical framework that integrates factors contributing to training engagement and transfer. Method: We conducted a comprehensive qualitative review of safety training research that was published between 2010 and 2020. We searched Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar, yielding 147 articles, and 38 were included. We content analyzed article summaries to arrive at core themes and combined them with contemporary models of general occupational training to develop a rich model of safety training engagement and transfer. Results: We propose that training engagement is a combination of pre-training factors such as individual, organizational, and contextual factors, that interact with design and delivery factors. Safety training engagement is conceptualized as a three-component psychological state: affective, cognitive, and behavioral. Organizations should prioritize pre-training readiness modules to address existing attitudes and beliefs, optimize the safety training transfer climate, and critically reflect on their strategy to design and deliver safety training so that engagement is maximized. Conclusions: There are practical factors that organizations can use before training (e.g., tailoring training to employees’ characteristics), during training (e.g., ensuring trainer credibility and use of adult learning principles), and after training (e.g., integrating learned concepts into systems). Practical Applications: For safety training to ‘stick,’ workers should be affectively, cognitively, and behaviorally engaged in learning, which will result in new knowledge and skills, improvements in attitudes, and new safety behaviors in the workplace. To enable engagement, practitioners must apply adult learning principles, make the training relevant, and tailor the training to the job and individual needs. After training, ensure concepts are embedded and aligned with existing systems and routines to promote transfer.     

Practical safety management for small or medium enterprises

The article is intended for those who are not safety professionals but are responsible for safety management in a small or medium enterprise (SME) of the process industry. It assumes that a SME is loosely coupled and of low complexity and has a small number of major hazards present in it. The article describes Elementary Safety Management (ESM) as a combination of activities that maintain openness to safety impulses with Elementary Risk Control (ERC). ERC uses four milestones and three rules to get to the necessary and sufficient selection of control measures, which will achieve an acceptable level of risk. To make the ESM scheme as simple as possible, the term causal event is used, which is derived from the term causal factor. Practical Safety Management (PrSM) adds to the ESM the knowledge and skills that a person, who is supposed to design and implement a safety management system, needs. The PrSM procedure is developed to identify optimum controls. The procedure recognizes the unavoidable role of commitment to safety, respects the role of hazard identification, and integrates prospective and retrospective analyses and current knowledge of safety management systems. Examples of application of the procedure are given in the article.     

风险偏好视角下地铁施工安全群体行为博弈研究

为了研究风险偏好对地铁项目施工阶段施工人员与安全管理人员行为决策的影响，将前景理论引入演化博弈建模及分析过程，构建区别于传统收益矩阵的前景安全效用价值感知矩阵，得到施工人员与安全管理人员在不同风险偏好下的最优策略。结合数值仿真研究得出:地铁施工安全群体凭借其个人风险偏好倾向于选择预期效用最大化决策，安全群体通过风险规避才能保证地铁项目施工阶段安全系统稳定。研究结果从完善安全管理奖惩制度、培养安全群体安全理念、转变传统安全风险管控观念3个方面为地铁项目施工提出了安全管理建议。     

太钢安全工作新思路的尝试

太钢自1996年以来,开始了“大安全”工作思路,狠抓了人身安全,职业卫生安全,设备设施安全,生产组织安全,技术工艺安全,交通安全,消防安全,后勤保障安全,医疗卫生安全,环境保护,社会活动安全等,取得了很大效果。     

Safety leadership and safety performance in petrochemical industries: The mediating role of safety climate

This study examines the relationship among three latent variables: safety leadership, safety climate, and safety performance. Employees from 23 plants in seven departments of a petrochemical company in central Taiwan completed a questionnaire survey. From this, a sample of 521 responses was randomly selected. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis using the AMOS 5.0 was employed to test the hypothesized model relating the above-mentioned variables. The results indicate that the model was supported, and that safety climate mediated the relationship between safety leadership and performance. Practical implications of these results for process safety management in the petrochemical industries are discussed.     

基于安全系统工程的铁路站段安全管理信息系统研究

随着安全逐级负责制等各项安全管理机制的建立和运行以及ISO90 0 0系列标准在铁路站段的推广和普及 ,要求铁路站段急需改变传统的、经验的管理模式 ,建立基于安全系统工程的、综合运用现代技术手段的安全科学管理体系。笔者在综合考虑人、机、环境三要素的基础上 ,结合安全系统工程方法 ,对铁路站段安全管理信息系统的基本功能、系统设计等进行了深入分析 ,实现了安全信息的自动处理、对事故或隐患的安全分析、安全预测和安全评价功能 ,为安全管理科学化提供有力的技术支持。以大同西电力机务段为例 ,对安全管理信息系统进行了实用和考核 ,取得了预期效果     

ACT method for safety training: An approach to improve on-site safety performance

Unsafe behavior is one of the main causes limiting the improvement of on-site safety performance. Safety training is an important means of preventing unsafe behavior. With changes in the scale of operations and employee characteristics, traditional training methods have largely failed to meet the practical demands. Therefore, to improve the effectiveness of safety training, this paper analyzes the shortcomings of the current training methods, demonstrates the potential value of accident cases for improving the training effect, and the advantages of 24Model for case analysis in safety training. Subsequently, this paper constructs a systematic training system with Accident-Cause-Training (ACT) as the training relationship chain, which runs the accident cases throughout the training process, 24Model is utilized to trace the unsafe behaviors that lead to accidents from the perspectives of organizational and individual level, and the training content is established according to the analysis results. This paper also conducts a case study to verify the operability of the ACT method, specifically, a training programme for limited space operations at a national-level oil and gas storage and transportation company is designed and implemented. Finally, by comparing the similarities and differences between the ACT method and other training methods from various perspectives, the universality and participation of the ACT method are proved, and the development trend of the ACT method is also discussed. It is believed that the proposed ACT method could enrich the types of safety training methods and provide an effective and scientific tool to enhance the safety performance of field operations.     

The nature of safety culture: a review of theory and research

This paper reviews the literature on safety culture and safety climate. The main emphasis is on applied research customary in the social psychological or organisational psychological traditions. Although safety culture and climate are generally acknowledged to be important concepts, not much consensus has been reached on the cause, the content and the consequences of safety culture and climate in the past 20 years. Moreover, there is an overall lack of models specifying either the relationship of both concepts with safety and risk management or with safety performance. In this paper, safety culture and climate will be differentiated according to a general framework based on work by Schein (1992 Schein) on organisational culture. This framework distinguishes three levels at which organisational culture can be studied — basis assumptions, espoused values and artefacts. At the level of espoused values we find attitudes, which are equated with safety climate. The basic assumptions, however, form the core of the culture. It is argued that these basic assumptions do not have to be specifically about safety, although it is considered a good sign if they are. It is concluded that safety climate might be considered an alternative safety performance indicator and that research should focus on its scientific validity. More important, however, is the assessment of an organisation's basic assumptions, since these are assumed to be explanatory to its attitudes.     

Exploring the information literacy of professionals in safety management

With the rapid development of increasingly complex technology and large scale industrial projects, all kinds of safety problems become extremely intricate in daily safety management (SM). It is therefore indispensable to effectively collect, analyze, assess, and synthesize information that is relevant to accident risk. In this paper, the concept of the information literacy (IL) of professionals in SM is proposed, and a conceptual framework is put forward. Further, determinants of the IL of safety professionals are suggested, including individual attributes, safety climate and culture, information infrastructure, information technology (IT) human resources, production technology and management, and national information policy, law and ethics. Of course, further research on the IL of safety professionals should be carried out for effective SM.     

21世纪安全管理科学展望

以超前的意识、展望的眼光 ,对 2 1世纪安全管理科学的发展进行畅想和描述。其中论及安全原理、安全立法、安全管理方法、安全管理模式等问题。     

Investigation of stakeholders' awareness and adoption of Inherently Safer Design (ISD) principles in South African utility industry projects

The paper examines the level of awareness of stakeholders in adopting Inherently Safer Design (ISD) principles in the Project Life Cycle Management (PLCM) of South African Energy utility projects. It seeks to understand whether stakeholders in the latter stages of the Project Life Cycle are competent to make design change decisions on these projects. ISD principles are essentially useful for reducing risks and as such, safety experts have acknowledged it as an excellent approach in the design process. However, there are no known efforts to date that attempt to integrate ISD concepts into PLCM. This paper seeks to fill this gap. This study, through the review of extant literature establishes that ISD principles can be used in project procurement, and adopts a quantitative survey approach in obtaining information from stakeholders in the South African utility industry. Findings reveal that the principles of inherent safety are permeating into the management of South African utility projects but the level of awareness and its adoption are below optimal levels. It also emerged that there is a divergent awareness of ISD strategies amongst PLCM stakeholders and that the design engineers are better informed about the ISD approach of eliminating risks and hazards in the industrial systems studied than other stakeholders. The findings also indicate that the level of awareness of stakeholders of ISD principles is greater within earlier project phases. Based on these findings, the paper concludes that the hazards witnessed within the project execution and finalization phases could be as a result of the low levels of awareness, divergent views and lower use of ISD strategies by PLCM stakeholders. It is suggested that the level of awareness of the principles, concepts, basics and benefits of integrating ISD into PLCM be raised amongst stakeholders functioning within utility industry project procurement in South Africa and that design changes be limited to the earlier phases of utility project procurement.     

我国与欧洲钢铁企业安全管理的差异与对策研究

对我国和欧洲大型钢铁企业安全管理现状进行了分析,较全面地考察和讨论了欧洲大型钢铁企业先进的安全管理经验和安全理念,包括:企业的安全管理机构和管理模式、精干有效的安全管理人员配置、先进的安全管理理念和方法、安全指标与绩效、欧洲的行业安全管理等。在此基础上,从管理理念、发展科学技术、宣传教育、管理人员、责任和考核、消防和急救资源、外协管理、安全信息化等方面,提出提升我国企业安全管理水平的对策。     

浅谈安全管理科学的方法──安全生产科学管理十八法

安全生产科学管理方法是，安全管理科学的重要组成部分。对十八种方法的内容与特点进行了阐述，并结合当前实际情况，从全面质量管理、安全系统工程、人机工程、行为科学等方面进行了探讨。