A Controlled Experiment Investigating the Effects of Explanatory Manual on Adherence to Operating Procedures

Operators’ adherence to operating procedures is a crucial factor for process safety in the process industry. Instruction manuals that document Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) are commonly used both as training materials and references during operation. Traditional SOP manual design emphasized using simple step-by-step instructions for how to do the tasks, but it often neglected the reasons why the steps and their specific orders should be closely followed. It is evident that operators sometimes choose to deviate from SOP intentionally if they do not understand the reasons and incorrectly deem the steps in the manual as slow or outdated. To help bridge the knowledge gap between SOP designers and operators, we advocate explanatory SOP manual design that adds the reasons for the steps in manual instructions. To examine the effect of explanatory manual, we conducted a controlled experiment using a hydraulic pump system that represented the wash operation in the electroplating industry. Participants’ performance and adherence to operating procedures (both Adherence to Production Order Procedures and Adherence to Wait Time) were measured and compared between the explanatory manual and the procedural manual conditions. The results showed that the explanatory manual had the benefit of increasing Adherence to Production Order Procedures, while time performance, Percent Duration within Bounds, and Adherence to Wait Time were not significantly affected. The finding supports the use of explanatory manuals because they have the potential to serve as an effective and economic way to improve operators’ adherence to operating procedures and process safety. Limitations of the laboratory setup were discussed.Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Discovery Grant to S.C. [RGPIN-2015-04134

A Development of a Programed Instruction Manual for Fingerhut Manufacturing Company, St. Cloud, Minnesota

The process of developing skilled and productive personnel for business and industry is an element that has plagued management with its costs and results. As each person in an organization must be given the opportunity to develop the specific job skills necessary to adjust to the organizational and individual needs, management attempts to meet these needs with some type of training program. The goals of a training program provide the opportunity for all employees to (1) make a satisfactory adjustment to the demands of business and industrial operations from the first day of employment; and (2) progress as a productive force in the enterprise through continued development of needed skills, knowledge, and attitudes. To achieve these goals, opportunities must be provided to develop the employee to his fullest capacity. Statement of the problem. It was the purpose of this thesis to develop a training program for the station operators in the Accounts Receivable Department, Fingerhut Manufacturing Company, St. Cloud, Minnesota. The programed instruction method was selected, and a training manual based on the procedures of the sttion operator was devised. The processes used in the problem included: (1) a review of the literature in the areas of training and programed instruction; (2) a study of the operations of the Accounts Receivable Department by actual on-the-job training for approximately two months; (3) the development of a programed instruction manual for the station operators; and (4) a pilot testing of the effectiveness of the manual. Importance of the study. Fingerhut Manufacturing Company is a mail-order firm dealing with car furnishings. The main offices are located in Minneapolis with branches in Princeton and St. Cloud. The St. Cloud office, which is the main concern of this thesis, employs about 350 office workers. As a result of this large number of employees and a labor turnover of about six per cent, training of personnel is costly. The training program in effect over the past years involved a method of individual instruction. Each new employee had a training supervisor that worked with her until it was apparent the trainee could perform the work efficiently. As a result of this costly method of training, the management of Fingerhut decided to test the possibilities of programed instruction as a means of reducing the cost of training. Programed instruction, it was felt, would reduce the number of trainee supervisors needed, improve the quality of personnel, and possibly reduce the amount of training time. The Accounts Receivable Department was selected as the first experimental area. The management contracted St. Cloud State College for help in the development of an appropriate training manual

Quality Management System In Construction

This paper describes the Quality Management System (QMS) concept and its application in the construction industry. A misunderstanding among the construction players on the QMS concept has become the stumbling block for its successful implementation

Business success through process based application of simulation

Progressive design practices are increasingly cognisant of the potential of building energy simulation to assist the delivery of energy efficient, sustainable buildings. However, the success of any building performance assessment hinges on the capabilities of the tool; the collective competences of the team formed to apply it; and, crucially, the existence of an in-house framework within which simulation can be applied with confidence (McElroy and Clarke 1999). There is also a need for the professions to set up mechanisms that facilitate dialogue with vendors in order to influence tool capabilities. And on the related issues of building an in-house competency and a framework for application, the two core issues facing the professions are: i) a need for the development of in-house procedures for management of simulation; and ii) quality assurance of the related models and appraisal results

Health and safety on construction sites in Ghana

The state of health and safety on construction sites in Ghana was investigated using first hand observation of fourteen (14) construction project sites in 2009 and 2010. At each site, the construction project, workers and the physical environment of the site were inspected and evaluated against health and safety indicators taken from the literature. The results reveal a poor state of health and safety on Ghanaian construction sites. The primary reasons are a lack of strong institutional framework for governing construction activities and poor enforcement of health and safety policies and procedures. Also, Ghanaian society does not place a high premium on health and safety of construction workers on site. Interviews with workers indicated that injuries and accidents are common on sites. However, compensation for injury is often at the discretion of the contractor although collective bargaining agreements between Labour unions and employers prescribe obligations for the contractor in the event of injury to a worker

Rapid Assessment of Vietnam\u27s Labor Inspection System

[Excerpt] In July 2010, a team from the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) visited Vietnam to conduct an assessment of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids & Social Affairs’ (MOLISA) labor inspection system. This effort was requested by the SIIR project (funded by USAID) as part of its aim of identifying MOLISA’s needs and providing assistance, per MOLISA’s request. The Assessment focuses on: 1) assessing facts related to the labor inspection system; and 2) providing initial recommendations for improving the system. Part I discusses MOLISA’s history, legal and regulatory framework, structure and organization, Department of Labor Inspections (including workforce, forms and data collection, and IPZ). Part II discusses issues and presents recommendations related to data collection, labor inspector training, inspectorate staffing levels, educational outreach, research and networking, systems of continuous improvement, and coordination with international and private buyers

Studi Tentang Persepsi, Praktek Dan Sikap Terhadap Sistem HACCP Pada Industri Pakan Dalam Mencapai Kesesuaian Keamanan Pakan

Industry have not yet been implementing the feed safety system including the feed hygiene practices. Therefore,A study of perceptions, practices and attitudes on hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) in achieving feedsafety compliance of Indonesian stock-feed production has been conducted. This study was carried out usingframe works of study as follows, i.e. Module I, Assessment on existing conditions using methods of survey,observe, interview, plant visit and distribute a questionnaire to medium and large feed industries at 6 provinces,i.e Lampung, Banten, West Java, Center of Java, East Java and South Sulawesi with the number of samples forrespondents about 20 feed industries; They were also asked about the feed hygiene practices in their business,their systems used such as HACCP, and the perceptions and attitudes toward a range of feed hygiene issues;Module II, Identification of potential critical control points; Module III, Evaluation of HACCP programs. Theanalysis was conducted using descriptive analysis method that developed by Hair et al. and to test the differenceusing one-way statistical analysis of variance. The results showed that the HACCP systems were implemented at95% in the large feed industries and 65% in the medium feed industry, respectively (P< 0.005); 30% medium and15% of large feed industry managers stated that their business represented a low-risk to feed safety. Higherlevels of feed hygiene qualifications among the industry managers and higher perceptions among managers ofthe risk of feed safety of the business were also significantly related to use HACCP in sectors (P<0.05). Sixpotential hazards were identified along the process to be controlled as critical control points (CCPs). Total cost forimplementing the system was around 1 billion and 400 millions rupiahs; while the time needed since designing upto fully operating the system with audit results fulfill the prerequisite programs and HACCP requirement was about7 months

Software Development Standard and Software Engineering Practice: A Case Study of Bangladesh

Improving software process to achieve high quality in a software development organization is the key factor to success. Bangladeshi software firms have not experienced much in this particular area in comparison to other countries. The ISO 9001 and CMM standard has become a basic part of software development. The main objectives of our study are: 1) To understand the software development process uses by the software developer firms in Bangladesh 2) To identify the development practices based on established quality standard and 3) To establish a standardized and coherent process for the development of software for a specific project. It is revealed from this research that software industries of Bangladesh are lacking in target set for software process and improvement, involvement of quality control activities, and standardize business expertise practice. This paper investigates the Bangladeshi software industry in the light of the above challenges.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 11 table

The Impact of Information Technology(IT) in Trade Facilitation on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Sri Lanka

This paper examine the extent of automation of trade facilitation in Sri Lanka and to assess the impact of automation on SMEs in the country.Impace of Information Techonology, SMEs, Sri Lanka