Operators’ risk awareness towards operations’ risk assessment: a field study in the motor vehicle field

Purpose: The purpose of the research was to verify if there was an alignment between the risk assessed and the risk perceived or if some inconsistencies arise that could affect the safety of the operators. In fact, eventual inconsistencies should be analysed, interpreted and managed to maximise the information and training process, if needed. Design/methodology/approach: The adopted approach in this work relies on the collection of the perception of the operators about the level of risk in a work environment and its comparison with the level of risk assessed by the company. The collection of data was performed through a survey designed ad hoc, subministrated to all the workers in the area under study, being them involved in the production and in the maintenance. The survey’s structure and aim were described to the operator by the researchers and returned by the operators in a voluntary and anonymous way. Findings: The information collected allowed identifying a gap between the risk assessed and the risk perceived by the plant operators. For example, for the use of personal protective equipments, the data highlighted a discrepancy between the knowledge about their need and the behaviour in using them, which resulted in the revision of both communication and training processes, with the adoption of a more participatory approach. Originality/value: The originality of the work is in the data set, originally collected for this study, in the data collection form, also devised specifically for the case under study, despite it can be easily adapted for other work environment, and in the purpose itself, aimed at pushing risk assessment towards a personalised and adaptive approach

Risk assessment in freeze-drying processes

The risks identification is a key step for the safe design of a manufacturing process and, in this framework, once the threats to the process have been pointed out, it is important to evaluate their consequences, as well as their causes. In this paper, the risk assessment has been used to build the basis for the risk-based decision making in plant and process design of a pilot scale freeze-dryer, to be then exploited in the design of a full scale safer plant, taking into account also the experimental evaluation of possible human errors

Risk awareness versus risk assessment in manufacturing: A field study

Risk assessment in manufacturing work environments gives a relevant contribution to health and safety management for the operators: hazards are identified, and the associated risks are quantified in order to promote the risk mitigation and to improve the safety level for all the workers involved. In this paper the relation between the risk assessment performed by Safety managers and workers' risk awareness is investigated using as case study a manufacturing plant (heavy vehicles) in Northern Italy. Risks are assessed with a set of widely used procedures and methods that return a level of risk related to each workplace. According to the most recent Italian regulation on safety at works (D.Lgs. 81/08) each worker has to be informed and trained about all risks he would be exposed to during her/his working activity. Operators are the final stakeholders of this process that started with a risk assessment performed by experts and ended with a transmission of information involving safety, personal health and working behaviour. To compare risk assessment and risk awareness, a field study was performed with more than 50 workers surveyed on their personal awareness of level of risk associated to their working task. The comparison highlighted significant miss-matches that are here discussed. To solve this miss-match a review of safety information methods and safety training for workers was identified as countermeasure

Atex‐HOF methodology: Innovation driven by human and organizational factors (HOF) in explosive atmosphere risk assessment

ATEX (explosive atmosphere) risk assessment is required when any equipment or system could generate a potentially explosive atmosphere. Despite the fact that many operations on plants and equipment containing dangerous substances are performed by operators, influences of human and organizational factors (HOF) are mostly neglected in the ATEX risk assessment. The integrated methodology described here is proposed to address two challenges: (1) identification of the HOF influence on the ATEX risk assessment, and (2) quantification of the HOF influence. The proposed methodology enriches the traditional ATEX risk assessment procedure, which consists of four steps: (1) area classification, (2) ignition source identification, (3) damage analysis, and (4) ATEX risk evaluation. The advantages of the ATEX‐HOF methodology are demonstrated through the application to a paint mixing station in an automotive manufacturing plant. The ATEX risk assessment methodologies are mainly semi‐quantitative. The ATEX‐HOF methodology provides a quantitative analysis for the area classification and ignition source identification, and a semi-quantitative approach for the damage analysis. As a result, the ATEX‐HOF risk evaluation becomes more accurate. An event tree‐based probabilistic assessment has been introduced, considering both the technical barrier failure (Prtbf) and the human intervention in terms of human error probability (HEP). The case study allowed for demonstrating how taking HOFs into account is particularly important in companies where the safety culture is lower and consequently, the usual hypothesis of the correctness of operator intervention (in maintenance, normal operations, and emergency) could bring to non‐conservative results

An empirical approach to workload assessment for process optimization

The Human Factors contribution in the scope of the industrial process optimization presented in this case study had to deal with considerations regarding the physical and mental workload requirements of different workstations and the capabilities of the operators assigned to them. The scope was to provide the industrial management with a better way to allocate human resources to tasks having different workload requirements. This work presents an empirical model designed to quantify the impact of workload on workers with the aim of reducing operational errors and safety human errors. The effects of this workload assessment can contribute to consider necessary areas of improvement in terms of technical measures, procedure optimizations and improved work organization, to reduce defects and waste generation. The paper presents a brief description of the empirical approach used to assess the workload of complex tasks in assembly lines; furthermore, it also discusses some of the preliminary results of its application

The effect of human error on the temperature monitoring and control of freeze drying processes by means of thermocouples

Monitoring product temperature is mandatory in a freeze-drying process, in particular in the process development stage, as final product quality may be jeopardized when its temperature trespasses a threshold value, that is a characteristic of each product being freeze-dried. To this purpose thermocouples are usually inserted in some of the vials of the batch to track product dynamics. The position of the thermocouple inside the vials strongly affects the reading of the temperature evolution during the freeze-drying process and, thus, it is necessary to place them in the right position, in such a way that correct information about product temperature is obtained. In this work, at first, the probability of the operational error resulting into a wrong positioning of the thermocouple inside the vial has been estimated experimentally. Then, the effect of this error has been assessed in terms of risk of exceeding the limit temperature in the primary drying step. Both 4R and 10R vials have been considered, and the investigation evidenced that the probability of incorrect thermocouples placement can reach 30% for 10R vials, and about 32% for 4R vials. These probability values increase, respectively, to 47 and 39% when the trays containing the vials are shifted to their final position. Then, through IR thermal imaging it has been possible to evaluate the temperature gradients in a vial, pointing out that the temperature difference between the product at the center of the vial, where the thermocouple is supposed to be, and that of the wall, that is quite often measured by the thermocouples, can be about 1°C. Therefore, associated to each thermocouple reading there is a probability distribution of product temperature. These figures can be used to assess the risk of exceeding the limit temperature in a freeze-drying process and, thus, to quantify suitable safety margins when evaluating thermocouple readings to take into account the operational errors, given a risk tolerability criteria

Multivariable Based Decision-making for the Maintenance Strategy of Process Equipment

Nowadays, several pieces of equipment are running over their expected life-time. An equipment revamping could solve the situation, but, it is often not possible for economical reasons, regulatory constraints, etc.. The aging of the equipment can also cause safety problems: between 1980 and 2006, the Health and Safety Executive estimated that around 28% of the major incidents occurred in the period, corresponding to 96 accidents, could be traced back to plant aging. These accidents costed more than 17,000,000 € (Horrocks et al., 2010). A correct maintenance of the equipment can extend the plant life, increase the plant efficiency and maintain an adequate level of safety. Plant management can choose among different maintenance strategies. The choice can be influenced by parameters as: the maintenance cost, the equipment condition before the maintenance, the lack of production cost, the safety of the operator during the maintenance and during the normal operations. In this paper, a multivariable Fuzzy approach is proposed in order to support the decision between different maintenance strategies through the analysis of their peculiarities, helping the management to weight the pros and cons of the alternatives. This approach is applied to a case study related to the maintenance of process equipment: it highlighted that the full refurbishment of a turbine blades system is a maintenance approach as valid as the current maintenance procedure, while the adoption of new technologies resulted not convenient

Risk based approach for procedures' optimization

Despite an increase in the process automation, different activities remain mainly operator driven, as the loading and unloading of tankers, maintenance operations, and so on. In these cases, the activities performed by the operator can be critical, both for the safety and for the product quality. Optimizing the operational procedures is thus a key factor for quality and safety. A risk assessment of the procedure can be adopted as a base for optimisation, highlighting which of the tasks within the procedure mainly contributes to the risk of the working activity. Usually the analysis of the procedures is carried on through a task analysis as in Builes et al. (2014). In this paper the task analysis is used as a starting point for a quantitative risk assessment carried on through an integrated dynamic decision analysis. The logical-probabilistic model of the procedure is elaborated jointly with a consequences analysis, obtaining a risk assessment for all the sequences of tasks of the work procedure under analysis. The risk assessment considered both possible equipment failures and the potential operational errors in executing the tasks. The proposed approach is in this paper demonstrated through the application of the integrated decision analysis for the operation of unloading of ammonia in a plant for the production and storage of fertilizers

The role of basic and applied research activities for the improvement of OS&H conditions and the dissemination of the Culture of Safety

Although the European panorama is experiencing a profound change in advance to the Industry 4.0, revolutionizing the world of work with technical, technological and information innovations, in Italy even today we have to deal with the "old" problem of work related injuries and fatalities. In particular, the accident indices of the last few years do not seem to differ much from those typical of the 1970s. The cultural effort matured with the enforcement of the European Directives, with the consequent passage from a rigid prescriptive approach to a flexible one based on risk analysis, is therefore not sufficient to face without “trauma” such rapid technological development accompanied by legislative, productive changes and increasingly widespread reassignment of tasks within the Companies. In this context, the role of scientific research is essential to contribute to technological transfer and scientific knowledge by reconciling the essential aspects of Occupational Safety and Health, through a rigorous and devoted analysis of working scenarios. Furthermore, the dissemination of a Culture of Safety at all levels (Management and Staff roles) can encourage a bilateral synergy "Industry-University" from an OS&H point of view. The present work discusses in more detail the results of the research carried out by the “young” OS&H researchers of the Polytechnic University of Turin presented on the second day of the Conference Dissemination of The Culture of Safety and Health at Work - “Eras of OS&H Development from early ’50 to industry 4.0”

Cost benefit evaluation of maintenance options for aging equipment using monetised risk values: A practical application

With constant pressure to reduce maintenance costs as well as short-term budget constraints in a changing market environment, asset managers are compelled to continue operating aging assets while deferring maintenance and investment. The scope of the paper is to get an overview of the methods used to evaluate risks and opportunities for deferred maintenance interventions on aging equipment, and underline the importance to include monetised risk considerations and timeline considerations, to evaluate different scenarios connected with the possible options. Monetised risk values offer the opportunity to support risk-based decision-making using the data collected from the field. The paper presents examples of two different methods and their practical applicability in two case studies in the energy sector for a company managing power stations. The use of the existing and the new proposed solutions are discussed on the basis of their applicability to the concrete examples