Organizational causes of accidents in manufacturing sector.

: Occupational safety is an important issue. Industrial engineering and management plays an important role in a socio-technical view of accident causation. This paper analyzes 418 official investigation reports of non-slight accidents in the Andalusian manufacturing sector from 2004 to 2008. Investigation reports include 1,311 causes identified and coded, of which 669 causes are directly related to safety management and work organization. This paper shows how different scenarios are related to specific causes of accidents and the association between organizational and management causes and the mechanism of the accidents and their immediate causes. In order to prevent, both severe and fatal accidents, managers and safety experts should take into account these results in order to include the most frequent causes as inputs for safety assessments

Framework for the use of official occupational accident investigations as a learning tool: analysis of a public programme for accident investigation in the manufacturing sector

Accident investigation is a useful tool for safety science. The use of accident investigation as a learning tool at the macro level necessitates specific requirements quite different from the usual needs at the company level. A proper codification system and information on the accident scenarios are needed to let safety practitioners identify if the information is useful for the organisations they are assessing. In the same way epidemiological tools have been applied to the analysis of circumstances of accidents, the epidemiological statistical tools can help to draw conclusions for a set of investigated accidents. Our case study includes the description of the dataset used in a programme for learning from accidents in Andalusia: ‘Pudo haberse evitado’ (this can be translated as ‘This could have been prevented’). This paper covers the requisites for a macro-level learning programme and the possibilities of analysis of the dataset in a ‘research to practice approach’

Creación de valor a través de la innovación en el sector industrial

Innovation is one of the main ways of improving productivity in the manufacturing sector. According to the PITEC survey on innovation in the Spanish enterprises, there is a reduction in the proportion of manufacturing enterprises that innovate from 2006 to 2011. At the same time, the analysis shows the importance of process innovation in the manufacturing sector, in comparison with product innovation, for the productivity improvement.La innovación es una de las principales vías de mejora de la productividad en el sector industrial. Según los datos de la encuesta PITEC de innovación en empresas españolas, se ha producido una disminución del porcentaje de empresas industriales que realizan innovación en el período 2006 a 2011. Por otra parte, el análisis realizado muestra la importancia que en el sector industrial español tiene la innovación en procesos, frente a la innovación en productos, para la mejora de la productividad

Modelo de negocio y riesgo de accidente: el caso del sector industrial andaluz

Business model affects all management areas, occupational safety too. Decisions as establishment size, worker profiles both demographic and qualification, have effect on the risk of accidents. Although this is an ecological study, the results presented provide managers important information for planning and specially for adopting specific preventive measures depending on the business model chosenEl modelo de negocio influye en las diferentes áreas de gestión de la empresa, también en la gestión de la seguridad laboral. Decisiones como el tama- ño de los establecimientos, el perfil de los empleados tanto en términos demográ- ficos como de cualificación, tienen efecto en el riesgo de accidentes. Aunque se trata de un estudio ecológico, los resultados que presentamos proporcionan a los gestores importante información a la hora de planificar y, sobre todo, de adoptar medidas preventivas específicas en función del modelo de negocio elegid

Safety management models in manufacturing companies

International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Industrial Management (6. 2012. Vigo). Congreso de Ingeniería de Organización (16. 2012. Vigo).In Spain, companies can decide how to manage safety. Although most safety activities are mandatory, the management model can be decided in some extend by each company. Not all models have the same effectiveness according to their preventive practices and injury rates. This study applies a discrimination model in order to determine which reasons and circumstances make a company adopt a certain safety model or a safety management system. Results can be used in public promotion programs oriented to convince managers of the benefits of implementing safety management systems with internal preventive resources instead of subcontracting an external preventive service

Evaluación de un programa de subvenciones para la mejora de la seguridad y salud laboral de las PYMES en Andalucía

Objetivos: Evaluar un programa de subvenciones para proyectos de prevención de riesgos laborales en PYMES de Andalucía. Se analizan datos y resultados del programa entre 2006 y 2008. Métodos: Se analizaron las características del programa en términos de presupuesto, solicitudes y proyectos financiados. Se evaluó la percepción de las empresas solicitantes en cuanto a adecuación y resultados del programa mediante cuestionario postal anonimizado. Se calculó la incidencia de accidentes de trabajo en 2006 y 2007 en una submuestra de las empresas participantes en el programa en 2006. Resultados: El importe total de las subvenciones (algo más de 17 millones de euros) cubrió el 44% de las inversiones comprometidas por las empresas subvencionadas. Se concedieron en torno al 50% de las ayudas solicitadas. Se recibieron 573 cuestionarios completados (24% del total remitido). Entre las empresas subvencionadas, el 89% considera efectiva la inversión realizada y un 87% estima que han mejorado las condiciones de trabajo en la empresa. La inmensa mayoría de las empresas (>90%) considera que la falta de recursos económicos es un obstáculo para la prevención y que este tipo de ayudas son necesarias. La incidencia de accidentes de trabajo se redujo entre 2007 y 2006 (razón de incidencia 0,93; IC95% 0,78-1,11). Conclusiones: El programa ha tenido una valoración positiva, observándose una reducción de la incidencia de accidentes en las empresas que recibieron incentivos. Es necesario incorporar en el diseño de estos programas los criterios e indicadores necesarios para su evaluación

Logística Urbana: ¿Son realmente sostenibles las políticas sostenibles?

Road Freight transport is causing a number of social, environmental and economic negative impacts in many cities around the world.Therefore sustainable city logistics must be the solution to the problems of urban centers, with the main objective of researchers reduce these impacts, without penalizing the needs of cities. Cause of this several sustainable initiatives and policies have been implemented to help reduce them. But are the sustainable policies really sustainable? So this paper aims to evaluate one of these policies in a quantitative way to answer the question. Therefore be presented and implement a model based on VRP logic to evaluate the differences between the distances traveled by vehicles of a logistics company in a city with a policy regulating access and the distance traveled without such regulation. And based on the results obtained attempt draw conclusions to answer the question.La Logística Urbana sostenible debe ser solución ante los numerosos problemas sociales, medioambientales y económicos causados por el transporte de mercancías por carretera en las ciudades. De hecho son varias las iniciativas y políticas sostenibles que se han llevado a cabo para intentar reducir estos problemas. Pero ¿son realmente sostenibles estas políticas sostenibles? Este trabajo tiene como objetivo evaluar una de estas políticas de forma cuantitativa para poder responder a dicha pregunta. Así se evaluaron las diferencias entre las distancias recorridas por los vehículos de una empresa de logística en una ciudad con y sin una política de acceso regulado

Strategies for psychosocial risk management in manufacturing

Psychosocial risk is a concern for employers across Europe. Psychosocial risk management, however, is younger than other risk management fields such as safety, hygiene, and ergonomics. Psychosocial risk control prevents accidents and absenteeism. This study examines strategies for psychosocial risk management in manufacturing organizations. The study employs structural equation modeling to analyze results of the European Survey of Enterprises onNewand Emerging Risks (ESENER), a survey that fills an information gap concerning health and safety at work. The analysis yields three latent variables: psychosocial safety management, health and safety activities, and psychosocial performance. The study shows the benefits of adopting psychosocial safety management systems to improve psychosocial risk performance. Psychosocial preventive activities mediate the relationship between psychosocial safety management and psychosocial performance. Effective psychosocial risk management's benefits are so great that policymakers should specifically promote psychosocial risk management. Promoting psychosocial management systems and psychosocial preventive activities is likely to effectively improve overall psychosocial performance in European countries

Analysis of Required Investigations of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders in Spain

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) are the most common source of occupational health problems in Western countries. In Spain, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) can be reported either as accidents or occupational diseases. When reported as an occupational disease, a full diagnosis is performed, as the compensation system needs the approval of the social security authority and a mandatory investigation has to be performed. Although many methods are available for investigating the causes of occupational accidents, occupational diseases have not been analysed with the same depth, and there is a lack of investigation methods. This paper aims to analyse the role of 43 occupational investigations of causes of musculoskeletal diseases in the prevention cycle. This study is based on the occupational investigations performed by workplaces’ occupational health and safety specialists when musculoskeletal diseases are reported. The analysis of the data involves descriptive statistics and the Φ coeffcient. Based on administrative data, 68 workplaces employing 15,260 workers were surveyed and 41 workplaces with 13,201 workers submitted valid questionnaires to be analysed. The most frequent cause of reported musculoskeletal disease, in terms of primary risk, is repetitive movement. The only proposed measure with a significant association to the exposure by repetitive movements is job rotation (alternating workers between tasks within a job or between activities as a means to vary different levels of exposure). The investigation of occupational diseases has been useful in most of the cases for proposing preventive measures. Most of the workplaces surveyed have performed investigations and adopted preventive measures, but the managers of some workplaces were not aware of any disease notification regarding their workers when surveyed. More research is needed to provide tools for this important task