Drivers for OSH interventions in small and medium-sized enterprises

The debate concerning occupational safety and health (OSH) interventions has recently focused on the need of improving the evaluation of interventions, and in particular on the need of providing information about why the intervention worked or not, under what circumstances, and in which context. Key concepts in the analysis of the context are the drivers, i.e., those factors enabling, fostering, or facilitating OSH interventions. However, the concept of driver for an OSH intervention is both confused and contested. Although the term is widely used, there is little consensus on how drivers should be understood, how important they are in different contexts, and how they can facilitate interventions. This exploratory study based on interviews with the owner-managers and the safety officers of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) gives an overview of the most characteristic drivers for OSH interventions. The results will be used to make an initial evaluation of SMEs needs, and will help orient interventions and future research

Development of an instrument to analyze the occupational risk acceptance

An understanding of the factors that can have influence on risk acceptance may provide relevant support to an effective guideline that helps in the acceptance criteria formulation. Therefore, this study aims to develop and to validate a tool to analyze risk acceptance in Portuguese furniture industries. Workers judgments about risk acceptance were analyzed together with five individual variables: trust, risk perception, benefit perception, emotions and, ethic, moral and values. The first part of the tool integrated demographic questions. The second part included items to measure the variables in analysis. The validation was performed first in a pilot test with 29 workers, and the validity and reliability analysis with a sample of 219 workers. Four factors were identified: emotions, benefits perceptions, acceptance/trust and risk. Also the items interrelations with factors were verified. Some differences among companies were confirmed, showing they realize risk acceptance in a different way.(undefined

BakSIM : an application for control, monitoring and simulation of baker's yeast fermentation process

This paper describes an experience based on the final project work for the Industrial Electronics Engineering undergraduate course. The main goal was the development of an application for the simulation and monitorization of the baker’s yeast fermentation. The BakSIM application simulates a Mini-Bioreactor for the control, monitorization and simulation of the process running in open and closed loop modes. It permits to make the acquisition of the most important system variables: biomass, ethanol, oxygen, glucose and dioxide of carbon, and the writing in files for future analysis and for future contrast with previous experiences. Different modules were considered: simulation, monitorization and simulation and monitorization. The BakSIM application also allows not only the comparison of the experimental data with the simulated data as the study of the effectiveness of several numerical methods. One more advantage of this project was its multidisciplinary work, enclosing several areas covered during the undergraduate course, namely Programming, Process Control and Numerical Methods.Centre ALGORITMI

Multi-model adaptive predictive control system for automated regulation of mean blood pressure

After cardiac surgery operation, severe complications may occur in patients due to hypertension. To decrease the chances of complication it is necessary to reduce elevated mean arterial pressure (MAP) as soon as possible. Continuous infusion of vasodilator drugs, such as sodium nitroprusside (Nipride), it is used to reduce MAP quickly in most patients. For maintaining the desired blood pressure, a constant monitoring of arterial blood pressure is required and a frequently adjust on drug infusion rate. The manual control of arterial blood pressure by clinical professionals it is very demanding and time consuming, usually leading to a poor control quality of the hypertension. The objective of the study is to develop an automated control procedure of mean arterial pressure (MAP), during acute hypotension, for any patient, without changing the controller. So, a multi-model adaptive predictive methodology was developed and, for each model, a Predictive Controller can be a priori designed (MMSPGPC). In this paper, a sensitivity analysis was performed and the simulation results showed the importance of weighting factor (phi), which controls the initial drug infusion rate, to prevent hypotension and thus preserve patient's health. Simulation results, for 51 different patients, showed that the MMSPGPC provides a fast control with mean settling time of 04:46 min, undershoots less than 10 mmHg and steady-state error less than +/- 5 % from the MAP setpoint.The authors of this article would like to thank Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Norte for support and University of Minho for structure, which to made possible the development of the research

Risk assessment in industry using expected utility: An application to accidents’ risk analysis

Expected utility theory can be relevant for decision-making under risk, when different preferences should be taken into account. The goal of this paper is to present a quantitative risk analysis methodology, depending on expected utility, where the risk consequences are determined quantitatively, the risk is modelled using a loss random variable and the expected utility loss is used to classify and rank the risks. Considering the relevance of risk management to reduce workers’ exposure to occupational risks, the methodology is applied to the analysis of accidents in industry, where six different contact mode of injury categories are distinguished. The ranking of the injury categories is determined for three different utility functions. The results indicate that the slope of the utility function influences the ranking of the contact mode of injury categories. The choice of the utility function may thus be relevant for the risk classification in order to prioritize different aspects of risk consequences

Analyzing and classifying risks: a case-study in the furniture industry

In this work we propose a methodology which permits the risk analysis and classification of occupational accidents in industrial settings. Data used in this study corresponds to accidents that occurred in the furniture industry in Portugal in 2010. A loss random variable is constructed in order to model the number of lost days implied by different contact modes of injuries in industry. The corresponding risk measures, such as Value-at-Risk, expected loss, loss variance and exceedance probabilities are determined in order to analyze and classify the contact modes according to their risk level, allowing the identification of the most problematic and the less problematic accident category in this industry. Contact with cutting, sharp, rough material was the most problematic whereas contact with electrical current, temperature, hazardous substance was the one with lower risk level.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia(UID/MAT/00013/2013

Weighting table : a broader view for the ergonomic intervention

The use of the Ergonomics Tridimensional Analysis (ETdA) methodology to perform the assessment of risk situations on areas commonly used by workers and clients allows a broader understanding of a system ergonomic approach. The final task of the ETdA is the establishment of a Weighting Table to support the analyst on the ergonomic intervention decisions. The decision-making process is based on a 3-point colored scale, identifying the situations requiring a short-term intervention, a mediumterm intervention or non-critical situations. In order to study the influence of the weights in decision making process a comparative study on results obtained from the Weighting Tables was done. The Ergonomic factors affected by the clients’ weight were assessed and each type of changes separately studied. Obtained results showed that increasing weights given to clients dimension can lead to different decision-makings regarding the ergonomic intervention

Preparation of a textile and clothing company to lean implementation by identifying ergonomic and environmental risks

This paper intends to identify ergonomic and environmental risks, in the different sectors of the Portuguese Textile and Clothing Industry (TCI). This identification will be used in order to have a better understanding of the risks in each sector of TCI. Knowing these risks, some more focused proposals oriented by a Lean methodology, could be recommended to eliminate them more rapidly. The Lean methodology to implement Lean in TCI is already in development and includes ergonomic and sustainable tools to solve the problems related with the identified risks. These tools will allow analysing and evaluating the risks to improve the work environment

How could the TRIZ tool help continuous improvement efforts of the companies?

This paper objective is to explore TRIZ tool as a tool that could be helpful during Lean implementation, in particular, during the continuous improvement process efforts. Attending to the already published papers regarding Lean and TRIZ, at least since 2004, this synergy is viable and sustainable. This paper presents TRIZ principles and discusses their relation With Lean Production principles. Additionally, presents some TRIZ tools and explain how they can be useful in the context of the methodology in development to be applied in Textile and Clothing Industry.PEst-C/EEI/UI0319/201

Metodologias para implementar Lean Production : uma revisão critica de literatura

Neste artigo pretende-se fazer uma revisão crítica de literatura sobre metodologias para implementar Lean Production. Lean Production é um modelo de organização da produção focado no cliente que procura a eliminação dos desperdícios (actividades que não acrescentam valor ao produto) e a entrega atempada de produtos, trazendo muitos benefícios para as empresas. O Lean Production utiliza ferramentas que vão permitir a melhoria dos processos, assim como melhorar os fluxos quer de materiais, quer de informação. Mas a utilização e implementação destas ferramentas exige uma mudança de cultura e estratégia empresarial, muitas vezes, uma mudança contra-intuitiva aos hábitos das pessoas. Para implementar Lean Production é necessário, assim, um caminho que conduza as empresas numa bem sucedida implementação. Neste artigo descreve-se algumas metodologias desenvolvidas para a implementação do Lean Production e faz-se uma reflexão sobre o que uma metodologia deve incluir