You were recently hired as an occupational safety and health consultant for Gemstone Fabricators, a medium-sized manufacturing facility that makes stainless steel counters, containers, and carts for t
Running Head: UNIT III ASSIGNMENT 1
Columbia Southern University
01/15/18
Unit III Assignment
Gemstone Fabricators is a medium sized manufacturing facility that makes stainless steel counters, containers, and carts for the food prep and restaurant industries. A couple of years ago Gemstone made the business decision to that they would like to submit themselves to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to join the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP). Recently, there has also been interest to align with American National Standard Institute’s (ANSI) Z10 standard for Environmental, Health, and Safety Management program. Gemstone has hired an Occupational Safety and Health consulting company to evaluate and assist them with the application process to OSHA for VPP. During the evaluation process a number of concerning issues and deficits are present and need to be address prior to submission to OSHA’s VPP.
In reviewing the submission materials it was noted that there are accountability requirements specified in front-line workers’ performance evaluation documentation for safety performance but, subsequently, there was no such requirement in the performance evaluation documentation for supervisors, managers, or executives. Discussions with employees also suggest that, although the Gemstone wants the front-line workers to be heavily involved in the safety effort, they are not always sure exactly what they are supposed to be doing to help move the company’s safety programs forward. The deficit present here is a break in the accountability system, as front line employee are being held to a safety standard that supervision and management are not. ANSI Z10 standard speaks on management leadership and organizational culture being the most important section of an Occupational Health and Safety program. (Manuele, 2014) “Section 3.1.3 of Z10 requires that management define roles, assign responsibilities and authority, provide the necessary resources (financial and human), and establish accountability.” (Manuele, 2014) It is obvious that the safety culture at Gemstone does not account for management roles in safety and it is reflecting in discussions with employees on the floor. An accountability system should be a continuous wheel with management feeding the momentum. This deficit should be addressed prior to your submission to OSHA.
ANZI Z10 encourages integration with other management systems to facilitate organizational effectiveness. A recurring framework in ANSI/AIHA Z10 is Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) and could be a good start to fix these deficits. PDCA is a four step cycle that represents a continuous cycle for continuous improvement, much like the wheel metaphor mentioned earlier. The PDCA process was generated originally for quality assurance but has been adopted by many businesses as a model for continuous improvement in all aspects of their business. “The American National Standard for Quality Management Systems a brief but adequate definition of the PDCA processes, as follows:
Plan: Establish the objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with customer requirements and the organization’s policies.
Do: Implement the processes.
Check: Monitor and measure processes and product against policies, objectives, and requirements for the product and report the results.
Act: Take actions to continually improve process performance.” (Manuele, 2014)
A simple example of how this could be implemented in to an OSH program is:
Plan: Establish a Risk Assessment program that can be universally used across the business, to include physical hazards, chemical hazards, industrial hygiene, ergonomics, and environmental hazards.
Do: Implement the program to begin with training of management and then employees.
Check: Monitor the progress of the program. Collect data, such as processes assessed vs. not assessed, risk recognized and the controls mitigating those risk, number of high risk before controls vs. number after, etc.. Measure the effectiveness of controls in place by comparing to injuries before and after controls were implemented.
Act: Take actions to correct in deficiencies in the program or the assessments. Reassess processes after an injury occurs.
Implementation of the PDCA process into an OSH program, as exampled above, could greatly benefit Gemstone’s program as a whole and fix any deficits, such as the one with the accountability. This will not only be better practice in assisting with Gemstone’s VPP goals but also help the business align with the ANSI Z10 standard.
Reference
Manuele, F. A. (2014). Advanced safety management: Focusing on Z10 and serious injury prevention (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
