Safety Concepts

In all kinds of industries, each shop supervisor is generally assigned the responsibility of safety in his shop regarding the men, machines and materials. Every supervisor in each shop ensures to the top executives in respect of all kinds of the safety matters. He is supposed to incorporate all new safety measures needed in the shop from time to time. With the growth in the size of the industry and depending upon the hazardousness of industrial processes, a full fledged safety department should be created under the intensive supervision through a safety manager. The safety manager may be given a line position or staff position depending upon the working conditions in the industry. Sometimes the responsibility for safety rests on a safety committee formed by the top executives of the organization. A safety committee may consist of executives, supervisors, and shop floor workers. Thus the lower level employees get a channel of communication on safety matters direct to executive level. It is a matter of fact that those organizations which made safety committees had lower record of accidents than those without safety committees. Safety committees always motivate all the industrial employees for developing safety consciousness. It acts also as a policy making body on safety matters. To enhance the efficiency of the safety committee, some safety problem may be assigned to safety staff for identifying and implementing safety rules and publicizing them. Its members should be asked to go on the shop floor and watch what is being done there till date about the safety measures. It should be asked to report periodically as what improvements have been made and what more can be done for safety aspects in near future for avoiding any mis-happening in the plant. Safety committee often organizes safety programs to make industrial persons sufficiently alert for overall safety within the plant. A safety program tends to discover when, where and why accidents occur. It always aims at reducing accidents and the losses associated with them. It begins with the assumption that more work-connected accidents can be prevented. It does not have an end rather it is a continuous process to achieve adequate safety. It involves providing, safety equipments and special training to employees. It consists of support by top management, appointing a safety officer, engineering a safe plant, processes and operations, educating all industrial employees to work safely, studying and analyzing the accidents to prevent their occurrence in future, holding safety contests, safety weeks etc., and awarding incentives or special prizes to departments which enforces the safety rules and having least number of accidents.