Search results

To improve unsafe workplace of Chinese SMEs, this paper aims to use the multi-agent simulation experiment to reveal the relationship between employees’ safety voice and safety level of enterprises.

Through simulation of employees’ safety voice activities, enterprises’ production activities, enterprises’ safety activities, an experiment platform is built. The experiment introduces external variable of labor resource and sets four experimental situations considering whether labor resource is sufficient and whether employees’ value is significant.

The result shows that not all the employees’ safety voice can change small- and medium-sized enterprises’ safety level. When there is sufficient labor supply, employee safety voice cannot improve the safety level of enterprises; when there is short of labor and employee safety voice is strong, safety level can be effectively improved. When employees have the strikingly different value variance, safety voice of common employees cannot improve safety level of enterprises, but employee safety voice with high value can improve safety level.

This fully provides that under the circumstances of disappearing demographic dividend in China, improving employees’ safety awareness and reasonably using their safety voice can boost SMEs to enhance safety level.

This paper aims to propose a methodology for a safety and reliability assessment for the conceptual and preliminary design of very complex and disrupting innovative systems like trans-atmospheric vehicles. The proposed methodology differs from existing ones because it does not rely on statistical data at aircraft-level but exploits the statistical population at components-level only. For the sake of clarity, the paper provides some preliminary results of the application of the methodology at system level. The example deals with the safety and reliability assessment of a very complex propulsion system aimed at guaranteeing vertical take-off and landing capabilities of a suborbital vehicle.

The proposed methodology is strongly based on a systems engineering approach. It exploits safety and reliability assessment analyses which have already been developed in both aeronautical and space engineering domains, but it combines them in an innovative way to overcome the lack of statistics at aircraft level. The methodology consists of two different steps: a qualitative top-down process, allowing a functional and physical decomposition of the transportation system and a following quantitative bottom-up approach, which provides the estimation of system-level reliability and safety characteristics starting from the statistical estimation of the components’ characteristics.

The paper presents a new methodology for the preliminary reliability and safety assessment of innovative transportation systems, such as hypersonic transportation systems. The envisaged methodology will overcome the poorness of statistical data that is usually affecting the conceptual design of breakthrough systems.

The paper shows the application of the articulated methodology to a limited case study. A complete example of application of the methodology to estimate safety and reliability characteristics at vehicle level will be provided in feature works.

The methodology has been proposed to be exploited in international research activities in the field of hypersonic transportation systems. Furthermore, a massive application of this approach would allow to create a database for the generation and the update of semi-empirical models focused on high-level estimations of reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS) characteristics. Moreover, the proposed safety assessment has been conceived to be fully integrated within a typical conceptual design process.

The existing literature about safety and reliability assessment at the early design stages proposes pure statistical approaches which are usually not applicable to highly innovative products, where the statistical population is not existing, for example, in the case of trans-atmospheric vehicles. This paper describes how to overcome this problem, through the exploitation of statistical data at components-level only through the combination of these data to estimate RAMS characteristics at aircraft-level thanks to functional analysis, concept of operations and typical safety assessment tools, like functional hazard analysis, failure mode and effect analysis, reliability block diagram and fault tree analysis.

This study aimed to explain how a framework could be developed for (1) the preliminary estimation of project safety level (PSL) in current projects, (2) the estimation of the maximum possible PSL using limited financial resources and (3) the estimation of the minimum financial resources required for reaching a specific PSL.

The data of 95 steel structural building projects were collected via a questionnaire to evaluate the proposed framework for the Iranian construction industry. Based on unofficial local construction statistics and literature reviews, six safety influential factors (SIFs) were selected to which a cost could be assigned. The costs associated with various levels were also determined for each SIF through literature reviews and expert interviews. A multiple linear regression (MLR) model was developed as a predictive model to determine PSL for future projects based on the data of previous projects. Moreover, linear programming (LP) was applied to take modeling constraints and project conditions into account.

The results demonstrated the impacts of all the factors on PSL and the model's potential for the preliminary estimation of PSL using SIFs. The results also indicated that a higher PSL could be achieved by optimizing the allocation of financial resources to each SIF.

This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by developing a step-by-step framework to identify an optimal safety cost allocation (OSCA) to achieve the maximum possible PSL using a limited safety budget and considering the data of similar projects. The main objective was to promote project safety, decrease construction site injuries and fatalities and help local construction industries exploit potential financial advantages.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the effects of inherent differentiation and system level performance assessment in inventory management. This is done by comparing the performance of two common safety stock methods, by considering the methods’ inherent differentiation and item group-level performance effects.

Due to the lack of analytical relationships between the two methods, the analysis is based on event-driven simulations. Data are collected from eight different case companies. Findings explain the importance of assessing safety stock performance for groups of items and not for individual items, as is common in academic studies. It explains how the methods’ inherent differentiation and planning environment characteristics affect the relative performances of the two safety stock methods.

The study explains the importance of assessing performance of safety stock methods on a system-level, rather than on item-level measures. It explains why the demand fill-rate method has a negative impact on the performance for groups of items, while the number-of-days method has a positive impact. The study also explains how the group-level safety stock performance is affected by five demand data characteristics.

The study explains the importance of assessing performance of safety stock methods on a system-level, rather than on item-level measures. It explains why the demand fill-rate method has a negative impact on the performance for groups of items, while the number-of-days method has a positive impact. The study also explains how the group-level safety stock performance is affected by five demand data characteristics.

Understanding the necessity of system level assessment of safety stock performance, how methods inherently differentiate service levels, and how demand characteristics affect methods’ performance can guide the choice of safety stock methods in companies.

No research on the characteristics of the number-of-days safety stock method, any assessment of differentiation characteristics of and comparison with the demand fill-rate method, has been published. The variable “inherent differentiation” is also introduced and defined.

This study proposes targeted modernization of the Department of Defense (DoD's) Joint Forces Ammunition Logistics information system by implementing the optimized innovative information technology open architecture design and integrating Radio Frequency Identification Device data technologies and real-time optimization and control mechanisms as the critical technology components of the solution. The innovative information technology, which pursues the focused logistics, will be deployed in 36 months at the estimated cost of $568 million in constant dollars. We estimate that the Systems, Applications, Products (SAP)-based enterprise integration solution that the Army currently pursues will cost another $1.5 billion through the year 2014; however, it is unlikely to deliver the intended technical capabilities.

Safety is arguably the most important “quality” attribute of commercial aviation, yet it rarely figures into overt interfirm rivalry. Usually, airlines do not even allude to their safety record vis-à-vis rivals in their advertising and press statements. Moreover, statistical analysis by independent parties usually indicates that peer airlines within the same geographic region and segment of the industry have indistinguishable safety records (Barnett, 2010).

Previous research studies have testified that safety culture positively affects safety performance. However, the progression by which safety culture affects safety performance has not yet been examined. Also, how safety culture affects the overall safety performance at different levels of the organization is yet to be explored. In order to address this issue, the purpose of this paper is to study the effect of multilevel safety culture upon safety performance over time.

A conceptual causal-loop diagram is constructed using the group model building approach to establish the relationship between safety culture components (e.g. psychological, behavioral and situational) and the factors associated with safety performance (e.g. risk level, safety behavior, unsafe conditions, unsafe acts and incident rate). Considering the dynamic nature and intricacy of the safety management system, the system dynamics approach has been employed to develop the model.

The results indicate that the safety culture at the tactical level (middle management) and operational level is much more effective than strategic level (top management) in ameliorating the safety performance of the organization.

The scope of this study is limited to the effect of multilevel safety culture on safety performance. The focus is on the dynamics of personal, behavioral and situational factors of top management, middle management and workers to reinforce the safety performance of the organization. Future research can be protracted to build other models of safety.

First and foremost, the findings summarized in this paper can be implemented by organizations to achieve the total safety culture to upgrade safety performance.

This paper presents the holistic view of multilevel safety culture in an organization’s hierarchy. It shows how multilevel level safety culture in an organization interacts with the safety management system to enhance the safety performance of the organization.

The research was carried out to statistically evaluate the relationship between the safety measures at the construction sites and the actual and perceived knowledge levels of the employees about these measures.

Face-to-face surveys were conducted with the workers. The survey included some perception-based questions about preventive measures at the construction site, as well as determining the level of awareness of employees on occupational health and safety (OHS) practices. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistical methods and bivariate correlation analysis.

The actual knowledge levels of workers on OHS measures in the workplace is significantly lower than their perceived knowledge levels. However, there is a positive, linear and strong relationship between the actual knowledge levels of the employees about some OHS rules applied in the workplace and the general level of knowledge they perceive about themselves. Some protective measures such as occupational safety expert, OHS board, employee representatives, training and information activities at construction sites positively affect the safety awareness of employees. However, low-frequency and documentation-intensive activities such as risk assessment, emergency activities and periodic controls have no or weak correlations.

Perception-based opinions of construction site workers on occupational safety issues are transformed into numerical data and analyzed with a quantitative method.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds his/her own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Patient safety and quality of care remain among the biggest challenges to health-care organizations. Past research has looked at how the safety culture within a hospital setting can be improved. This paper uses a multi-level model to look at how direct and indirect factors can affect safety outcomes. The model shows that factors work in combination; teamwork and continual learning, support, adequate staffing levels, and making safety a priority at management levels all lead to improved patient safety and decreased risk.

The paper saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

This paper aims to present findings on research funded by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) on factors contributing to superior safety performance amongst construction firms in the UK – specifically, the level of training received by site managers.

A random sample of 100 construction firms provided details of the type and duration of health and safety (H&S) training received by their site managers. This was analysed against a three point scale: up to two days training; the Site Managers Safety Training Scheme (SMSTS) five days training; and, National/Scottish Vocational Qualification for H&S – Level 3 or above. This was cross‐tabulated with their Accident Incidence Rate (AIR).

The results were as follows: up to two days training gave a mean AIR=1825; SMSTS mean AIR=1566; N/SVQ 3 or above mean AIR=211. This shows that increased durations of training are associated with lower accident rates. If duration is accepted as a measure of “level” of training then the findings support the hypothesis that increased levels of training lead to increased safety performance.

The sample was skewed with over 70 per cent having accident rates lower than the industry average. This is common in such studies and is difficult to control without losing data. It also meant non‐parametric tests were used. The findings cannot be reliably extended to organisations with turnover less than £4m.

These findings add a new dimension to previous studies that have generally compared the mere presence, or otherwise, of training with safety performance.

The paper establishes a baseline in relation to the minimum level of H&S training for site managers as well as providing evidence for increased investment to achieve superior performance.