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The purpose of this paper is to study reliability, availability, and mean time to failure of a repairable robot‐safety system composed of (n−1) standby robots, a safety unit, and a switch.

Generalized expressions for system state probabilities, system availability, reliability, and mean time to failure are developed when the failure rates of robot and safety unit are constant and the failed system repair times are arbitrarily distributed. Supplementary variable and Markov methods were used to develop these expressions.

This study clearly demonstrates that standby robots and the repair process help to improve system availability.

This study will help maintenance engineers and reliability practitioners to become aware of the combined effect of standby robots and the repair process on the performance of the robot‐safety system. Consequently, they will make better maintenance related decisions in organizations such as automobile manufacturers that use robots quite frequently.

This paper has studied the effects of having redundant robots and the repair facilities on the performance of a robot‐safety system with perfect mechanism to turn on a standby robot. This is one of the first attempts to study the combined effects of all these factors on a robot‐safety system.

Until recently there has been a problem integrating safety related sensors and other safety components with software based control systems for process plant and machinery. Marrying effectively, traditional safety components such as emergency stop buttons, gate interlocks, light curtains, pull cords, safety mats, etc. and the traditional safety relay with modern PCs and PLCs offers quite a challenge. Such problems have now been solved by Smartscan Limited, based in Corby, Northants, UK who have developed the Safenet integrated safety control system ‐ an entirely new approach to machine safety. The Safenet system provides a Master Controller which communicates with field based safety components over a two wire data highway which carries the system power, diagnostic information and all safety related data.

Safety‐related fieldbus is now being employed in many varied applications. Developments in fieldbus technology and programmable systems, coupled with developments in International and European Standards have created the opportunity for widespread use. Performance, equipment availability, flexibility, diagnostics and reduced cost of ownership are the principal reasons for rapid growth in safety‐related networking. The use of programmable safety systems has fundamentally have changed the way in which safety is now being engineered in the manufacturing plant. New devices provide direct connectivity to safety‐related networks, increasing the scope and changing the architecture of safety systems far beyond conventional expectations. Technological developments, application and benefits of safety‐related networking in industrial automation systems are shown. Criteria for safety network selection are highlighted.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors affecting the adoption of food‐safety management systems by Thai food‐manufacturing firms.

The study employs a survey questionnaire using a sample of Thai food‐manufacturing firms. The three‐part questionnaire was mailed to managers performing food‐safety management activities in 480 firms. A total of 217 questionnaires were returned, with a response rate of 45.2 percent.

The results of hypothesis testing indicated that the adoption of a food safety management system can be significantly predicted by: expected gain of social legitimacy; expected gain of economic competitiveness; perceived importance of external stakeholders (government, community, food safety organizations, and media); top management commitment to food safety; firm size and amount of export sales. It can also be predicted by the extent to which firms exchange food safety knowledge with other stakeholders.

The results of the study suggest that the Government should formulate food safety policies in favour of educating senior managers in the potential benefits of food safety management systems for their firms. In addition it confirms the importance of Government information dissemination on the successful adoption of such systems and the need to focus Government resources on assisting smaller firms. The findings present evidence of the commercial benefits of system adoption.

The paper identifies statistically significant factors that can “predict” the uptake of food safety management systems within the Thai food industry.

An overview of the analysis which should be undertaken with regard to safety where robotic systems are used. Looks at accidents associated with these systems and the legislation covering their operation in the workplace. Outlines general guidelines for robotic system design, implementation and maintenance and the various factors which should be considered with regard to safety. Describes a proposed International Electrotechnical Commission [IEC] standard for safety‐related systems and concludes that if a systematic approach is taken concerning safety from inial design through to installation operation and maintenance, then accidents can be minimized.

Fire safety management on offshore platforms has been a matter of major concern since the publication of the Cullen report into the Piper Alpha fire. In order to be able to achieve and maintain an acceptable level of fire risk it is desirable to consider the system as a “dynamic whole”. The intention in this research has been to construct a fire safety management system which is both efficacious and resilient. To this end a systemic approach to fire safety for an offshore platform has been pursued, employing the Viable System Model and the Failure Paradigm Method.

Organizations working in high-hazard environments contribute significantly to modern society and the economy, not only for the valuable resources they hold but also for the indispensable products and services they provide, such as power generation, transportation and defense weapons. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to develop a framework that outlines future research on systems safety and provides a better understanding of how organizations can effectively manage hazard events.

In this research, we developed the high hazard theory (HHT) and a theoretical framework based on the grounded theory method (GTM) and the integration of three established theoretical perspectives: normal accident theory (NAT), high reliability theory (HRT) and resilience engineering (RE) theory.

We focused on the temporal aspect of accidents to create a timeline showing the progression of hazard events and the factors contributing to safety and hazards in organizations. Given the limitations of the previous theories in providing a coherent explanation of hazard event escalation in high-hazard organizations (HHOs), we argue that the highlighted theories can be more complementary than contradictory regarding their standpoints on disasters and accident prevention.

A proper appreciation of the hazard nature of organizations can help reduce their susceptibility to failure, prevent outages and breakdowns of systems, identify areas for improvement and develop strategies to enhance performance.

By developing HHT, we contribute to systems safety research by developing a new, refined theory and enrich the theoretical debate. We also expand the understanding of scholars and practitioners about the characteristics of organizations working in high-hazard environments.