Safety in manufacturing

Because of the very nature of manufacturing, managers of this type of business are always looking for ways to improve safety. Safety in the workplace should always be a high priority. The bottom line is that having accidents on the job, can lead to a loss in productivity, and can cost the company a lot of money. It can also have a huge effect on how your employees perform their work. This is because if they do not feel as if they are in a safe environment, they will not perform to their best potential.

One of the ways that you can improve safety and reduce job-related accidents in a manufacturing setting is by the use of Behavior based safety (BBS). BBS, is a program that focuses strictly on how a business, can change it organizational behavior. It must be stressed that in order for BBS to work, it must include:the whole company, from the CEO and management, to all other employees. It is imperative that when you are creating your safety program, everyone must be involved in the decision making. Keep in mind that Behavior based safety, is not based on how a person is feeling or on their opinions, but is based on scientific knowledge on how a job runs. When implementing a program you need to take the following steps, in order to make the safety program work correctly.

• Set common goals-Management as a whole must realize the need to set a goal that they all employees can reach.Then you need to have each employee, set a personal goal that will help improve themselves, and the company.


• Set target goals-After the company has set common goals, you structure your goals to make sure you have target goals these are goals that you will strive to meet, but in the process may find that you need to take a different approach. Make sure that you set goals that you and your employees, know you can reach. In setting goals that are reachable, you will see safety by each employee improve.


• Adjust the attitude-many times employees overlook safety.When you use a behavior based safety program, it is crucial to make sure that attitudes are adjusted also. It has been shown that behavior influences attitude, and attitude influences behavior. When you have positive attitudes, you see good positive results. As far as safety is concerned it is important to be sure to keep communication, open between your employees. This will help them to trust you, as well as you to trust them.


• Have a safety analysis done-It is important to remember that since you are going to observe your employees, they may not perform their job duties the same way they normally do when you are not around. To find out why some of the accidents are happening, you can assign "shadow" monitors. These individuals will watch the way employees perform their jobs, and report back to you. This is a great way to gain a true analysis of your employee's performance.


• Bring in an outside firm-Keep in mind that there are several companies that offer behavior based safety programs, and they will come in and train, your employees to properly operate the machinery. These companies will provide behavior-based training, and will talk to each of your employees about some of the things they do, that cause workplace accidents to occur. They will also go through all of your equipment, to see if there are problems with the machines. This is crucial since broken equipment leads to workplace accidents. Every time an employee is injured, and they file with workers compensation, your monthly insurance rates will increase. To help save money on workers compensation, the best choice is to implement a behavior-based safety program, to reduce workplace accidents. Depending upon the size of your organization, the cost averages anywhere form $1,000 per employee to $50,000 for a company contract.