Continuous Safety Improvement
It's important to think of safety as an important aspect of both product and process quality in the workplace. In this course, we'll address those concepts and principles that apply safety specifically to process safety. Let's take a brief look at how product and process safety differ.
Product quality is elusive. The only way you know you have it is by asking those who define it: The customer. All the company can do is to try hard to produce a product that fits the customer's definition of quality. When the product is designed to prevent injury or illness, the customer will define the product as safe. As we all know, customer perceptions about product safety are very important these days. Unfortunately, some companies do not take safety into consideration when designing their products. Consequently they may unintentionally design unsafe or unhealthful features into their products.
Process quality and safety are very closely related. Process quality may be considered error-free work, and safety, as one element the of process, can be thought of as injury-free work. When an injury occurs, the "event" increases the number of unnecessary and wasted steps in the production process. How does safety fit into the continuous quality improvement philosophy?
The Shewhart/Deming Cycle
After analyzing your safety management system, you may discover that one or more improvements are necessary, it's important to carefully develop and implement the change using a planned method.
The Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle
One simple change management technique is to use the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Cycle. It was first developed by Dr. Walter Shewhart and later applied by W. Edwards Deming, the father of total quality management, to transform the industry of Japan after World War II. He promoted the PDSA Cycle that was partly responsible for Japan's meteoric rise in manufacturing. He believed that statistics hold the key to improving processes, and that management must take responsibility for quality in the workplace because management controls the processes.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
5-9. How can safety be considered in the context of continuous quality improvement philosophy in the workplace?
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