Construction Safety 3

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Week 3 - Discussion Questions

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1. As it is stated on Chapter 12, “Safety Policy is a statement of management’s commitment to a high-quality work environment”. In today’s industry, the lack of safety policies and safety procedures could result in thousands of dollars in claims as well as a bad reputation for the company. The use of this procedures and regulations will decrease the percentage of incidents/accidents within a company, as well as to implement “lesson-learned” concept, which will help others to try and avoid the same incident/accidents by implementing new ways to perform any task.

2. I do not totally agree with the first student, human error plays a big part on any related accidents in construction and in general. We as humans, are not perfect, and by not being perfect, there’s a possibility that something could go wrong. We still need to take in consideration the other types of hazardous analysis, for example, HAZOP ( Hazard & Operability Review) which is use for operations involving chemicals or toxic materials, an experienced team is required to brainstorm about any potential hazards. But that doesn’t mean that all issues/concerns/problems will be resolved. In reality, all analysis stated in Chapter 13, will required the knowledge and expertise of a human. The only way to try and minimize accidents at the workplace is to work together as a team and to prioritize safety instead of comfort.

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Week 3 - Discussion Questions

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1. I believe it is crucial when obtaining a comprehensive corporate safety policy and goals and not to mention, it is the most important component when establishing such a plan. Overall, the safety policy is a statement to a high-quality work environment of the management’s commitment that should be signed by the company’s chief executive officer. The policy’s objective is to communicate to the employees by explaining that a company is committed to providing safe and healthy work environments, employees are expected to work in safe and healthy work manner, and safety and health rules and regulations are enforced. All these regulations are important and must communicated to the employee prior to begin working.

2. Although it has been statistically proven that human error is often the ultimate theory of accident causation, I wouldn’t entirely agree with the first student. The three broad factors that lead to human error consist of: overload, inappropriate response and inappropriate activities. It is nearly impossible that these could be the only issues in hazard analysis. There are other factors such as weather, lack of information, equipment mishap that could result in hazard analysis as well. HEA can focus on the major and most hazards and determine ways on how to reduce and minimize those particular errors.

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Week 3 - Discussion Questions

1. I think it that having a comprehensive corporate safety policy and goals is a must in any company. Not only it is required by OSHA, but for a company to be successful, it has to have engraved their safety value on its core. By having a comprehensive corporate safety policy and goals the workers will know what you expect from them from a safety standpoint. It is important that the workers clearly understand them to avoid any misunderstanding or any unnecessary injury.

2. Human error is described as an unintentional action or decision, and I do think this is something that will always be present in construction. However, I also think that this can be significantly reduced. For example, human error it is often cause by fatigue. Having said this, the supervisors can always emphasize on the importance of the workers to come well rested to the job site. Also having breaks in a strategical manner can help to reduce injuries caused by fatigue.

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Week 3 - Discussion Questions

1. I believe having a comprehensive corporate safety policy and goals is highly important. This dictates a standard as how things should be done to be able to reach safety goals, at the end of the day preventing and accident by spending more time going over these policies will be less costly than if the accident was to occur.

2. Even though I believe human error plays a big role in creating a hazard, I disagree that it is the only method that should be used since some hazards are created through defective equipment/machinery. That is why it is important to conduct a FMEA analysis.

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Week 3 - Discussion Questions

1. In my opinion, having a comprehensive corporate safety policy is very important for any company. It helps to prevent accidents, identify potential hazards and correct them before causing an injury. Setting corporate safety goals is a way to motivate workers to get committed to provide a safe working environment. Having safety policies also help the company to save money and consequently have more profit. It is a win-win situation for the company and for the employee who can be safe at work.

2.Even tough human error is behind of almost every construction accident, this not represent the 100% of the accidents. There still a small percentage of accidents that are not caused by human error so we cannot say that human error is behind EVERY accident. Having this in mind, I do not think that human error analysis is the only technique to be considered; Hazard and Operability Review (HAZOP)), Technical of Operation Review (TOR), and Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) are just examples of different hazard analysis techniques that can be used.

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WEEK 3: Discussion Questions

1. In my opinion it is very important to have a comprehensive corporate safety policy and goals stablished in any size company because you have to able to follow safety regulation because it doesn’t only affect the company but the employees too. I was in charge of safety in my previous employer and I saw a lot of things the company do in a different perspective after been in charge of safety. Employees think that the company do things just because they want but in reality, they do the things they do to be able to maintain a good environment for employee as well as maintaining a good reputation of the company and cost down. Policies are good because that way employee will have a guide to follow and goals great as well because with this you can add incentives and employees will do their best to obtain those goal in order for them to get rewarded. We had a quarterly safety bonus of 100 dollar per employee if in the last quarter we didn’t have any lost time injuries so employee will always be on top of safety because they look forward to getting the bonus.

2. I do not agree with the first student that every hazard analysis will be based on using human error analysis because many hazards can be produced by something else other than human errors. For example, in many construction sites we have heavy equipment that is use in the project but is not a human error if the equipment suddenly breaks down or malfunctions and causes and accident. In my previous employer we had electrical issues cause by things outside the company and all the rebar mill stand will shut down with the raw material at 2200 degrees rolling through and sometime this material will cause further damages to equipment and accidents with no human error related to it. The cause can be attributed in certain level to human error because the equipment may not broken down if maintenance in the equipment is done properly and in the electrical problem maybe it can be human error from and external company that cause the black out but at the end of the day this doesn’t related directly to the actual company using the equipment and the company running the rebar.