Question

Topic: Construction/Safety/Total Quaility Management

(Briefly discuss in your own words, 1 paragraph minimum)

1) How does Total Quality Management (TQM) relate to Safety Programs?

2) How would you as a Safety Professional or manager enhance safety in the construction industry by using TQM?

Answer 1

Total means that the quality involves everyone and all activities within in the company including occupational safety activities.

Quality means the conformance to requirements that is to meet mainly the customer requirements which are strictly related to the production environment and its safety.

Management means that the quality can and must be managed rather than traditionally controlled.

• Research shows that the major causes of accidents are related to the unique nature of the industry, human behavior, difficult work site conditions, and poor safety management, which result in unsafe work methods, equipment and procedures.

• The loss or injury of trained and experienced workers, and the worker disruption to progress of work, undeniably represent reduction in the performance of construction. The cost of accidents which includes increased insurance cost, lost productivity and disruptions, provides an economic motivation to try and prevent accidents from happening: safety culture can set the tone for implementation of safety in construction site environments.

• Improvements in safety management have taken place as a combination of efforts of

owners, contractors, subcontractors, and designers. The owner‟s involvement has shown to

            favorably influence project safety performance by setting safety objectives,   selecting safe contractors, and participating in safety management during construction.

• Safety is implemented, in essence, by contractors on work sites who indeed need to adopt adequate safety related systems for the provision and control of work environment systems and human behavior.

• Safety culture is largely dependent on a Total Safety management (TSM) philosophy which finds its roots from the Total Quality Management (TQM) principles. Although, the concept of TSM is relatively new in the construction industry; however, it is gaining popularity due to its ability to embrace all perceptional, psychological, behavioral and managerial factors.

Need for Total Safety Management in Construction Industry: Reducing the number of fatal and non-fatal worker.

Enhance safety by TQM

• Create a plan to promote workplace health and safety: Make sure all employees have access to a first aid kit.

            A cleaner working with heavy duty cleaning products is always required inside the     workplace.

• Inspect workplace: Regularly check all equipment and tools to ensure that they are well maintained and safe to use.
• Train your employees: Proper training is necessary for all employees, especially if there is a risk for potential injury associated with a job.
• Talk regularly with your employees: Meet regularly with your staff and discuss health and safety issues.
• Investigate incidents: Even if an incident does not result in a serious injury, conduct an incident investigation to help determine why an incident happened so you can take steps to ensure that it will not recur.
• Maintain records: Keep records of all first aid treatment, inspections, incident investigations, and training activities. This information can help you identify trends in unsafe conditions or work procedures.
• Make safety a key part of your business: Safety shouldn’t be an after-thought; it’s just as important to a successful business as customer service, inventory control, and financial planning. A commitment to health and safety makes good business sense because it’s the one way to protect your greatest resource.