Addressing and managing risk to a company can be approached reactively or proactively. In a proactive approach, addressing and managing business risk is integrated with equipment or facilities hazard analysis and sign-off protocol to further highlight Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) issues in advance of installations and construction. This approach leads to lower risk, decreased costs, a more consistent approach across developing and existing installations and facilities, and a safer workforce. This paper provides an overview of how and why to use this integrated hazard analysis process in each phase from design through startup. Finally, we'll look ahead to an emerging trend in supply chain – robotics, and specifically, collaborative robots, or "CoBots" – with a view to applying the integrated hazard analysis to minimize cost and risk in the integrated work environment.
Historically, EHS has been approached from two perspectives: 1) "Reactive" where the focus is to rectify existing problems that lead to significant costs due to injuries; and 2) "Proactive" where the focus is on identifying potential concerns in advance of installation. But how much is a "reactive" approach costing your company?
The 2016 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index cites the top 4 injury causes as accounting for nearly 60% of the total cost burden in 2013. Overexertion involving outside sources was ranked first among the leading causes of disabling injury. This event category, which includes injuries related to lifting, pushing, pulling, holding, carrying, or throwing, cost businesses $15 billion in direct costs and accounted for 24% of the overall national burden.
Increasing in frequency and costs over the previous year, falls on same level and falls to lower leve rank second and third, respectively. With direct costs of $15 billion, these fall categories together accounted for the next 24% of the total injury burden.
Struck-by object or equipment ranked fourth at $5 billion in costs and 9% of the cost burden. The use of industrial robots is expanding throughout the industry and if not addressed proactively, may increase the cost burden from this hazard category in future years.