Co-operation between different parties and effective safety management play an important role in ensuring safety in multiemployer worksites. This article reviews safety co-operation and factors complicating safety management in Finnish multiemployer manufacturing worksites. The paper focuses on the service providers' opinions; however, a comparison of the customers' views is also presented. The results show that safety-related co-operation between providers and customers is generally considered as successful but strongly dependent on the partner. Safety co-operation is provided through, e.g., training, orientation and risk analysis. Problems encountered include ensuring adequate communication, identifying hazards, co-ordinating work tasks and determining responsibilities. The providers and the customers encounter similar safety management problems. The results presented in this article can help companies to focus their efforts on the most problematic points of safety management and to avoid common pitfalls.
Globally operating machine manufacturing companies need practices for recognising local safety requirements, as well as for designing the products for, and delivering them to, wider markets. This study aimed to determine (1) companies' product delivery strategies for managing product safety compliance and conformity in their supply chains, (2) the problems that arise in managing the product safety-related requirements and (3) how companies tackle these problems. The study comprised interviews with 25 representatives of 2 large internationally operating European companies manufacturing machines for use at work. The companies' strategies for decoupling the local safety requirements from their standard products covered maketo-stock, assemble-to-order, make-to-order and engineering-to-order. The problems were experienced mostly in systematic discovering and processing of the requirements, responsibility issues and unequal practices within global organisation. To tackle these problems, a company must have tools and practices to manage the information needs and understand the concepts of product delivery strategies.Relevance to human factors/ergonomics theory Companies must have tools to integrate the design of safe and ergonomic products into engineering design process. This article discusses the safety design of machines intended for use at work from the compliance management and supply chain management perspectives. The topics are not new per se, but they can create a novel combination in the safety research for the scientific community. This article provides novel information for the safety researchers regarding safety-related challenges within global business as well as the applicability of adapted theories in safety research. As a conclusion, the authors give recommendations to better tackle the issue of manufacturing-compliant products cost-effectively for differing customers and markets.
At sites with multiple employers, efficient safety management is essential to ensure safety for both customers and providers. However, implementing effective safety management is challenging, particularly for companies that provide services. Provider companies encounter difficulties managing the safety of service projects for many reasons, including the variety of customers and changes in work environment. Proper preparation and integration of safety into the different project life cycle stages improves safety, but the topic has not received much attention to date. This article discusses the integration of safety considerations into service projects. Material was collected from Finnish manufacturing companies via interviews and a questionnaire. The results show that systematic methods for developing and producing services have not been adopted in the provider companies, but these are often implemented as a result of practical experience. On the other hand, providers and customers both believed that safety is taken into account during different stages of a given service project—safety issues were to some extent taken into account during the tendering and contract stages of a project, and preventive safety measures were commonly implemented during the delivery of services. However, safety performance often was not evaluated after completion of work. For this reason, companies may not have an accurate estimation of each other's safety performance in these types of multi‐employer situations. The results of this study can be used in provider organizations to help systematize safety considerations during service projects and to focus efforts on the most essential points of service project safety management.
The amount of outsourcing has increased over the passing years. Employees from several employers are often working in the same workplace with diverse working methods. Companies already have good practices relating both to occupational safety of their own employees and those of their partners. This paper presents the results of interviews concerning the kind of practices industrial service providers and their customers have adopted in order to achieve a good level of occupational safety for both partners. The most important issues identified were that everyone must have a commitment to occupational safety as well as there being close co-operation between contracting parties. Occupational safety must be taken into account in every phase of the contract period, i.e., from initial negotiation of a contract to final conclusion of the contract.
In global trade a machine manufacturer must localize their products for different customers and market areas and they need to manage large variety of product safety requirements, conformity declarations and product liability issues. The aim of this study is to determine 1) which kind of problems there are involved in managing product safety-related requirements of machines intended for use at work internationally and 2) how globally operating companies designing and manufacturing machines have managed this issue in global market. The study is based on literature review and interviews of representatives of two large internationally operating European companies manufacturing machines intended for use at work. The companies’ representatives experienced that the European integration has clarified the product safety requirements, but the actual practices may still vary between different member countries within the EU. The compliance with European product safety requirements were seen as a good basis for re-engineering the machines to the global market. The typical strategies to localize the products were 1) to meet the requirements locally in the front line, and 2) identify and take into account the local requirements and needs during the initial design and manufacturing of the machine.
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