Citation

Barsky I, Dutta SP. Int. J. Ind. Ergonomics 1997; 20(4): 307-315.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Consumer safety in the use of a product is always given the highest priority by product designers. However, little or no consideration, it seems, is afforded the production workers who must produce and assemble these products. Given the conservative bent of governments, industry will have less incentive to invest in equipment which will reduce the risk of work-related injuries, or to give maximum consideration to designing the products and processes in such a manner that the risk of worker injury is minimized. One possible approach to make industries more accountable in this regard, is to utilize ISO 9000 as a vehicle for incorporating FMEA-like analysis techniques for occupational health issues and to audit every customer/supplier to assure that actions are being taken to solve any problems which have been identified. The authors suggest some strategies for implementing and controlling this type of system. Relevance to industryThe concepts and methods presented here will allow product designers and process planners to not only assess the injury risk of their proposed design on the workers who must manufacture the product, but also determine the costs associated with such risks.