STANDARDS INSIDER

ADVANCED SAFETY MANAGEMENT

Guidance From a Legendary Professional
Fred Manuele, P.E., CSP, FASSP, has more than a few decades of experience in safety
management, receiving numerous honors and awards along the way. A longtime advocate
of prevention through design and systems thinking, he is also a renowned safety author.
The third edition of his book, Advanced Safety is significantly less than stellar.” As a first step to
Management: Focusing on Z10.0, 45001 and Serious improve this vital element of an operational risk
Injury Prevention, provides new and updated informa- management system, Manuele promotes the adop-
tion across a wide range of topics from safety culture tion of the five-why problem-solving technique.
to hazard analysis, prevention through design, inci- The technique is simple: Ask why five times to
dent investigation, achieving acceptable risk and more. determine what caused a problem so you can iden-
Take these safety management lessons with you tify root causal factors and implement effective
as you head into the new year and the next phase of countermeasures.
your career. Manuele believes the simplicity of this technique is
part of its charm and effectiveness. It does not require
1. Become a Culture Change Advocate extensive and costly training, nor the use of advanced
“Safety is culture-driven,” Manuele writes. “Ev- math or complex models, yet it can mark “a major step
erything that occurs or doesn’t occur that relates to forward” in improving the quality of investigations.
safety is a reflection of an organization’s culture.”
Because of the influence of culture on safety, many 4. Use What-If Analyses
safety professionals will find themselves in the import- to Improve Risk Assessment
ant role of culture change advocate. While he empha- Risk assessment is an essential component of a risk
sizes that changing a culture is not easy and requires management system. Several techniques may be used
the active participation of leaders and teams through- to assess risks and hazards, with each complement-
out an organization, Manuele provides several tips for ing the other. For instance, it may be useful to con-
safety professionals to positively impact culture: duct a checklist analysis, a failure modes and effects
•Get top management buy-in for your objectives, analysis, or a fault tree analysis. A what-if analysis is
ensuring that adequate resources are applied and one such tool Manuele recommends understanding
that safety and health are integrated with other or- and using with your team.
ganizational goals. When conducting a what-if analysis, a group of
•In communicating objectives, link them to actu- people takes a brainstorming approach to identify
al environmental improvements, giving employees hazards, hazard scenarios, how incidents can occur
something tangible to work toward. and what their probable consequences might be.
•Communicate your progress in achieving objec- All of the questions are recorded and assigned for
tives and targets across the organization. investigation. Each subject of concern is then ad-
•To learn from stakeholders, hold an open house or dressed by one or more team members, considering
establish a focus group with people in the organization. the “potential of the hazardous situation and the ade-
•Start with a limited number of culture objectives, quacy or inadequacy of risk controls in effect, suggest-
then expand the list over time. ing additional risk reduction measures if appropriate.”

2. Use System Safety Concepts in the Design Phase 5. Prepare for a Successful
Hazards are most effectively anticipated, avoided or Safety Management System Audit
controlled in the initial design and redesign process, ac- Continually auditing your occupational health
cording to Manuele. In other words, “safety is achieved and safety management system supports improve-
by doing things right the first time, every time.” ment by ensuring that processes and controls are
In applied system safety, the emphasis is on hav- reducing risks. Audit systems fail if they “are not
ing acceptable risk levels designed into systems looked upon as assisting management in attaining
before their actual production or operation. But if their operational goals. Safety auditors will not be
you cannot start fresh, Manuele recommends using perceived favorably if their work is not considered
system safety concepts to guide “an orderly exam- an asset to managements who seek to improve their
ination of an established system or subsystem to safety and health management systems and their
identify, analyze, avoid, eliminate, reduce or control safety culture,” Manuele writes.
hazards” within less-complex situations and without To avoid this outcome, auditors or the audit team
using elaborate analytical methods. should effectively prepare to present their findings
during an exit interview. That means being objective in
3. Improve Incident Investigations With Five Whys their evaluations of management systems, having good
Manuele believes that the “quality of incident in- justifications for all findings and being able to support
vestigations, even in some very large organizations, the prioritization of management system improvements.

14 PSJ PROFESSIONAL SAFETY DECEMBER 2022 assp.org

 Auditors should prepare answers to the following
questions, according to Manuele:
•What are the most significant risks?
•What improvements in our management systems
do we need to make?
•In what priority order should I approach what
you propose?
•Are there alternative risk reduction solutions that
we can consider?
•Will you work with me to determine that the
actions we take and the money we spend attain suf- valuable because of the thought base it provides on how
ficient risk reduction? incidents happen and what is needed to prevent them.
“Safety
Developing skills for the application of MORT profession-
6. Think Critically When requires study and continuous application, and
Using Risk Scoring Systems Manuele recognizes that becoming skilled at it takes als should
Manuele understands why safety professionals (espe- time and effort. However, he believes it is worth be-
cially engineers) like to quantify things. It is a product ing aware of MORT because:
be well
of education, temperament and the widespread belief •It specifically promotes inquiry into manage- informed on
that until you can measure something numerically, you ment’s upstream decision-making for the identifying
do not understand the situation at hand. But he believes sources of causal factors in much greater detail than how change
there is reason to use caution when scoring risk. most other incident investigation models.
“Numerical risk scores carry an image of precise- •MORT’s premise is that where there are deficien- initiatives
ness and that can influence decision-making and cies in operating controls there will be related defi-
priority setting. But in reality, they should not be the ciencies in management decision-making.
succeed and
sole or absolute determinant,” Manuele writes. He recommends downloading manuals from the U.S. fail and how
Considering the many different systems he has Department of Energy (https://bit.ly/3G21kOr)
seen, Manuele offers his own three-dimensional and Noordwijk Risk Initiative Foundation (http://nri success and
numerical risk scoring system in Chapter 10 of his .eu.com/NRI1.pdf) for further research.
book, which aims to serve the need of those who are failure are
more comfortable with statistics, address the strong 9. Adopt Systems/Macro Thinking measured.”
beliefs of those who want the frequency of exposure To achieve broad adoption of systems/macro
given separate consideration in the risk assessment thinking in operational risk management, you must
process and maintain credibility and efficacy. switch your perspective from a narrow/micro view,
“Risk assessment is still as much art as science,” which focuses on “unsafe acts of workers being the
he writes. principal causal factors for incidents and illnesses,”
to a macro, bigger picture view focusing primarily
7. Start Participating in Design “on the work of systems and work methods as the
Reviews by Focusing on Ergonomics principal sources for causal factors.”
Safety professionals are often asked to participate on While systems thinking is gaining more popular-
design review teams early in the design process, and ity among safety professionals, in reviewing 1,950
with good reason. In an advisory note, the writers of incident investigation reports, Manuele found that
the Z10 safety management standard say, “An effective a large proportion of safety professionals often take
design review considers all aspects. . . . The life cycle that narrow view, primarily blaming the worker for
phases should integrate quality, health and safety, pro- injury and illness.
duction, procurement, and consider potential impacts.” To adopt this systems/macro thinking perspective,
But if you have never had the opportunity to par- you must break with this status quo and become a
ticipate in design at your organization, it is not too proponent of a major culture change within your
late to advocate for safety and health. Manuele rec- organization. Although this is easier said than done,
ommends starting with ergonomics. Manuele says that awareness is a critical first step.
“It is well established that successfully applied As Manuele says, “Safety professionals should be
ergonomics initiatives may result not only in risk well informed on how change initiatives succeed and
reduction but also in improved productivity, lower fail and how success and failure are measured.” PSJ
costs, and waste reduction. Furthermore, musculo-
skeletal injuries are a large segment of the spectrum Cite this article
FIZKES/ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES LUS

of injuries and illnesses in all organizations. Since ASSP. (2022, Dec.). Advanced safety management: Guid-
they are costly, reducing their frequency and severi- ance from a legendary professional. Professional Safety,
ty will show notable results,” Manuele writes. 67(12), 14-15.

8. Understand the Management Learn more about sound safety management principles from
Oversight & Risk Tree Manuele’s book, Advanced Safety Management: Focusing on
New to this edition, Manuele discusses the manage- Z10.0, 45001, and Serious Injury Prevention (3rd ed.). https://
ment oversight and risk tree (MORT), which he says is bit.ly/3fRAoX2

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