Introduction

How to carry out an effective safety improvement program in practice, and what kind of a program corresponds to the needs of today’s companies? These are important questions when planning safety actions. The present article describes the experiences from two case studies, one carried out in the shipbuilding industry, and the other in the metal product industry. The goal of both projects was to launch an improvement process leading to a better work environment and safety, as well as to more efficient production. The cooperation partners represented industries in which the accident rate is above the national average in Finland. In the rapidly changing work environment of a shipyard, e.g. accident hazards are created easily.

The project at the shipyard was started in three departments at the beginning of 1995 and it lasted about a year and a half. In 1996 when the project was evaluated and reported, it involved more thant 10 departments (over 900 employees). In the metal product factory, the project involved a department with about 200 employees. The one-year project was carried out in 1996.

The action research approach combining research and practice and organizational performance management were utilized in the study. In the improvement program, special attention was given to training, participation and utilization of shop-floor experience. The role of foremen was emphasized in motivating the workers to be active in the goal-oriented and systematic improvement process. A small group consisting of workers, supervisors and managers (altogether 4-9 persons) was formed at each department of the shipyard. In the factory three small groups were formed in different production areas of the department, and also a steering group was set up for the project. The groups arranged regular meetings. In their development work, the small groups followed the systematic model which included identification of problems, setting goals, solving problems, implementing changes, monitoring the results and providing feedback.

The researcher helped the companies to carry out the program, e.g. by providing training and support. At the shipyard altogether 5 and in the factory 2 one-day training and planning seminars were organized for the small groups. The material gathered for evaluation included, among other things, all the documents produced by the small groups. A questionnaire survey, which was carried out in each department when the program was started, provided the personnel an opportunity to participate, to report problems they had identified, and to make suggestions for improvements. The questionnaire survey was repeated in order to get evaluative information. The effects of the program on accident rates were also investigated.

All the departments of the shipyard participating in the study achieved some improvements and, in addition, excellent examples came up. In one of the best departments according to the questionnaire survey in the beginning of the program, 55% of the respondents reported that housekeeping was fairly good or very good, whereas after one year almost everybody (86%) was of the same opinion. The improvement was perceived to have been achieved not only in housekeeping, but also in many other areas. Over 80% of the respondents reported that work was progressing better, hazardous situations had decreased, cooperation had improved, new working practices had been learned and job satisfaction had improved. In the department 72% of the workers reported that it was easy to achieve improvements; this reflected the innovative organization culture. The small group of the department made observations on their work environment regularly and provided graphic feedback on the results. In the beginning, about half of the items selected by the group for their observation instrument were recorded as correct (index 54%). After one year the index had risen to 98% indicating that the department had reached nearly all their goals.

Different kinds of improvements were implemented in the shipyard departments, such as racks for tools and materials, trolleys for materials, boxes for rubbish and scraps. A new type of a material card was developed in order to get the right material in the right place and at the right time. The overall accident rate of the ship-yard decreased by 56% during the two years period (25% had been set as the goal). The improvement process continued at the shipyard after the study, and the labour protection manager of the shipyard acted as the internal consultant.

The evaluation indicated that the improvement process had started also in the metal product factory. At the end of the year 38% of the respondents reported that housekeeping was fairly good or very good, whereas in the beginning only 8% were of the same opinion. In the department the best results were perceived to relate to the improvement in housekeeping (68% agreed) and to the decrease in hazardous situations (64% agreed). The work environment index which was measured regularly by the small groups rose from about 50% to 75%. Altogether 62 improvements were implemented during about ten months period. The improvements were mainly technical, such as racks and shelves for lifting devices and materials, fixing the floor in certain areas, ergonomic improvements in work stations, coffee rooms, etc. The accident rate of the department was reduced by 45% during the one year. The department was interested in continuing with more demainding development tasks and a new project was started in 1997.