Fundamentals Of Industrial Safety And Health By Dr Ku Mistry
Roseanne Gennett
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Participants may earn a safety and health fundamentals certificate for Construction, Maritime, or General Industry after completing a minimum of 7 courses comprised of a minimum of 68 (Construction and General Industry) or 77 (Maritime) contact hours of training.
Participants can choose from a variety of topics such as occupational safety and health standards, safety and health management, incident investigation, fall hazard awareness, and recordkeeping. Courses are available at OSHA Training Institute (OTI) Education Centers nationwide.
All courses required to complete the certificate program are available through OTI Education Centers. To be awarded a certificate, students must successfully complete a minimum of 68 (Construction and General Industry) or 77 (Maritime) contact hours. Courses are transferable and may be completed at different OTI Education Centers. For locations nationwide, please view the OTI Education Centers Map. For additional information, please see the FAQs or contact an OTI Education Center.
The Bridgestone Safety Mission Statement applies equally to employees, contractors and visitors to our facilities. In all workplaces the Bridgestone Group operates around the world, the Safety Mission Statement is prominently displayed for all to see. Together with the display, the Group maintains programs to ensure all employees embody the Safety Mission Statement.
The Group exchanges examples of best practice with the strategic business units (SBUs) and Global Business Support (GBS) through regular safety meetings, and promotes related activities in consultation with other global committees to create better synergy.
To encourage cooperation on substantial safety issues from a management perspective in Japan, the Bridgestone corporate officer in charge of safety and disaster prevention works together with general affairs, health management and other divisions to promote company-wide occupational health and safety activities, identify issues, and confirm progress on implementing the fundamental safety activities.
The Central Health and Safety Committee is a company-wide organization comprising representatives of both labor and senior management (including relevant vice presidents, directors, etc.). The committee meets to proactively discuss risk mitigation and improvements in workplace health and safety twice a year.
The Group has established the Global Criteria for Occupational Injury to classify injuries occurring at the Group production, distribution and sales facilities as well as warehouses. The Group compiles injury statistics on a quarterly basis and uses any investigations to help prevent similar injuries. The Group has globally collected data on lost-time injuries frequency rate (LTIFR) for employees and contractors since 2019 and data on occupational illness frequency rate (OIFR) since 2020.
The Group will continue to promote safety activities centered on the Bridgestone Fundamental Safety Activities without compromise, deviation or exception, with the aim of reducing the total number of injuries, and preventing the occurrence of fatalities and serious injuries.
The analysis of serious injuries from 2012-2016 showed that approximately 85% of all serious injuries were related to the five major risks: body caught by equipment, mobile equipment, work at height, heavy object handling, tire high pressure inflating.
To reduce injuries associated with these five major risks, the Group has established the global safety standards including risk assessment, Lock Out Tag Out (LOTO), mobile equipment, work in high places, hoist/crane operation, handling large/heavy tires and tire inflation. In 2022, serious injuries related to the five major risks for all serious injuries dropped to 32%.
To further advance its safety culture, in 2022 the Group focused on uniform implementation of safety measures for 12 specific machines. In 2022, it also defined global common safety requirements of heavy object handling task and maintenance tasks.
The Group uses internal checklists to confirm that safety training, education and drills are implemented: specifications on work procedures are properly drafted; any abnormalities are reported and marked for corrective action; and fire equipment is checked daily.
The Group has established 39 global-level standards for occupational health and safety, and disaster prevention in line with ISO 45001 (OHS management system standards) as well as national standards and regulations, and has implemented these standards to all sites across the organization. In 2022, four new standards were created, three of them related to retail shops. The Group is also creating global standards for logistics sites and retail shops as well as production sites.
Also, the Group is in the process of expanding safety-risk assessments beyond equipment to include work performed in production, logistics sites and retail shops. Future efforts will include new technology to improve worker safety, such as human detection in hazardous areas.
To further advance its safety culture, in August 2021, the Group began focusing on uniform implementation of safety measures for 12 specific machines/equipment. In 2022, safety requirements for equipment were added for smarter factories, as accelerate our transformation in manufacturing toward becoming a sustainable solutions company by applying global standards to machinery and equipment and actively introducing new technologies that incorporate digital, sensing, and AI control.
The safety maturity assessment introduced in 2021 indicates the level of realization of the Bridgestone Safety Mission Statement. The Group has developed a safety maturity assessment tool based on its global common safety standards. Monitoring the progress of assessment contributes to identifying common global issues, confirming the effectiveness of the PDCA cycle on safety activities and making sure continuous improvement activities are being implemented.
Assessments started at production sites from 2022 with the goal of completing assessments at all production sites by 2024. The Group is also preparing for implementation at non-production facilities such as logistics sites and retail shops. The assessment results like safety maturity assessment will yield strengths that can be best leveraged globally, and points needing improvement that can be addressed to continue to enhance safety culture. The Group will also create a maturity assessment check sheet focused on fire risk in 2023.
The Fundamental Area Safety Group will continue to work on the design of a global framework of best practices to enhance the awareness and behavior of all employees through dedicated communication, educational tools and full support from the leadership.
Bridgestone is working to lower risks by pursuing occupational safety in manufacturing locations, stores and warehouses according to global risk assessment standards. The efforts involve conducting assessments to identify risks and establish engineering controls and implementing appropriate work procedures to reduce serious injury risks. The company also conducts risk assessments as required by the ISO 45001-based Bridgestone Group risk assessment standards when any new equipment is introduced, or when any new or revised work practices are determined.
The company continues to assign and train safety engineers (SEs) as experts in equipment safety. Based on the results of risk assessments for existing operations and equipment and for new or modified projects, it identifies any equipment that carries a high injury risk and puts safety measures in place.
In addition, the company seeks to counteract heatstroke by installing air cooling machines and encouraging more vigorous airflow inside plants and distributes drinks and electrolyte tablets to employees and contractors to help prevent heatstroke.
Disaster prevention is another key safety value at the Group. Implementing lessons learned from past incidents, the Group created the Disaster Prevention Global Guidelines, which focus on emergency drills, including firefighting drills and electrical wiring inspections. As with injuries, the Group shares information on fire accidents and any subsequent measures taken to prevent similar accidents throughout the Group. The Group also designated September 8 as Bridgestone Group Disaster Prevention Day. All company worksites conduct emergency drills every year on that day.
Moving forward, the Group will continue to work on improving fire prevention in the workplace by including fire risk mitigation in the new safety policy. The Group established fire risk assessment as part of the Bridgestone global safety management system standards, which are being implemented at the SBU and worksite levels. The fire risk assessment will enable each site to identify and mitigate fire risks from both internal and external sources.
The Center engages in education and training to review the causes of past failures, such as the fire at the Bridgestone Tochigi Plant on September 8, 2003. Bridgestone conducts various training at the center, including sessions that resonate with employees through stories told about past fire accidents and sessions that demonstrate the danger of fire by allowing employees to experience the sensation of static electricity and dust explosions. The Bridgestone Corporation also conducts training that facilitates prevention and early detection of accidents using wreckage found in fire-devastated areas and model facilities. By introducing examples of fires that have occurred not only in Japan but worldwide, the center boasts a hands-on learning environment for global safety training.
The Bridgestone Corporation continually seeks to enhance the training provided at the center. The company has added sessions related to natural disasters on March 11, 2016, the 5th anniversary of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, and lessons learned from that disaster.
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