Is "Zero Accidents" a realistic goal?

S

samsung

#1
I have seen many companies setting a goal for achieving 'Zero Accident /incident' or 'Zero Machine Breakdown' and most of them end up desperately with no achievement on the score card at last. The unacheived goals, whatsoever, are carried forward with an objective to achieve those in the next f.y.

Is 'Zero Accident / incident' goal is realistic, worthwhile and appropriate given that anything above that will not be justifiable ?

Further, if is is not deemed 'realistic', what other options one can try out?
 
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B

brahmaiah

#2
Re: Is 'Zero Accident" goal realistic ?

I have seen many companies setting a goal for achieving 'Zero Accident /incident' or 'Zero Machine Breakdown' and most of them end up desperately with no achievement on the score card at last. The unacheived goals, whatsoever, are carried forward with an objective to achieve those in the next f.y.

Is 'Zero Accident / incident' goal is realistic, worthwhile and appropriate given that anything above that will not be justifiable ?

Further, if is is not deemed 'realistic', what other options one can try out?
Firstly we have to start specifying/defining an accident?
Which accident should be counted and which need not be counted as an accident?
Then we have to categorize accidents into at least 3 categories as ;
GRADE 1. Fatal accidents
GRADE2. Major accidents
GRADE3. Minor accidents
Next we have to fix targets for each of them. For eg; Grade1---'0' Grade2:'1'
Grade3:'5'
By classifyifying like this you can achieve some targets.
Clubbing all accidents together will be ambiguous.
V.J.Brahmaiah
 

Steve Prevette

Deming Disciple
Staff member
Super Moderator
#3
If the goal for injuries is not zero, who is it that you want to send home injured?

A lot depends upon how the company handles its "goals". A problem with a goal other than zero is what happens when you achieve the goal? How do you convince folks to move on to the next level of performance, further reducing the number of injuries?

My employer (Fluor) does believe in Zero Incidents, and we do continually strive (using SPC here at SRNS) to move injuries and incidents towards zero.
 
T

tyker

#4
When considering accidents which could result in human injury, the only acceptable target is zero injuries. What's important with any target are the risk analysis, planning, resourcing, training and monitoring which go into making sure you have a decent chance of actually achieving the target.
 

harry

Super Moderator
#5
When considering accidents which could result in human injury, the only acceptable target is zero injuries. What's important with any target are the risk analysis, planning, resourcing, training and monitoring which go into making sure you have a decent chance of actually achieving the target.
I guess that's also true of incidence of 'fire'.
 

somashekar

Staff member
Super Moderator
#6
Re: Is 'Zero Accident" goal realistic ?

Firstly we have to start specifying/defining an accident?
Which accident should be counted and which need not be counted as an accident?
Then we have to categorize accidents into at least 3 categories as ;
GRADE 1. Fatal accidents
GRADE2. Major accidents
GRADE3. Minor accidents
Next we have to fix targets for each of them. For eg; Grade1---'0' Grade2:'1'
Grade3:'5'
By classifyifying like this you can achieve some targets.
Clubbing all accidents together will be ambiguous.
V.J.Brahmaiah
Unlike quality management system, here targets fixing for accidents does not sound nice. Accidents must be zero what ever, but How ?
Grading is a better practice but I cannot digest a target of x major or minor accidents.
As a moving target I have seen practice of display like for Ex. " Days since last accident in premises is 786 " and you continue to add each day to this and see the number grow. This motivates everyone to see that there is no break and all efforts are put to keep it growing.
 

rnsvasan

Involved In Discussions
#7
I too aware of the road accidents, but if I start my journey what should be my goal "No Accident". How far we really put effort to achieve is important.
Repetition - make Zero.
Preventive measures - Aim zero
 
S

samsung

#8
I guess that's also true of incidence of 'fire'.
True. We infact set a goal to achieve 'zero' instances of fire incidences but unfortunately have had a few during past 6 months. Before setting this goal, we identified the fire prone areas, carried out detailed risk assessment, reviewed the existing measures and did whatever we felt fit to prevent such incidences from happening but what we missed was to effectively communicate the message to all and train or atleast make people aware of the possible causes/ contributory factors and ways to avoid them.

Still I'm not sure of achieving this specific goal by the end of this year since I find it harder to train all those who come on daily basis & are part of the floating masses. People are not the only reason, there are some resource constraints & other issues as well. Even if every known or predictable issue is resolved, I think still it appears to be difficult, if not impossible, to attain the status of Zero instance of fire related incidents.

And if it is achieved, could it be sustained and for how long.
 
S

samsung

#9
Re: Is 'Zero Accident" goal realistic ?

Firstly we have to start specifying/defining an accident?
Which accident should be counted and which need not be counted as an accident?
Then we have to categorize accidents into at least 3 categories as ;
GRADE 1. Fatal accidents
GRADE2. Major accidents
GRADE3. Minor accidents
Next we have to fix targets for each of them. For eg; Grade1---'0' Grade2:'1'
Grade3:'5'
By classifyifying like this you can achieve some targets.
Clubbing all accidents together will be ambiguous.
V.J.Brahmaiah
I prefer to go by the definition given in OHSAS 18K:07 which defines 'Incident' to encompass variety of events including accident. Here it goes:

Incident: Work related event(s) in which an injury or ill health (3.8) (regardless of severity) or fatality occurred, or could have occurred.

Note:1 An accident is an incident which has given rise to injury, ill health or fatality.

Note:2 An incident where no injury, ill health or fatality occurs may also be referred to as a 'near miss', 'near hit', close call' or 'dangerous occurrence'

Note:3 An emergency situation (see 4.4.07) is a particular type of incident.


By taking into account the definitions mentioned above, isn't it highly difficult to attain the goal (of 'Zero Accident') and almost impossible to sustain ?
 

Jim Wynne

Staff member
Admin
#10
I have seen many companies setting a goal for achieving 'Zero Accident /incident' or 'Zero Machine Breakdown' and most of them end up desperately with no achievement on the score card at last. The unacheived goals, whatsoever, are carried forward with an objective to achieve those in the next f.y.

Is 'Zero Accident / incident' goal is realistic, worthwhile and appropriate given that anything above that will not be justifiable ?

Further, if is is not deemed 'realistic', what other options one can try out?
When something is bound to happen, even rarely, zero is not a reasonable objective. I think this is self-evident. This doesn't mean that you consider some unknown number of accidents "acceptable." You should be making an effort to reduce the number of accidents, and to do this you need to know about what causes them, and how the causes can be mitigated. It's like any other process--you need to understand the variation and the special causes. I strongly recommend against using workplace accidents and injuries as an objective because at some point the objective will work against you. You can mitigate risk without having a specific goal in mind.
 
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