Comparison of two methodologies for occupational accidents pre-cursors data collection

Abstract

© 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, London. Unsafe Acts (UA) and Unsafe Conditions (UC) are commonly considered as accidents precursors. Several methods can be applied to collect accident pre-cursors in different working environment. Reporting results will be generally influenced by the methodology applied and by the analyst culture. In order to investigate the influence of the above aspects on the reporting results, this study compares two procedures for reporting UA and UC. Both are based on root cause analysis, but the method derived from industrial experience is based on a less structured delayed analysis, while the second model, derived from the HFACS (Human Factors Analysis and Classification System) methodology is more structured and requires an early classification of the event observed and a short interview with the workers involved. The experimental data collection has been carried on in an automotive plant during which the second model has been applied by an external team of analysts, while the on-site personnel were collecting data with the internal methodology. The results compared allows to highlight the effectiveness and the sensitivity of the methodologies.