Chapter 30

TSM: Safety Management in a Quality Management Setting

Major Topics

• What is quality management (QM)?

• How does QM relate to safety?

• What is TSM (total safety management)?

• Rationale for TSM • Implementing TSM

Define QM

• Quality management is the approach to doing business that maximizes the competitiveness of an organization through continuous improvement of its products, services, people, processes, and environments.

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Critical characteristics of QM (Important)

1. Customer focus: QM organizations continually solicit input [up front] and feedback [after the fact] from both external and internal customers.

2. Obsession with quality : In a QM organization, quality is every employee’s job, from top management down through line employees. 3. Scientific approach: This means they operate on facts rather than assumptions and apply logic rather than so called gut feeling. Employees in such organizations learn to use decision making tools such as Pareto charts, fishbone diagrams, histograms, and control charts to identify root causes clearly before solving problems. This ensures that they solve problems, rather than just attacking symptoms.

4. Long-term commitment: QM requires a long term investment of both time and effort.

5. Teamwork: QM organizations are teamwork oriented. Work is done by teams, and performance is measured against team benchmarks.

6. Continual process improvements : Today’s improvements are just the starting point for tomorrow’s improvements.

7. Education and training: Education and training are used to equip all employees to be knowledgeable, skilled participants in the continual improvement of quality.

8. Freedom through control: A QM organization frees its employees to improve their work process continually without relinquishing appropriate management controls.

9. Unity of purpose: All employees understand the vision, believe in it, and unite around it.

10. Empowerment: QM organizations tap the enormous wealth of knowledge, experience, and potential of all their employees by involving them in decisions that affect their work and by empowering them to do what is necessary to ensure and improve quality continually.

QM relationship to safety

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1. Customer focus: Organizations should also collect customer data about the safety and health features of the product. An unsafe product is not a quality product. Also collect input and feedback from internal customers [employees] concerning the safety of work processes and environments.

2. Obsession with quality: Organizations should also be obsessed with safety. The two concepts are inseparable.

3. Scientific approach: The same tools used to identify root causes of quality problems can be used to identify root causes of safety and health problems.

4. Long term commitment: Executive level managers show their commitment to safety and health in the same way that they show to quality – by making safety an organizational priority.

5. Teamwork: Just as cross functional teams are assigned specific quality improvement projects, similar teams should be formed to tackle specific safety and health issues.

6. Continual process improvements: The continual improvement of safety can be achieved in the same way as the continual improvement of quality.

7. Education and training: Ongoing education and training is necessary at all levels to improve quality and safety.

8. Freedom through control: When factoring in the downtime and expenses associated with injured employees and damaged machines, the safe way is typically the most productive way.

9. Unity of purpose: Organizational unity concerning safety and health will go a long way towards ensuring the effectiveness of a safety program.

10. Empowerment: Empowered employees will help make safety and health improvements.

Total Safety Management [TSM]

• TSM is a performance and process oriented approach to safety and health management that gives organizations a sustainable competitive advantage in the global marketplace by establishing a safe and healthy work environment that is conducive to consistent peak performance and that is improved continually forever. It involves applying the principles of QM to the management of safety and health.

Fundamental elements of TSM

• 1. Sustainable competitive advantage: To survive and prosper organizations need as many competitive advantages as possible. Traditionally, competitive advantages have been sought in the key areas of quality, productivity, service, and distribution. Peak performing organizations have realized that a safe and healthy work environment is essential to gaining competitive advantages in all these critical areas. • 2. Peak performance: The quality of the work environment is a major determinant of the performance levels that individuals, teams, and organizations are able to achieve. A better work environment promotes better performance.

• 3. Continual improvement forever: Quality that is competitive today may not be tomorrow. Consequently continual improvement is essential. If quality must be improved continually, it follows that the work environment must also be improved continually. Quality and safety are more than complementary; they are inseparable.

Rationale of TSM

• The correlation between work environment and job performance is strong. It is this correlation that forms the basis of the rationale for TSM.

• Globalization has increased the level of competition in the marketplace exponentially.

• For many organizations adjusting to globalization has been like jumping from high school athletic competition to the Olympics.

• What every organization can and must do is provide employees with a safe and healthy work environment that is conducive to consistent peak performance.

Three broad phases that make up the model for implementing TSM

• The three broad phases of activity are: • 1. Planning and preparation: Gain executive level commitment, establish the TSM steering committee, mold the steering committee into a team, give the steering committee safety and health awareness training, develop the organization’s safety and health vision and guiding principles, develop the organization’s safety and health mission and objectives, and communicate and inform.

• 2. Identification and assessment: Identify the organization’s safety and health strengths and weaknesses, identify safety and health advocates and resistors, benchmark initial employee perceptions concerning the work environment, tailor implementation to the organization, and identify specific improvement projects.

• 3. Execution: Establish, train and activate improvement project teams, activate the feedback loop, and establish a TSM culture.

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Important steps in TSM implementation model

Phase one – planning and preparation – encompasses steps 1 to 7. Each step is completed in order. Failure to complete step 1 (Gain executive level commitment) successfully can jeopardize all subsequent steps. Step 2 is the establishment of the TSM steering committee – make sure all functional departments are represented. In step 3 the TSM steering committee undergoes teamwork training and team building activities. In step 4 the steering committee undergoes safety and health awareness training. In steps 5 and 6 the steering committee develops a plan for safety and health that consists of a vision, guiding principles, mission, and broad objectives, all of which focus on safety and health in the workplace. In step 7 this plan is communicated to all employees.

Phase two of the implementation model – identification and assessment – encompasses steps 8-12. The steps in this phase allow the steering committee to identify strengths that may work in favor of the implementation and inhibitors that may work against it. The steering committee can tailor the implementation to exploit the strengths while minimizing inhibitors.

Phase three of the implementation model – execution – encompasses steps 13 15. These steps involve assigning teams to specific improvement projects. As soon as the improvements have been made the team is disbanded, and a new team is formed to pursue other improvements. This process is then repeated.

Summary

• Quality management (QM) is an approach to maximize competitiveness of an organization through continuous improvement of its products, services, people, process, and environments.

• The best environment to produce quality products is a safe and healthy environment.

• TSM (total safety management) gives an organization a sustainable competitive advantage in the global marketplace.

• TSM is accomplished by involving all employees in establishing, maintaining, and continually improving the work environment, so that it is conducive to peak performance.

Home Work

• Answer questions 2, 3, and 5 on page 693.

• 2. What are the critical characteristics of QM?

• 3. How does QM relate to safety?

• 5. List and briefly describe the fundamental elements of TSM.