Work safety analysis: Method description and user's guide

The study is connected with the joint Nordic SCRATCH-program (Scandinavian Risk Analysis Technology Co-operation), which aimed at developing safety analysis techniques to better meet the needs in industry. The report deals with the detection of accident risks at work by means of safety analysis. At first the need for a safety analysis is evaluated and limitations of a safety analysis reviewed. Special emphasis is laid on the introduction of the work safety analysis and its use. In work safety analysis, the work under surveillance is broken down into a sequence of steps, after which the hazards and their causative factors in each phase are identified. Finally, proposals for improvements are made in order to eliminate or to reduce the hazards. The use and achievable results of the work safety analysis are illustrated by an example of a maintenance task at a paper machine. The most significant advantage of work safety analysis is that the hazards can be identified before the occurrence of any accidents. Moreover, the work safety analysis provides a general view of immediate accident risks related to the object under surveillance. As one limitation, it can be mentioned that hazards caused by complicated sequences of events and by operator errors in controlling tasks are not systematically covered by the work safety analysis. Other methods of safety analysis are needed here. However, if these limitations are recognised, the work safety analysis can form a firm basis for planning safety improvements.