A case study on lean occupational safety

Year 2024, Volume: 42 Issue: 2, 534 - 548, 30.04.2024

Mesut Ulu Semra Birgün

Abstract

Occupational illnesses and occupational injuries remain significant problems in contempo-rary countries. Especially in the fourth industrial revolution, with the changing technology and business model requirements, employees are at more risk because they have to be much faster and fulfill different functions. Due to present risks, dangerous working conditions, and inadequate measures, each year hundreds of thousands of people suffer from occupational ill-nesses or have occupational accidents. While occupational health and safety (OHS) practices protect employees, it is possible to increase productivity by ensuring that employees work in a safe and healthy work environment with the Lean Occupational Safety approach based on the “Zero Accident” principle. In this paper, a case study is presented by using a Lean-OHS model that it is an original model that incorporates continuous improvement by taking advantage of lean philosophy, tools and techniques while fulfilling the OHS principles. The research was carried out in a university’s pharmacology and pharmaceuticals laboratory, and it improved working conditions and made the workplace safer by turning 18 of 20 threats into acceptable ones.

Keywords

Lean, Occupational Health and Safety, Case Study, Laboratory, Risk Assessment

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