Breaking the safety barrier : engineering new paradigms in safety design
- Authors: Culvenor, John
- Date: 1997
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
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- Description: Occupational health and safety legislation in Australia and internationally is based on the safe place concept and the hierarchy of control. A safe place is best achieved at the design stage and consequently the education of engineers in safety has been a priority. There have been notable efforts at the integration of safety with engineering studies, and this should be an ongoing objective, however extensive integration is likely to be difficult at least in the short term. The challenge was to develop a supplemental, innovative way to improve the ability of engineers to develop safe place solutions. The hypothesis was that training in creative thinking would achieve this aim. The hierarchy of control methodology shares a strong relationship with creative thinking. Safe place thinking challenges assumptions in the same way that creative thinking seeks to escape dominant paradigms. For this reason creative thinking seems a natural aid to the safe place approach. This study tested the effect on safety design of a creative thinking program; de Bono’s six thinking hats method. Given a recognition that groups other than engineers impact on workplace design, a range of subjects were included; engineering students, technology students, industry safety advisers, and government safety advisers. In response to safety case studies, subjects were required to generate solutions and to prioritize potential solutions. Subjects worked on a range of problems, some individually and some in teams of three. Results show that training in creative thinking improved the generation of solutions to safety problems. As the number of solutions increased, the average quality of ideas was maintained, therefore the increased number of solutions was accompanied by a similar increase in good quality safe place solutions. The results also showed in some instances the training improved the prioritization of solutions according to the safe place methodology. The effects were of a similar magnitude for individuals and teams. Creative thinking training was shown to be a useful way to enhance the generation of safe place solutions to safety problems. Given that creative thinking skills can theoretically be applied to any area of problem solving, the enhancement of these skills are likely to yield wider benefits. Furthermore the enhancement of creative thinking accords well with the current industrial mandates for improved innovation.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
An analysis of the forces required to drag sheep over various surfaces
- Authors: Harvey, Jack , Culvenor, John , Payne, Warren , Cowley, Stephen , Lawrance, Michael , Stuart, David , Williams, Robyn
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Applied Ergonomics Vol. 33, no. 6 (Nov 2002), p. 523-531
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- Description: Some occupational health and safety hazards associated with sheep shearing are related to shearing shed design. One aspect is the floor of the catching pen, from which sheep are caught and dragged to the shearing workstation. Floors can be constructed from various materials, and may be level or gently sloping. An experiment was conducted using eight experienced shearers as participants to measure the force exerted by a shearer when dragging a sheep. Results showed that significant changes in mean dragging force occurred with changes in both surface texture and slope. The mean dragging forces for different floor textures and slopes ranged from 359 N (36.6 kg) to 423N (43.2 kg), and were close to the maximum acceptable limits for pulling forces for the most capable of males. The best floor tested was a floor sloped at 1:10 constructed of timber battens oriented parallel to the path of the drag, which resulted in a mean dragging force 63.6N (15%) lower than the worst combination.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000244
Effect of creative thinking on OHS committees
- Authors: Culvenor, John , Ayers, Gerard
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Occupational Health and Safety, Australia and New Zealand Vol. 18, no. 3 (2002), p. 239-246
- Full Text: false
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- Description: An important principle of Australian OHS law is that workers participate in the management of health and safety via OHS committees and representatives. A further principle is that workplaces engage in problem solving processes according to a hierarchy of hazard control - rather than simply following prescriptive rules. The OHS committee is therefore a problem-solving forum. However, the benefits of problem- solving or creative thinking techniques within committees have not been widely explored. To test the effects, two OHS committees from two construction companies were trained in a combination of creative thinking and risk control concepts. Subjects were tested on their ability to generate solutions and to rank solutions. They were compared with untrained subjects from two further committees. The results showed that the trained subjects generated more solutions and, when ranking solutions, showed a greater preference for solutions which were higher on the hierarchy of controls. (author abstract)
- Description: 2003003032
Reducing the energy cost of dragging sheep during sheep shearing
- Authors: Payne, Warren , Culvenor, John , Lawrance, Michael , Harvey, Jack , Cowley, Stephen , Stuart, David , Williams, Robyn
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Occupational Health and Safety - Australia and New Zealand Vol. 18, no. 2 (2002), p. 173-179
- Full Text: false
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- Description: The task of dragging sheep into position for shearing has been reported by shearers as the most physically demanding and one of the highest injury risk aspects of shearing, particularly with regard to back injury. This study aimed to identify which of the currently used drag paths induced the lowest energy consumption and risk of injury. The drag path with the lowest work economy (oxygen cost per sheep dragged per minute) and highest injury risk is used by left-handed shearers who are shearing from a workstation which is designed for right-handed shearers. Importantly, there were no significant differences in the work economy of the two drag paths which were used most frequently and which involved the lowest injury risk. These data have been used in advocating the adoption of simple shearing shed design solutions to assist in the control of injury risk and energy expenditure in the wool industry.
- Description: 2003000247
Workplace health and safety in the building and construction industry
- Authors: Culvenor, John , Durham, B. , Rozen, P.
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Report
- Full Text: false
- Description: K1
- Description: 2003003014
Comparison of team and individual judgements of solutions to safety problems
- Authors: Culvenor, John
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Safety Science Vol. 41, no. 6 (2003), p. 543-556
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Knowledge about how best to solve problems in occupational health and safety and how to be innovative in general is important to all industry. With the advent of non-prescriptive workplace safety legislation in Australia (and internationally), the need for problem solving at an enterprise level has never been greater. The legislation calls for problem solving to take place via a cooperative approach between employers and employees and this manifests itself as committees, risk improvement teams and the like. Unfortunately research in problem solving generally has showed us that interacting teamwork is less effective that individual thinking in terms of generating solutions to problems. However, there has been little research on the comparison of individuals and teams as regards the decision-making stage of problem solving that must naturally follow the idea generation stage. This research compared individuals and teams based on decision-making in health and safety. Subjects were 294 manufacturing industry employees arranged into 38 teams. Subjects ranked solutions to safety problems individually and then repeated the exercise in teams where they sought to develop a team consensus. The average of individual judgements were compared with the team consensus judgements in a paired design. The results indicate that the consensus judgement of the teams was much better than the average of the individuals that comprised the team. The implications are that, while idea generation is probably best achieved individually, judgements and decision about solutions is probably best performed through a consensus approach.
- Description: 2003003023
Impact of health and safety representative training on concepts of accident causation and prevention
- Authors: Culvenor, John , Cowley, Stephen , Harvey, Jack
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Occupational Health and Safety - Australia and New Zealand Vol. 19, no. 3 (2003), p. 279-292
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- Description: In South Australia, health and safety representatives (HSRs) may undertake three levels of training, commencing at basic level, then progressing through advanced level to continuing level. A survey of 1,200 HSRs in SA was conducted to assess their beliefs about accident causation and accident prevention. In regard to accident causation, the survey found that HSRs showed a tendency to favour behavioural causation over workplace environment or systems-type causation. In regard to accident prevention, HSRs at all levels of training had a preference for low-order controls. However, there appears to be some shift in thinking by the time HSRs have completed all levels of training (that is, to the continuing training level), though the thinking of most remains distinctly safe-worker in orientation.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003003020
The principles of safe design
- Authors: Culvenor, John
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Report
- Full Text: false
- Description: This commissioned report was the core material for the "Guideline for the Safe Design of Work" released last year by the Australian Safety and Compensation Council. This document establishes the foundation arguments for the discussion of safe design in occupational health and safety. Regulation in OHS is currently changing and so too are industry practices and this document is a key policy and educational document supporting these social improvements.
- Description: K1
- Description: 2003002678
Evaluation of learning outcomes for the Engineering Resource Package (ERP)
- Authors: Culvenor, John , Cowley, Stephen , Else, Dennis , Hall, Stephen
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Report
- Full Text: false
- Description: The Australian Safety and Compensation Council recently released "Safe Design for Engineering Students - A Resource Package". This package won the Society of Technical Communication Excellence Award for technical communication. Much of the Resource Package was drawn from The Principles of Safe Design (Culvenor, 2004). The report above was an evaluation of the implementation trial and it lead to the identification of improvements - one which was the inclusion of substantial additional material on accident causation and prevention concepts and activities (Culvenor, J. 2005, Editing the final stage of the Safe Design: An Engineering Resource Package).
- Description: K1
- Description: 2003002681
Initial force and desirable handle height range when pushing a trolley
- Authors: Culvenor, John
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Occupational Health and Safety - Australia and New Zealand Vol. 21, no. 4 (2005), p. 341-349
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- Description: Trolleys are used in many workplaces, often as a solution to the hazards of lifting and carrying. Guidelines are available to set limits on the force that can be reasonably applied for push and pull activities in a workplace setting. With a level floor, low friction and short movements, the force applied for acceleration when pushing a trolley is more significant than the sustained effort (however, many factors interact with the force and these must be considered together). This study determined the initial force applied to trolleys in a manufacturing setting, with a level floor and low rolling friction. Subjects were asked to move trolleys (weighing between 160 kg and 400 kg) a short distance in the way that they would normally do the work. Results showed a preferred grip height of 120-135 cm. The average results for applied force fell closely along a linear relationship. Future research could be conducted in an experimental setting and include more comprehensive trials with a greater number of subjects (including women).
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003002990
Selected of criterion trade tasks: Infantry and ADG: Report 8
- Authors: Payne, Warren , Harvey, Jack , Knez, Wade , Brotherhood, John , Culvenor, John , Selig, Steve , Ham, Daniel
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Report
- Relation: Defence Physical Employment Standards Projects: Infantry and Airfield Defence Guards
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- Description: Military operational tasks are physically demanding and incur the risk of injury. In order to address the issues and costs associated with the high injury rates and focus on ways to reduce the risk of injury to Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel, the ADF Chiefs of Service Committee (COSC) has endorsed a number of injury prevention strategies aimed at examining, analysing and evaluating injury-related risks and hazards within the ADF. In line with those strategies, COSC has affirmed that ADF employment policy is to be competency based and agreed that physical employment standards should be developed for combat arms trades. The purpose of the Defence Physical Employment Standards Project (DPESP) is to develop these performance-based competency standards. The ADF has employed the services of the University of Ballarat (UB) to undertake the DPESP. This involves reviewing combat arms trade tasks (CATTs), establishing a set of criterion CATTs, developing a battery of simulation and predictive tests based on the criterion CATTs to be used to assess the physical competency of ADF combat personnel, and making recommendations for associated physical employment standards. In the initial phase, the study is focused on one Army corps - Infantry, and one Air Force mustering - Airfield Defence Guards (ADG)1.
Trade tasks risk analysis and risk mitigation: Infantry and ADG. Report 5
- Authors: Culvenor, John , Pascoe, Deborah , Payne, Warren , Harvey, Jack , Knez, Wade , Cunningham, John
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Report
- Relation: Defence Physical Employment Standards Project. Infantry and Airfield Defence Guards
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- Reviewed:
- Description: Military operational tasks are physically demanding and incur risks for injury. In order to address the issues and costs associated with the high injury rates and focus on ways to reduce the risk of injury to Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel, the ADF Chiefs of Service Committee (COSC) has endorsed a number of injury prevention strategies aimed at examining, analysing and evaluating injury-related risks and hazards within the ADF. In line with those strategies, COSC has affirmed that ADF employment policy is to be competency based and agreed that physical employment standards should be developed for combat arms trades. The purpose of the Defence Physical Employment Standards Project (DPESP) is to develop these performance-based competency standards. The ADF has employed the services of the University of Ballarat (UB) to undertake the DPESP. This involves reviewing combat arms trade tasks (CATTs), establishing a set of criterion CATTs, developing a battery of simulation and predictive tests based on the criterion CATTs to be used to assess the physical competency of ADF combat personnel, and making recommendations for associated physical employment standards. In the initial phase, the study is focused on one Army corps - Infantry, and one Air Force mustering - Airfield Defence Guards (ADG). The central purposes of this component of the work were: • to perform a risk analysis for the dual purposes of developing a risk register for general use and identifying risk issues in relation to the development of physical employment standards which pose a minimum possible risk to test candidates; and • to identify risk mitigation strategies that may be implemented or developed for use in Infantry and/or Airfield Defence Guard
Concepts of accident causation and their role in safe design among engineering students
- Authors: Hall, Stephen , Culvenor, John , Cowley, Stephen , Else, Dennis
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 18th conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education, Melbourne, Victoria : 9th-13th December 2007
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- Description: Safe design is a strong theme at present in Australia. To ‘eliminate hazards at the design stage’ is one of the five national priorities set out by the National OHS Strategy. The Australian Safety and Compensation Council have recently released both a guideline for safe design and an engineering education package. Safe design is not only about engineering decisions. Engineers are however an important group. This paper reports on a survey to evaluate perceptions of student engineers on topics relevant to the advancement of safe design including perceptions of: control versus fatalism; accident causation; and perceptions of the role played by engineers.
- Description: 2003004787
Effect of a nurse back injury prevention intervention on the rate of injury compensation claims
- Authors: Martin, Peter , Harvey, Jack , Culvenor, John , Payne, Warren
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Safety Research Vol. 40, no. 1 (2009), p. 13-19
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- Description: Problem: This study evaluated the effect of introducing a No Lifting policy on back injuries to nurses, across an entire health care system. Methods: Methods included: analysis of the data for all public health agencies in the Australian state of Victoria; compensation data from the Victorian Workcover Authority; data about workforce and program implementation from a retrospective survey of agencies; longitudinal analysis of standardized workers compensation claim rates for back injuries before, during and after the intervention. Results: A statistically significant decline in back injury claim rates during implementation contrasted with no statistically significant trends within the periods before and after the intervention. A statistically significant reduction occurred in mean quarterly standard back injury claim incidence rates per 1,000 equivalent fulltime nursing staff (EFTNS), representing a 24% reduction in standard back injury claims/1000 EFTNS. Discussion: Ergonomics principles encourage changing the work environment to suit the worker. This approach delivered a significant improvement in the immediate term. Impact of industry: The substantial decline in back injury rates signifies a major improvement in the safety of a critical aspect of the work environment for nurses. © 2009 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd.
Safe design in construction
- Authors: Behm, Michael , Culvenor, John
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Health & Safety, Research & Practice Vol. 3, no. 1 (2011), p. 9-32
- Full Text: false
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- Description: n 2008, WorkSafe Western Australia and the Western Australia Commission for Occupational Safety and Health developed and implemented a Code of Practice for the Safe Design of Buildings and Structures to provide guidance for construction designers in meeting safe design regulations. Design engineers were surveyed and participated in focus groups to evaluate the Western Australia construction industry’s perspective on the new code of practice and to understand the effects of construction safety in design. The research concluded that engineers generally believe the regulations and code of practice are sensible and almost all believe construction worker safety and health is being positively impacted. Furthermore the research indicates that the regulations and code of practice have made a positive impact on the design engineers’ duty of care, thinking, and actions towards affecting the safety and health of construction workers. The work was carried out to understand the effects in Western Australia and also to inform the current National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Prevention through Design approach and a long-term strategy to adoption in the United States.
- Description: 2003009255
Meaningful and effective consultation and the construction industry of Victoria, Australia
- Authors: Ayers, Gerard , Culvenor, John , Sillitoe, Jim , Else, Dennis
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Construction Management and Economics Vol. 31, no. 6 (2013), p. 542-567
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Consultation between employers and employees is mandated under Australian occupational health and safety legislation. For consultation to be considered meaningful and effective, it is generally accepted that moral and ethical principles such as trust, honesty, commitment and respect need to be recognized and applied by individuals during consultation. It is also considered that an organization's level of cultural maturity is an important element in the ability of individuals to freely engage in meaningful and effective consultation. If the value of consultation is best reflected in the degree of input and control that workers have regarding the very decisions that affect them, and if the level of worker involvement is a reflection of an organization's level of cultural maturity, it is debateable whether the notion of applying moral and ethical principles during consultation, and the adoption of the paradigm of organizational and cultural maturity, have been successfully developed and embraced in the commercial and industrial sector of the construction industry of Victoria, Australia. © 2013 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.
- Description: C1