700 Introduction to Safety Management

Deming's 14 Points Applied to Safety

Point 12: Remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship.

According to Deming, the responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality. Remove barriers that rob people of their right to pride of workmanship. Abolish the annual merit rating and adopt continual feedback processes. Deming offers some interesting ideas here, but they are crucial to success in safety as well as production.

Supervisors must ensure their workers receive equipment and materials that are as safe as possible. Employees should work at stations that have been ergonomically designed for them to decrease the possibility of strains and sprains, and repetitive motions disease which represents the greatest category of workplace injury and illness in the workforce today. Workers require and deserve the highest quality personal protective equipment to protect them from workplace hazards. The highest quality safety equipment, materials, and environment all contribute to pride of workmanship.

Point 13: Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone.

Continual learning is an important concept. Employees must be educated in personal and professional skills. Safety certainly applies here as well. Return on the investment made in education is well worth the money.

Weekly or monthly safety education and training sessions, when conducted properly by supervisors, can go far in improving the performance of employees, and would send a strong message to all that safety is a core value in the company. Unfortunately, most companies do not see the wisdom in adopting the principle that to be successful today, each manager and employee in the company must be continually learning. Currently, most employees receive very little safety training, internal or external, on safety-related topics.

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