Risk and Causes-of-Risk Assessment for an Effective Industrial Safety Management

It is widely accepted that progressive improvement of industrial safety is heavily dependent on the introduction of a systematic vision of man-machine-workplace interactions. In this respect, the risk assessment is one of the most critical tasks in the management of industrial safety. The paper presents a risk assessment approach, which uses analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to directly and holistically estimate risk, showing greater flexibility in comparison to traditional methods. In the first phase (risk assessment), given a work task, the methodology allows to support risk characterization and prioritization of hazards within a hierarchical framework. In the second phase (causes assessment), the proposed methodology supports the influence analysis of the main causes of risk - machine, operator, procedures and environment - providing management with a more rational framework to make decisions and allocate resources devoted to safety improvement actions. The methodology is illustrated with reference to a case study concerning machining operations.