Benefits of safe design - Whats in it for me
Safe Design is good management practice. The Safe Design approach will result in a safer designed-product with more predictable business costs and less exposure to risk.
Applying the Safe Design approach means controlling risk early in the design process. A Safe Design approach results in:
- simplified risk control;
- a more informed ability to meet legislative responsibilities;
- a greater ability to predict and manage production and operational costs across the life cycle of the designed-product;
- a greater ability to predict and minimise costs associated with injury and environmental damage; and
- a reduced need for redesign and retrofitting, and its associated costs.
Keep the risk "virtual" by applying the safe design approach.
The Business Case for Safe Design
Costs - risk management and life-cycle costing Costs associated with unsafe design can be significant (e.g. retrofitting, workers compensation levies, environmental clean up costs, public liability). Life-cycle costing and OHS risk assessment are key principles to be considered during the design process. These costs can be identified and hazards avoided in the design phase - a clear case for adopting the Safe Design approach. The most effective way to minimise OHS risk is in planning. Safe Design is implemented at the drawing board - in the concept and detailed phase of design.
Decision making
In the concept and detailed design process, decisions can be made to eliminate OHS hazards in the systems of work, methods of manufacture or construction, or the use of materials involved in creating the designed-product. Figure 1 below summarises the life-cycle phases associated with a designed product. It also demonstrates the inverse relationship between the ease of implementing decisions to improve safety against the costs of safety implementation against life-cycle for the designed product.
Safe Design involves understanding, identifying and analysing potential OHS hazards and risks throughout the designed product’s lifecycle as part of the design process to improve its safety.
Corporate Responsibility
The responsibility of decision makers for the welfare of people interacting with a designed-product is more than a legal or minimal standard requirement. The impact of design-related injury or fatality in Australia is significant to the community[1]. The moral case for prevention of occupational injury is compelling and has recently been acknowledged as a component of “corporate responsibility”.
Figure 1 Adapted from Christensen and Manuele (Ed.) 1999 National Safety Council Safety Through Design : Best Practices
[1] |
Work Related Fatalities Associated with Design Issues of Machinery of Fixed Plant in Australia 1989 to 1992, prepared by staff in the Epidemiology Unit of NOHSC September, 2000. |
Page last updated: 04/07/2008