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• Safe design
  • Understanding safe design
  • Principles of Safe Design

What is safe design

Safe Design is a design process that eliminates OHS hazards, or minimises potential OHS risk, by involving decision makers and considering the life cycle of the designed-product.

A Safe Design approach will generate a design option that eliminates OHS hazards and minimises the risks to those who make the product, and to those who use it.

• Why should you consider a safe design approach?

• Safe Design is important to:

• Employees
• Designers: architects, engineers, industrial designers
• Manufacturers, importers and suppliers
• Employers
• Educators
• Jurisdictions
• OHS Practitioners
• ASCC Members
• Consumers 
   
• Safe Design is good management practice
• Safe Design helps decision makers understand the OHS risk management approach

Safe Design can be applied through the life cycle of the designed-product whether in:

• The construction, use, maintenance or demolition of any building or structure,
• The manufacture, supply, installation, use, maintenance or disposal of plant or equipment,
• The manufacture, supply, use or disposal of chemicals, or
• The implementation or use of any system of work or process or any other physical attribute or system associated with either the work place or the interface with people.

Principles of Safe Design

(of equal priority)

The key elements that impact on achieving a safedesign are.

Principle 1: Persons with Control – persons who make decisions affecting the design of products, facilities or processes are able to promote health and safety at the source.

Principle 2: Product Lifecycle – safe design applies to every stage in the lifecycle from conception through to disposal. It involves eliminating hazards or minimising risks as early in the lifecycle as possible.

Principle 3: Systematic Risk Management – the application of hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control processes to achieve safe design.

Principle 4: Safe Design Knowledge and Capability – should be either demonstrated or acquired by persons with control over design.

Principle 5: Information Transfer – effective communication and documentation of design and risk control information between all persons involved in the phases of the lifecycle is essential for the safe design approach.

These principles have been derived from Towards a Regulatory Regime for Safe Design; with some modification following public consultation.

Further detail on the principles is outlined in the Guidance on the Principles of Safe Design for Work (PDF 761 kB).