Effect of engineering and non-engineering interventions on risk level of hazards, health and safety indicator in the Ceramics Industry

The approach of the present study was identification and control of incidents and occupational incidents before and after occurrence. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate and compare the effectiveness of engineering and non-engineering control interventions on risk levels and health safety indicators in one of the ceramic industries.
The method of this study was pre-interventional and post-interventional. After identifying and initial assessment of risks by a team of experts and using the FMEA 6-D technique, corrective strategies were implemented using three methods of engineering control, non-mechanical and both methods; after 5 months of implementation of the interventions, the system was re-evaluated and RPN2 was obtained. Then, the levels of risk indicators before and after the implementation of various types of controls were investigated.
A total of 163 risks were identified in the industry at 8 units. The body production unit with the mean risk number 407 had the highest potential damage and the furnace unit with the lowest risk number of 261 had the least damage. The highest risk priority number (RPF = 570) was related to work at height and activity on the Ballmill Spray Platform. The highest efficacy after intervention was to reduce the probability of P=0.002 and simultaneous interventions. After the intervention, the unacceptable risk level (no. 34) reached an acceptable and moderate level.
The results of this study show that engineering controls have the greatest impact on decreasing probability indexes, non-engineering controls on improving the risk discovery, and simultaneous controls on reducing the severity of the risk. If cost and time are not mentioned by managers, the use of simultaneous control methods can be the best and most effective intervention strategy.