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2014年8月9日 星期六

生產與作業管理角度的工安議題

production and operation management相關期刊,所刊登出的工安議題文章,
找了三份重點期刊上的四篇文章,窺探其想法與觀點

 

Is Safe Production an Oxymoron?

作者
Mark Pagell, David Johnston, Anthony Veltri, Robert Klassen, Markus Biehl

出處:
Production and Operations Management 0(0), pp. 1–15, © 2013 Production and Operations Management Society

 

Introduction
Much of this research concludes that the practices operational managers engage in to improve operational performance put workers at increased risk (e.g., Brenner et al. 2004, Ford and Tetrick 2008, Landsbergis et al. 1999, Lewchuck et al. 2001, Parker 2003, Pate-Cornell and Murphy 1996, Zohar 2002, Zohar and Luria 2005).
提高產出與生產效率,難免增加員工作業風險

Safety regulation is being created based on research conducted in operational settings that ignores operational outcomes. However, today safety regulators are still making decisions based on research conducted in operational settings that treats safety as somehow separate from other operational outcomes.
安全法規的制定只考慮作業危害,不考慮作業的效率(便利)與產出;也錯誤地只看安全的部份(把工安視為獨立於生產作業機制體系之外的單獨議題)

 

Literature Review and Research Questions

2.1. Can Production Systems Be Managed to Be Safe and Productive?
RQ1: What are the relationships between safety outcomes and operational outcomes?

個人猜想兩者的關係如下圖
基本上注重安全應該是有助於提升生產產出
然而兩者到一定階段以後,應該會遇到邊際效益遞減的衰退情形,甚至過度重視安全反而會有害於生產的產出與效率提升

I guess:(鄉民我個人的猜想)
 
2.2. Can Safety and Operational Practices Be Integrated?
RQ2: What elements of a joint management system matter for the management of a system to be safe and productive?
個人猜想
這些構面應該是相似雷同的,包含主管領導、教育訓練、獎懲機制等
 
2.3. What Is the Role of Culture in Developing Safe and Productive Operations?
What are the dimensions of culture that matter for the management of a system to be
safe and productive?
個人猜想:正直、誠信、透明?
 
3. Methods
This research is exploratory and uses qualitative methods, specifically, a series of 10 case studies.
3.1. Study Participants
All data were collected in a single Canadian province (Ontario) to reduce confounds that could be created by different regulatory and enforcement regimes.
The skill level of workers at the sampled facilities varied greatly from basically no training required to do the job to multiple years of training to reach proficiency.
The sample contains make-tostock, make-to-order, and engineer-to-order organizations.
Facility employment ranges from 80 to 900.
Finally, the sample contains both unionized and non-unionized plants, following previous safety research that controlled for the presence or absence of a union.
Eight of these facilities are traditional manufacturing settings where physical materials are moved and transformed. Two of the facilities are distribution centers that mainly move physical goods using highly repetitive high volume processes. See Table 1 for more details.
3.2. Data Collection and Interview Protocol
1. The senior operations manager in the facility provided information on operational and human resource (HR) practices, the culture, safety practices, and operational outcomes.
2. The senior HR manager in the facility provided information on HR practice, as well as some basic operational practices, culture, safety practices, and operational outcomes.
3. The senior safety manager in the facility provided information on safety practices and outcomes as well as the culture.
4. A direct operational supervisor was interviewed about operational and safety practices as they were actually implemented in the facility.
5. In unionized plants, a representative of the union was interviewed about the general operational and safety practices at the facility as well as the culture
4. Results
偷懶直接看重點成果
 
 

生產和安全績效都好的公司有配套的文化與整合性的管理系統
兩者都不好的,關注短期每天的產出,缺少整合性的管理系統
所謂的整合性管理
 
 
文化構面

短視近利的惡性循環
 

相輔相成的正向循環





感想:
很棒、下苦工的質性研究,文筆與論述敝人望塵莫及。
尚未解答:哪些因素影響公司的演化,一種是相互合作整合的相輔相成,另一種是短視近利的惡性循環?

 
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World-class strategies for safety: a Boeing approach

作者
Ansari, Batoul Modarress

出處:
International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 17 No. 4, 1997, pp. 389-398.

內容重點

five lines of logic are explored to make the transition to world-class safety performance. These are: executive leadership; safety improvement processes; training; alternative work programmes and return-to-work; and communication.

leadership, which requires that executives promote a safety culture and demonstrate a visible commitment to a safety programme;
safety improvement processes, where the goal is to improve floor safety processes and implement safe work practices through the 5S method;
training to develop new value-added teaching and meaningful tests to verify the level of learning and community involvement;
alternative work programmes and return-to-work programmes which have the goals of decreasing lost time by injured employees and placing them in a safe and productive environment on their return; and
effective communication, which is critical to imparting the company’s commitment to the safety programme for all employees






感想
這篇十多年前的文章,現在回來看感覺乏味,也沒有所謂”strategies”可言
期刊主編也是會被一些大公司的名聲所迷惑

 
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OHSAS 18001 certification and operating performance: The role of complexity and coupling

作者:
Chris K.Y. Lo, Mark Pagell, Di Fan, Frank Wiengarten, Andy C.L. Yeung

出處:
Journal of Operations Management 32 (2014) 268–280
Introduction
Brown (1996) and Pagell et al. (2013) both argued that safety must be treated as a key operational priority alongside cost, quality, flexibility, delivery and innovation.

Our research takes a theory-driven approach to increase our understanding of the operational priority of safety by examining the impact of OHSMS certification, in the guise of OHSAS 18001,on operational performance outcomes. Specifically, this research asks what is the general impact of OHSAS 18001 certification on operational performance. Additionally, because context has been shown to influence operational performance in general as well as the impact of other certifications (Nawrocka et al., 2009; Lo et al., 2013)this research also asks what is the role of context in the OHSAS 18001operational performance relationship.

備註:
感覺倒果為因或把相關性錯誤解讀為因果關係=>不是導入認證塑造良好績效,而是上軌道的公司才會想導入系統

The research questions are addressed via a longitudinal analysis of the long-term impact of certification on operational performance.(比較導入前後的績效差異?)

 

2. Theoretical development and hypotheses

2.1. Institutional theory

OHSAS 18001 is interpreted as a signal of a firm’s commitment to health and safety management. Given the increasing demand for organizations to at least appear to meet expectations about health and safety, such pressure could be a powerful driver toward certification. If this perspective is correct, OHSAS certification improves the firm’s sales performance, since certification may meet customers’ safety requirements (Law et al., 2006). However, if the only benefit from certification is the ability to signal, then all other components of operational performance would remain unchanged after certification. Based on this perspective, the process of certification would not alter production processes or the production system’s reliability. The primary benefit of certification would be increased sales once certification was granted.
認證使公司相信自己安全衛生做得不錯/要重視安衛,在此一自欺欺人的認知下,自然重視或說不得不重視
因此導入認證理論上只會(騙過客戶)增加營業額,而製程良率與穩定度不會有任何改變


2.2. Normal accident theory: coupling leads to role overload
工安傳統與複雜系統觀點,生產與安全是對立衝突的

Normal accident theory (Perrow, 1981, 1984) proposes that accidents in complex and tightly coupled systems are inevitable, regardless of efforts to control them. A system’s complexity is driven by the level of variability in interactions, the number of multifunctional processes or jobs, the level of specialization of tasks that can limit awareness of interdependencies, and the need to deal with the unfamiliar or unintended (Perrow, 1984;Shrivastava et al., 2009). A system is tightly coupled if there is minimal slack between steps, if processes could only be done in one sequence, if substitution of labor, supplies and processes are difficult if not impossible, and if work could only be done in one way(Perrow, 1984; Shrivastava et al., 2009). Shrivastava et al. (2009) noted that all systems that transform raw materials are relatively complex and tightly coupled. Hence, NAT predicts that in manufacturing organizations, accidents are inevitable, with the risk of an accident increasing as complexity increases or coupling becomes tighter (Wolf, 2001). NAT also suggests that more formal work rules (e.g., standard operating procedures) in tightly coupled environments do not necessarily lower the risk of an accident, because the rules might have serious unintended consequences in unpredictable situations, for which the rules were not designed to anticipate (Rijpma, 1997).

以上理論涵義與推理
Improvement in safety takes organizational resources and requires operational workers to spend time on safety rather than production. If this perspective is correct, then if OHSAS certification leads to improved safety, it must do so by harming other operational performance outcomes. Specifically, workers would be less productive, which would then lead to decreased profits. However, sales would likely not change since an organization would gain some customers who will pay the higher price for proper safety conditions and lose those who will not. Based on this perspective, organizations pursuing certification would see trade-offs between safety and productivity from the moment they began to pursue certification, and those trade-offs would continue through and beyond certification.

導入OHSAS會使工人/生產系統投入資源與注意力在安全上,進而trade-off生產力
因此導入認證理論上營業額沒有影響,而製程良率與穩定度則會降低

2.3. High reliability theory and the human capital perspective
生管/人資觀點,生產與安全是相輔相乘

The operations management community has generally concluded that continuous improvement-based management systems are best practice and that they require well-trained and empowered workers. In an optimized production system, human capital needs to be valued and leveraged. Workers who are not safe are not valued, and cannot be leveraged. The human capital perspective fits well within the predictions of HRT. HRT posits that accidents are preventable in highly reliable organizations. These organizations are described as “mindful”, denoting that they make safety a strategic priority, pay careful attention to design and processes, have mechanisms for valuing human capital, and have a safety culture (Reason, 1998; Weicket al., 1999).

所以
OHSAS 18001, when properly implemented, fosters many attributes of a highly reliable organization, which on average improves all operational outcomes, not just safety. If OHSAS certification is not purely ceremonial then it could provide benefits beyond an internally developed OHSMS. Based on this perspective, organizations that pursue certification realize improvements in at least productivity and safety from the moment they begin to pursue certification, and those benefits would continue through and beyond certification, leading to improved sales and profits.

以上理論背景與推論,導出以下研究命題
H1. There is a significant relationship between OHSAS certification and safety performance.
H2. There is a significant relationship between OHSAS certification and sales growth.
H3. There is a significant relationship between OHSAS certification and labor productivity.
H4. There is a significant relationship between OHSAS certification and ROA.




2.4. Contextual factors and the effectiveness of OHSAS 18001certification
哇,好複雜

The higher the ability to control transformation processes, the higher the level of safety in the workplace
所謂的複雜度和系統可靠度,其實是一體的,彼此間之有關聯性,因此作者再多設了以下兩個命題(我覺得以下兩個命題很怪)

H5. As operational complexity (measured by R&D and labor intensity) increases the benefit of OHSAS certification also increases.
H6. As operational coupling increases (measured by increased inventory volatility and decreased inventory level), the benefit of OHSAS certification also increases.




3. Methodology

折磨刑求資料的功力凶狠,很像會計方面的研究
搞的更複雜,讓人霧沙沙….



4.Results

4.1. Results from the event study analysis
 



以上結果白話翻譯:

H1-4都成立,

涵義:Our results provide no support for the NAT based perspective, limited support for institutional theory, and significant support for the HRT based perspective.=>導入OHSAS可以顯著提升工安和營運績效

 

4.2. Results of regression analysis



以上結果白話翻譯:
H 5&6都成立,

涵義:While our results do not support the proposition that firms make trade-offs between safety and other operational performance outcomes, the results for hypotheses 5 and 6 do show that NAT can provide useful predictions. The results indicate that OHSAS 18001, while effective in all settings, is more effective in more complex or tightly coupled contexts..=>越複雜的公司,導入OHSAS越能顯著提升工安和營運績效

 

感想
就學術研究而言,整體架構、水準與成果都很很棒,可惜著重於驗證那些命題與假說 (數據處理過度加工,導致離理論原始的想法太遠、回不去了=>使用的變數是否能夠代表理論原始構念讓人存疑…)
就實務而言,則感覺存在太多抽象構念與推論

 
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Accidents happen: The influence of safety-specific transformational leadership, safety consciousness, and hazard reducing systems on warehouse accidents

作者:
René B.M. de Koster, Daan Stam, Bert M. Balk

出處:
Journal of Operations Management 29 (2011) 753765

 

Introduction
Two theories underlie many of the studies conducted on safety in operations management. Normal accident theory (Perrow, 1984) argues that accidents arise from systems and that they are inevitable if these systems are complex and tightly coupled. In contrast, high reliability organizational theory (La Porte, 1996; Roberts, 1990) advocates the existence of high reliability organizations that consistently perform well regarding safety even if they are complex and tightly coupled. According to this theory, this performance is due to specific systems and processes within these organization.

 

研究假說與架構

We study these issues in 78 Dutch warehouses, surveying 1033 employees and 78 warehouse managers.
Hypothesis 1 :. Hazard reducing systems in a warehouse are positively related to safety performance in that warehouse.
Hypothesis 2 :. Safety consciousness of employees of a warehouse is positively related to safety performance of that warehouse.
Hypothesis 3a :. SSTL(Safety-specific transformational leadership) of a warehouse’s manager relates positively to safety consciousness of employees of a warehouse.
Hypothesis 3b :. Safety consciousness of employees of a warehouse mediates the positive relation between SSTL of a warehouse’s manager and safety performance of that warehouse.


方法
 
Likert問卷+SEM
 
 
 
結果:
 
 





結論:

Path analysis on data from a survey among 78 warehouse managers and 1033 warehouse employees shows, in line with prior research, that HRS(hazard reduce system) is a strong predictor of safety performance. Importantly, our results also suggest that SSTL may be an even more important predictor of safety performance than HRS. SSTL affects safety performance directly (contrary to our expectations SC does not mediate this relationship)and strongly predicts safety performance even after controlling for the effects of HRS. SSTL also mediates some of the effects of HRS on safety performance. Subsequently, we propose that leaders are critical in fostering safety on the work floor.

 

感想:
學術炒作文,實務涵義貢獻有限。

 
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四篇文章的總結感想

原來生管角度在意的工安議題在於
1.      /作業效率與工作安全,兩者是trade-off還是想輔相成?

2.      對應的重點工安理論是Normal Accident Theory 與 High Reliability Organizational Theory;而非骨牌理論、能量釋放或安全文化及氣候

3.      研究注重與公司實際的營運績效的連結,人資組織與生管理論;相對的工安方面的研究都用工安作為當成IV,工安績效當為DV,沒有太大的意義。

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