Chapter 11 Continuous Improvement
11.1 Introduction
The industrial hygiene profession is one that is focused on identifying and control- ling workplace hazards, including physical hazards and associated health risks, and ensuring the safest work environment for the employee. Both the industrial hygiene program and implementation of the program in the field can always be improved—
and should be improved—to ensure compliance with the most current requirements, standards, and safety practices. The term continuous improvement means specific actions, or a series of actions, that the industrial hygienist or company executes to improve safety and health or industrial hygiene programs with respect to productiv- ity, compliance, or actions to minimize health risks to employees. Often, activities and steps needed to complete those goals are written into a continuous improvement plan for industrial hygiene.
A continuous improvement program targets functional elements of the industrial hygiene program that have been identified as not being well implemented, or have been fully implemented, but a higher level of performance is desired. For example, over the past year several inspections have identified noncompliances in the hearing conservation program. Two employees were identified as performing work in an area where noise greater than 85 dB is present during the working day, but neither employee was enrolled in the company’s hearing conservation program. Another example could be that the industrial hygienists were developing exposure assess- ments for each job-specific package; however, the documentation associated with the jobs did not justify the industrial hygiene analysis and calculations. In both examples, several actions could be taken to improve the overall industrial hygiene program and company performance in either the noise control program or the hazard identification and control program. Oftentimes, these plans are written to achieve a higher level of performance from a corporate perspective, or in response to a regula- tory fine; however, it is always a good practice for the industrial hygienist to annually identify areas for improvement. It should also be recognized that there is no regula- tion that requires an industrial hygienist to establish and implement a continuous improvement program; it is based on the commitment of the company, the safety and health organization, management, and workers to improve how they are performing work and striving to provide a safer work environment.
The ultimate goal of a continuous improvement program is to reduce overall risk to the company and its employees. The risk reduction could be legal, such as improv- ing compliance to a specific regulation. The risk reduction could be financial, such as reducing the cost to implement the industrial safety and hygiene program because
of automated monitoring equipment. Or, the risk reduction could be to human health, such as designing a ventilation system to operate below 85 dB. Whatever the reason, a continuous improvement program should improve current functional operations, as well as improve the work environment culture and work conditions in the field.
As depicted in Figure 11.1, a continuous improvement program for industrial hygiene should utilize one or more of the following tools:
• Evaluation of the industrial hygiene program. Routine evaluation of the safety and health program, in which industrial hygiene is often included, provides a basis for determining at a specific point in time how well imple- mentation of the program is being executed—an assessment of perfor- mance. Chapter 10 provides additional details on how to effectively evaluate the program.
• Benchmarking. Benchmarking consists of comparing an industrial hygien- ist’s program and processes with the programs and processes associated with companies that are recognized as strong performers. The goal in perform- ing benchmarking is to raise expectations of existing program performance to a higher and better standard that will result in improving protection of the workforce. When performing benchmarking, the industrial hygienist identifies those companies or institutions that are recognized as the “gold standard” and evaluates his or her program against their recognized pro- grams, identifying those areas of his or her program where improvements could be best realized. Because the majority of industrial hygienists are employed by a company or institution (not generally self-employed), the cost and time of implementing such an improvement must be considered and the actions must be beneficial to all parties (such as senior management and workers) involved in supporting the improvement plan.
• Management and professional presence in the field. Improving the perfor- mance of industrial hygiene processes and procedures does not need to just
Assessments Benchmarking Presence inthe field Performance metrics
Employee engagement involvementand Continuous improvement program
FIGURE 11.1 Continuous improvement program tools.
be focused on the industrial hygiene or safety and health discipline; con- tinuous improvement initiatives should also target cultural aspects of the safety program. One tool used in improving overall safety and health per- formance is increasing the level of visibility of management, supervisors, and professionals in the field.
Depending on the culture of the company, often an effective industrial hygiene program is improved through increasing the level of trust that exists between union and nonunion workforces. Improving the relationship between management and the workforce will result in greater ownership of the industrial hygiene program by everyone in the company, because it has become personal to them. It is also of importance that scheduled manage- ment visits be planned to further build a positive work environment and establish routine communication forums with the workforce.
• Performance metrics. Performance metrics are used to evaluate how well implementation in the field is meeting program and performance expecta- tions. For example, the company may have a goal to evaluate compliance with two subparts of 29 CFR 1910 within a 12-month period. The per- formance metric would establish a baseline of two evaluations per month, but because the company has had trouble keeping operations running due to maintenance issues, competing priorities, and scheduled personal vaca- tion, only one evaluation was performed over a 6-month period. The per- formance metric would indicate that either additional resources are needed to supplement adequate performance of the industrial hygiene function, or the priorities of work being performed need to be evaluated. It is important that the senior management of the company or institution accept and sup- port the performance metrics, because they are generally the individuals in authority who can take actions to achieve and improve performance. They should also be driving improved performance of all their functions and organizations. In addition, educating the workforce on these performance metrics will also assist in achieving the goals.
• Employee engagement and involvement. Having the employees engaged and involved in improving safety performance has always been a crucial element of a successful industrial hygiene program. The workers often have the best ideas for how to address the hazard and improve safety perfor- mance. Building employee engagement and involvement into the industrial hygiene program and field implementation starts with establishing and maintaining personal relationships with the workforce. Involving them in implementation of the industrial hygiene program also educates them and improves their understanding of the role of the industrial hygienist, and empowers them to self-police their work environment.
Some or all of these tools can be used when developing a continuous improvement plan. A continuous improvement plan incorporates all these tools, to some extent, as part of the implementation process. Figure 11.2 depicts how each of these func- tional elements works to achieve continuous improvement in an industrial hygiene program.
The industrial hygienist should develop a continuous improvement plan that is based on the continuous improvement process and use tools associated with continu- ous improvement. The continuous improvement plan should be written for a speci- fied time period and should identify not only programmatic benefits to be achieved, but also benefits to the company so that management can recognize the benefit of accepting and sponsoring the plan.
Generally, most companies review their operational performance on a monthly or frequent basis. This monthly review provides a good forum for the industrial hygiene manager or staff to summarize and present the continuous improvement plan for acceptance. Acceptance and sponsorship of the plan by management will not only be of financial benefit, but also gain organizational and company support for improve- ment of the industrial hygiene or safety and health program. It should be noted that the continuous improvement process is not just limited to the industrial hygiene pro- gram, but can be applied whenever improved performance is desired. In addition, a continuous improvement plan does not need to be lengthy; documentation of the plan
Define a performance
baseline
Establish improvements goals
and objectives
Identify and implement actions
to meet goals
Measure and evaluate performance
FIGURE 11.2 Elements of a continuous improvement program.
can be as simple as two pages. Of greatest importance is completing improvement actions, measuring progress, and realizing improved performance.