Safety management system: on-site implementation

Industrial activities are no exception to the need for safety that has always been felt by people and societies, to a greater or lesser extent depending on the era and type of activity. The need to work in complete safety can be perceived in different ways, depending on whether we are talking about activities such as nuclear power, the production of explosives or chemicals, or other apparently less dangerous activities such as transport, construction or mechanical engineering. And yet, national statistics show that there are major differences between these activities in terms of workplace accidents. For example, the lost-time injury frequency rate (TF1) for French industry as a whole is around 25, with a rate of 45 to 50 for construction and public works activities and only 10 for chemicals, with a few leaders such as Rhône-Poulenc, Rhodia and DuPont (TF1 ranging from 3 to 0.3).

Why such disparity? Notwithstanding the dangerous nature of certain activities, it's a fact that the companies with the best safety results are those that have recognized the need to take care of safety at all levels and in all areas. Most of them have set up safety management systems (SMS) as an integral part of overall management.

It's extremely rare these days to see companies or industrial sites that are not concerned about safety issues, but it's much more common to see some of these companies taking only a part of the problem into account, very often the "tip of the iceberg", and one day being confronted with a serious accident that nobody had foreseen.

The aim of this article is to provide the minimum information deemed essential for any company director, site manager or safety officer wishing to set up a comprehensive, simple and effective safety management system, which will undoubtedly lead to continuous improvement in the company's results.

In his article AG 4600, Alain Gayon clearly demonstrates the importance of safety in companies. In this article, we set out the means to achieve this through the implementation of a management system integrated into the running of the company and/or industrial site.