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INTEGRATION OF INCIDENT INFORMATION INTO COMPUTER AIDED PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT J. '{!'('!III/III!
Lepisto
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Abstract. There is a growing need to utilize safety information more effectively in companies. This paper evaluates the possibilities to integrate safety information into a computer aided maintenance management system. At the beginning of the study, reports on 69 maintenance accidents, which occurred in a paper mill, are analyzed. Nearly one half of these accident reports contained valuable information for the maintenance management system. However, the quality of accident information should be improved and other ways to collect data should be employed to cover the present lacks in safety information. The maintenance management system provides versatile possibilities for the utilization of safety information. By means of the system safety information can be provided for users just-on-time while maintenance operations are being done and the information needs of the users can be accurately determined. Although the case system contains only maintenance operations, it is obvious that the possibilities and advantages are generally applicable to the utilization of all safety information in different kinds of computer aided production management systems. Keywords. Management systems; man-machine systems; paper industry; accident prevention; safety management. INTRODUCTION Safety information system (SIS) The utilization of accident information in production management operations has been discussed a lot. On the other hand, at workplaces safety issues still remain rare topics for serious discussion outside the safety organization, which, at least to some degree, is isolated from the daily production management (Lepist6, 1985). The reasons for this can be found both in the production organization and in the nature and quality of safety work.
department (e . g. Rosness and others, 1986). The benefits of these packages lie mainly in the improved quality of standard reports. The utilization of the accident information is, to a great extent, still dependent on the interest, awareness, and activity of production personnel.
Safety Information
Instructions
System
Safety researches have emphasized the diversity of safety work by a so-called Safety Information System (Kjellen and others, 1986) described in Fig. 1. It is a simple framework for pointing out the numerous function s included in the system in operation. All the functions have to be implemented at an appropriate level. Computer support for SIS The processing, storing, and retrieval functions of SIS have provided an excellent opportunity for obtaining classical advantages from computer science applications. There are some studies and experiments, which have been aimed at developing software (Davies, 1983; Maijala and Hakavuori, 1984; Pekkarinen and others, 1986; Rosness and others, 1986) or at using general purpose software (e.g. Kje1len, 1986; Neiglick, 1987) for the processing of accident data collected from the users' own companies or a group of companies from the same branch . Most of these software packages are one-user-applications and designed for the use of the safety
Decision making &
Inplernentation
Data =llection - accidents - hazards
Production system
Fig. 1. Safety Information System (c.f. Kje11en and others, 1986)
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J. Lepisto
Integration into computer aided production management system One solution to the utilization problem could be the integration of safety information into computer aided production management systems. A case study. The study described here evaluates - the usefulness of accident reports as an information resource for production management systems, - principal possibilities to integrate accident information to an existing production management system and the advantages of that arrangement. The study was performed in co-operation with the Technical Research Centre and a paper mill using a computer aided maintenance management system called TEKUS. DESCRIPTION OF THE MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TEKUS is a commercial maintenance management software package for the planning, implementing, and follow-up of maintenance operations. The companies using the system have the same basic software package, while all data bases have been adapted to the users' needs. The software is independent of the branch of industry, or the size and organization style of companies.
module it is possible to list all the spare parts belonging to one machine, and on the other hand, to search all the machines having a certain spare part. Work management application The work management application is the nucleus of the system. It consists of a preventive maintenance module (PM) and a corrective (CM) one. The use of the preventive maintenance module is mainly based on periodic-work-lists completed separately for each maintenance group. The time can vary from one day to several weeks. It is possible to write free text work or safety descriptions under the title of each maintenance operation mentioned on the work lists, which are given to the maintenance workers. The descriptions are saved in a library file from which they can be addressed to several work lists (PM) or work instructions (CM). Furthermore, it is possible to write, at the most, one page free text report of the work after it has been implemented. The corrective maintenance module contains all the necessary phases of corrections from a fault or disturbance notification to the reporting of the completed work as illustrated in Fig. 2.
TEKUS consists of four management applications: (1) information, (2) material, (3) work, and (4) budget management.
!)ita bases
Fault notification display Information management application The information management application contains detailed information of all production machines and equipment, buildings, vehicles, and areas. For instance, the information on each machine consists of five so-called machine cards including interactively fed technical, financial, and supplier information. In addition to predeterminated data, there is a lot of space for free text information. All production machines can be individually identified, and, on the other hand, all the machines of the same type, location, or supplier can easily be found. Classification qualifiers are hierarchical: from the assortment of all machines it is possible to limit one's interests for example in either all pumps used or only a certain kind of a pump, and similarly either the whole company or one plant of it, or just one department of the plant. The information on maintenance personnel is included into the work management application. Material management application The material management application consists of s storage title, a spare part, and supply modules. It is possible to scan the sssortment of storages in real time by using the storage title module and to reserve items from the storage by using the supply module. At the same time the intersctive system makes sure that they are giving all the necessary information to the storage personnel. To determine accurately the item needed, the users have the possibility to enclose, at the most, one page free text explanations for every supply order. The material and information applications are interconnected so that by using the spare part
- identification of production machine failed description of fault Work order display - description of corrective maintenance needed Work design display preparation of IoIOrk instructions for maintenance IoIOrkers an::} SUWlY orders for storage personnel timetable
an::}
l::AJdget
Work instruction display printed in paper for maintenance IoIOrkers - IoIOrk an::} safety descriptions Report display
- notification of completed task - ilTportant findings of IoIOrk when needed
Fig. 2. The phases of corrective maintenance
The work and information management modules are combined by addreSSing all maintenance activities to a certain production machine by its identification number. Thus, it is possible e.g. to scan all the fault notifications or work orders directed to s certain machine, location or maintenance group during a given period. After the implementation, all the displays prepared during the work management procedure are stored in the work management history files. From these files they can always be activated for any later use.
In teg ratio n o f In cide n t InfiJr ma ti o l1 into Compute r Aided Productio n \I a nage m t' nt Budget management application The budget management module deals with the financial aspects of maintenance work. Before implementation each work must have a timetable and budget. During the implementation the expenses and use of man hours are followed snd compared with the estimations. If these are exceeded, the work will be addressed to a so-called black list. ANALYSIS OF ACCIDENT REPORTS Material The study was launched by evaluating 69 accidents, which occurred during maintenance operations at the paper mill in 1985. The evaluation was based on accident reports implemented by the foremen. All the accidents had led to at least three days' absence from work not including the day of the occurrence. Methods The accident reports were first divided into two categories depending on whether or not they contained useful information for the maintenance management. After the division, the informative and non-informative groups were compared with each other to find out if there were any other systematic differences between them. The comparison was done according to (1) the maintenance area of the injured person, (2) some general features of the accident and the injured person: occurrence day of the week and month, work experience of the injured person, injured part of the body , nature of the injury, severity: days of absence and, finally (3) the number and nature of causal factors identified and preventive measures proposed by the foremen. The informative group of accident reports were then analysed further to find out: (1) what kind of information the reports give that is useful to include in the maintenance management system, (2) who needs that information, and (3) in what way it is possible to get the information available for users with the help of the maintenance management system. Results Almost 45 % of the accident reports (N - 69) was found to contain useful information for the maintenance management system. The most common types of the non-informative accidents were simple mistakes when working with ordinary hand tools or materials, and falling down while walking, or accidents that occurred in locations which were not under the influence of the management system. Table 1 shows how the maintenance aress were represented in the informative and non-informative groups. Most reports of the informative group came from the mechanical maintenance area. The electrical maintenance workers had only a few accidents, and the accident reports from the construction area did not contain so much information for the maintenance management system as those from the mechanical maintenance did. According to the previously mentioned common features of the accident or the injured person,
I 1:\
there were no significant differences between the groups. TABLE 1
Distribution of Accident Reports
Maintenance area
mechanical electrical construction unknown Total
Quality of reports Inform. Non-inf. Total 21 2
39
1
18 5 14 1
31
38
69
7
7
21 2
The number and quality of causal factors identified and preventive measures proposed distinguished the groups from each other. The informative accidents were reported in more detail than the non-informative ones . On the average, they included nearly twice as much causal factors (2.0) and preventive measures (0.5) as the other ones (correspondingly 1.1 and 0.3). Further, the causal factors of the informative accident reports were more often technical or environmental (Table 2). TABLE 2 Nature of Causal Factors
Nature of causal factors
technical environmental human others Total
Quality of reports Inform. Non-inf. (N-62) (N- 43) 19 21 49 11 100 %
12 14 60 14 100 %
The informative accident reports were analysed further according to Table 3. Most of the findings divided into two groups: (1) simple reminders of e.g. hazards or the need of personal protective equipment, and (2) different kinds of defects demanding design or supply efforts. INTEGRATION OF INCIDENT INFORMATION INTO THE MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM The possibilities to integrate incident information into the maintenance management system can be evaluated according to who need the information found from the informative accident reports (Table 3). The potential users identified were: (1) maintenance, (2) machine design, and (3) supply and storage personnel. Information for maintenance personnel Most of the information collected from accident reports is intended for the use of maintenance personnel. The findings are divided into five categories (1) reminder of hazard, (2) need for work or safety description, (3) need for personal protective equipment, (4) need for special work
J.
11-1
TABLE 3 Findings from the Informative Accident Reports eN-31)
M
E
W
The items found in accident reports were quite often worth noticing much more widely than just in connection with the work in question, e.g. always when the same machine was to be maintained. In that case the work or safety description, or a note of it should also be mentioned on machine cards. With the information management module it is easy to find out all the machines of the same type and to get the information into each of them. On these machine cards the information is available for anybody using the system.
7
4
2
2
10
2 2
Information for machine designers
5
2
The information for machine design personnel is divided into (1) reminder of extremely demanding conditions, (2) notification of defective or broken machine, and (3) design request.
E
W
E
W
Technical design requests can be handled exactly in the same way as maintenance work orders if, as in the case company, the machine design department has its own work stations for the maintenance management system. The design department is in that case an ordinary user of the system which can receive work orders, or, as in this case, design requests.
Group of personnel in need of information Nature of information Maintenance personnel
Number of findings
(l)p
Reminder of hazard Work or safety instruction Need for personal protective equipment Need for special equipment Reminder of simultaneous maintenance activities Machine design personnel Reminder of extreme conditions Notification of defective or broken machine Design request Supply and storage personnel Reminder of extreme conditions Notification of broken or unsuitable equipment Supply order
Lepislii
2
4 3 P
M
2
2
5 4
P
M
2
5 3
(1) Production component to which the information could be directed P: plant, department ••• M: machine, equipment ••• E: materials, spare parts ••• W: work, tasks •••
equipment, and (5) reminder of several maintenance activities going on in the same place at the same time. The last item has mainly been aimed at arousing attention among the maintenance work designers when planning the timetables and loads of maintenance workers. Maintenance workers get their daily information from either work instructions (CM) or periodicwork-lists (PM) depending on the nature of maintenance work concerned. The problem is how to make sure that work designers are aware of those items exactly at the time they are preparing work instructions or timetables. Yet, there are several means to solve the problem. The most natural way is to describe the accident when the other findings of the implementation are also reported to the work management history library after the work is completed (Table 4). When the same work is to be done again, the report of the previous work will then be available. The work designer can add necessary cautions and instruct-ions to the new work instructions. He can also enter separate work or safety description into the library file and make a note of it to the work design display. The note consists of the number and name of the description. In both cases the findings are available at any time later on. The latter way has one further benefit: the work or safety description can be found when scanning the library and used also for other work instructions. To maximize the use of descriptions, they must have a descriptive and informative title.
In some cases the accident was found to have been caused by defective or broken machines. One way to provide the machine design department with the findings is to write a design request after the accident investigation. However, it would be more effective if the accidents were reported to the system. It would then be possible to add the accident report or part of it automatically to the work order or design request queues. The fault notification module serves as an excellent framework for the data collection and all the other data processing of accidents. If the production process itself or the conditions set special requirements for the machines, they should be noted on the machine cards. In the most serious cases, these pieces of information should be classification qualifiers so that e.g. the scanning could be limited to the machines suitable for those special requirements only.
TABLE 4 Integration Example from Paper Mill
Accident: The task was to move a pulp handling pump. While lifting was done, the pump swung and hit the left foot of one of the workers. The swing was caused by wrong lifting points. The injuries led to 17 days' absence from work.
Design request: design of lifting points, methods, and equipment Work report: description of the accident or a note of the accident report available elsewhere Machine card: note of the accident and description of safe working methods, or a note of instructions available elsewhere Work instructions: description of safe lifting methods and equipment needed
IllI q~ r ; lli"lI
,,1'11 1< id l' lI t I llfo rm a ti()1I int o Compllt e r .-\id ed Produ ct io n \I a ll a~e m c nt
11 5
Information for supply and storage personnel The nature of the information that was found to be important for suppliers and storage personnel was almost the same as that for machine design personnel. The items were divided into (1) reminder of extremely demanding conditions, (2) notification of broken or unsuitable equipment, and (3) supply order. The principles for handling the situation were also quite alike. If accident investigation reveals that safeguards, working equipment or personal protective equipment are needed, it is possible to write the supply order after the investigation and give, at the most, one page free text reasons for the order. It would be of advantage if an accident report could automatically lead to a supply order. This presupposes that accidents are reported to the maintenance management system and the accident investigation and material management app l ications co-operate, so that the accident investigator can communicate interactively with the system about the need for supply, when reporting the accident.
Dl\TA B/>SES:
Description of prcduction, Production history, A=idents, hazards •••
Special reports: instructions/task - hazardsjmachine ••• Feed back
(1)
MAINI'EN1INCE
Periodic
safety
Su!::ply orders
reports Work orders
Safety
(3)
description After an accident has happened it is also possible to give well-grounded supply prohibitions for broken or unsuitable equipment . The arguments can be saved on the material card of the equipment. By means of the material management module all equipment of the same type can accurately be identified if, for example, it is necessary to inform other users. On the storage title list references of more reliable or suitable equipment can be found. In some cases it seemed to be useful to remind the supply and storage personnel of extremely demanding conditions. The reminder can be included on the machine and material cards as described before. In the most serious cases the information and material management applications should co-operate in a certain way so that only qualified spare parts and material could be chosen for machines used under demanding conditions. Other means to utilize the system in safety work The integration of incident information into management systems has also some further advantages. There are several ways to show the management the profitability o f accident prevention, such a s the possibility to direct the costs of the accidents to the budget of the work during which the accidents occurred, or to the machine the injured person was working with. The systems make it possible to follow the expenses in real time. In addition, the tutors could use the work and safety descriptions of each machine or task when introducing them to new workers. The maintenance management s ystem provides excellent environment for the whole safety information s ystem. It contains all the functions important for safety data collection and processing. Not only maintenance a c cidents, but all accidents could be handled in the maintenance system, because it contains detailed information on production , and every production department has its own work stations where it can employ the s ystem. Figure 3 summarizes the possibilities to provide users with the safet y information by employing the integration. In addition to the ordinary safety and accident reports (1 ) , management operations can be supported by versatile special reports (2) which contain detailed information being requested. Furthermore, safety reminders or
A=ident
reports
SYSTEM
SAFEl'Y INFORofATION SYSTEM
L -____~>
Safety analysis, Inspections , A=ident
investigations ... IrollCI'ION SYSTEM
Fig. 3. Distribution of safety information
instructions are provided for users any time maintenance operations are planned or done (3). CONCLUSIONS The contents of accident reports The number of accident reports analysed was small and only one year was represented. The sample used is mainly indicative and does not allow any generalized conclusions. However, important findings are that (1) nearly half of the accident reports include utilizable information for the maintenance management system, but (2) the maintenance areas were not equally represented in the informative group, and (3) on the average the descriptions of the accidents - measured by causal factors identified by supervisors - were not exhaustive. The nature of accidents varies. Every accident cannot be expected to contain such information that is valuable for the maintenance management. On the other hand, it is important to develop the way in which accidents are being reported. Furthermore, all the information needed cannot be found in the accident reports. There are other ways to obtain safety information; for example, near accident reporting, work safety analysis and safety inspections.
J. Le pis!o
116
The possibi lities and advanta ges of integra tion The discuss ion above on the integra tion of inciden t informa tion into product ion management systems has strongl y been influenc ed by informa tion obtained from a small sample of acciden t reports . Besides , the case system contain s only mainten ance operatio ns. In spite of these limitati ons, the possibi lities and advanta ges are undoubt edly general ly applica ble to the utiliza tion of all safety informa tion in differe nt kinds of compute r aided product ion management systems . Most of the informa tion attained from acciden t reports was obvious ly well-kno wn at the workpla ce. Thus the lack of knowled ge is no problem . On the contrar y, the questio n is how to make sure that qualifie d personn el remember all the "trivia lities" required by efficie nt and safe working . It is this that makes the compute r aided management systems provide excelle nt support for the users. The most signific ant advanta ges are the inevitab le consequ ences of the design phase of the compute rized management system itself: (1) the necessi ty to define and describ e the function s and informa tion flows of the product ion in detail, and (2) the necessi ty to have circums tantial machine and personn el data bases whereby all the compone nts of product ion can be identifi ed and classif ied. Therefo re, the needs for safety informa tion in differe nt situatio ns of product ion can also be de termina ted accurat ely. In additio n, the on-line systems make it possibl e to provide safety informa tion for users just-on -time when product ion operations are planned and done. REFERENCES Davies,K .R.(1983 ).Compu terized data base for the storage and retriev al of abnorma l occurren ce reports . Loss prevent ion, Symposium Series 80. Harroga te. 10pp. Kjellen ,U.,E.M encel,J. Lauritz en,and P.Maija la (1986).U tredning av arbetso lycksfa ll och tillbud som del i ett lokalt skyddsi nformationssys tem. Arbete och Halsa 3 . Arbetar skyddss tyrelsen , Solna. 54pp.(i n Swedish ) Kjellen, U.(1986 ).Develo pment of a prototyp e computerize d safety informa tion system of an airline . Securit e du travail 49,2,14 7-161. Lepist6 ,J.(1985 ).Tapatu rmantor junnan nykytil a. Raportt i 37. Tampereen teknilli nen korkeakoulu, Tampere . 77pp.(in Finnish ) Ksijala ,P.,and T.Hakav uori.(19 84).Sah k6alojen ty6tapat urmien tilasto inti. Tiedott eita 302. Valtion teknilli nen tutkimu skeskus , Espoo. 40pp.(in Finnish ) Neiglick ,U.(198 7).ATK -jarjeste lma tyosuoj elupaal lik6n apuna. Teollisu usvakuu tus,2,25 -26. (in Finnish ) Pekkari nen,A.,H .Antton en,and J.Luttu. (1986). Tyotapatur matilas tot ty6paika n tapaturm antorjun nan tietolah teena. Ty6terv eyslaito ksen tutkimu ksia,4,2 ,100-11 1.(in Finnish ) Rosness ,R.,J.Ho vden,an d R.Tinma nnsvik.( 1986).D ecentrali zed use of an acciden t informa tion system. Project Memo. SINTEF, Trondhe im. 27pp.