Finally Someone Got It Right

Having been a member of the American Society of Safety Engineers and other related organizations for nearly half a century, I have seen many changes in theory and approaches regarding accident prevention programs. The historic reality is that since the earliest beginnings of the industrial revolution in this country and in many other nations worldwide, past loss prevention techniques have largely failed to control industrial accidents. And, usually for the same reasons.  It could be argued that many changes in the modern workplace environment have been successful in reducing loss potential, but what cannot be argued is that in the last fifteen years, well over 100,000 workers in this country have gone off to their jobs in the morning, never to return home again. Add to that the more than 4 million non-fatal injuries and illnesses in the workplace each year, with nearly half of those accidents resulting in loss time from work, and you have a pretty bad picture of the failure not just at the worker level but in the entire scheme of management systems from top to bottom.

I clearly remember back in the early 60’s being prompted by my mentors to read the works of F.W. Taylor, Herbert Heinrich and other players in the early days of the industrial safety movement. Taylor, an engineering consultant in the steel industry at the turn of the century, concluded that what was needed was a system to “control workers” so as to improve production and at the same time promote harmony amongst management and labor. Unfortunately, it did little to control losses. But in many respects, “Taylorism” remains with us to this very day.

Then in the 1920’s along came Herbert Heinrich, considered to be the father of modern industrial safety. Working for the Travelers Insurance Company in the Engineering and Inspection Department, Heinrich concluded that what was needed was a “scientific approach to accident prevention.” He wrote the rulebook, focusing on those factors that immediately preceded the accident itself. He also concluded that losses that occurred were nearly 90% of the fault of the worker. Much of that approach is also still with us today, and still very much in error. One may conclude that industrial accidents are the workers’ fault, but the reality is that they are the fault of management systems, and always have been.

It was a pleasure then to get a call the other day from an old acquaintance who had just published a book entitled “System Accidents – Why Americans Are Injured At Work, And What Can Be Done To Stop It.” Thomas A. Smith, President and CEO of Mocal, Inc. may have finally brought to us an approach to safety management that will work. It contains not just a historical look at former efforts, but further brings us perspectives from the late Dr. W. Edwards Deming and a host of well respected safety professionals. Smith hits the proverbial nail on the head in his views and a true picture of our hope for the future in the preventing of industrial losses, the human suffering and the gigantic costs associated with them.

I suggest that this book certainly is important for the American worker, but perhaps far more important for supervisors, managers and executives in the manufacturing and services industry. Further, to our readership in the self-insured and alternative risk transfer industry, I would suggest that it should be a “must read” of no small proportions, particularly by those involved in Worker’s Compensation TPA operations and accident prevention activities in our clients workplaces.

You can obtain a copy by going to Tom’s website at www. Mocalinc.com and click on the link to Amazon or contacting him directly at tsmith@mocalinc.com.

Tom Mather

Managing Editor

Self Insured Magazine

July 2008