Advances in integration of equipment lockout/tagout, determination of actual production capacity and production/maintenance planning.

摘要

Individuals and groups throughout an organization are both faced with occupational health and safety (OHS) issues that arise often from deficiencies in product, process or equipment design or in operations management. If such issues are addressed appropriately, improved efficiency and productivity can result throughout the entire organization. The purpose of the present article is to review research results on the subject of integrating OHS into operational risks and to propose improvements to theoretical analytical models of manufacturing systems variability. A portfolio of analytical models for integrating equipment lockout/tag-out into the planning of production and maintenance and the calculation of production capacity is presented.The use of Markov chains followed by solving of Hamilton-Jacoby-Bellman differential equations using numerical methods led to three findings: (i) lockout/tag-out is an activity that should be planned and organized within Materials Requirements Planning (MRP); (ii) lockout/tag-out procedures under certain conditions require suitable study and work measures; (iii) the calculation of production capacities must include estimation of parameters relevant to lockout/tag-out. Avenues to the integration of OHS risks into operational risks are proposed. Lockout/tag-out becomes an asset when the motivation for bypassing it is reduced, the payoff being reduced likelihood of workplace accidents.