Machine safety: A social responsibility or KPI?
Is machine safety, as part of a corporate safety culture, focused at a social responsibility? Or is it part of the business culture as a key performance indicator (KPI)?
Is machine safety, as part of a corporate safety culture, focused at a social responsibility, Or is it part of the business culture as a key performance indicator (KPI)? Social responsibility is defined as corporate social responsibility (CSR). According to Mallen Barker; “My own definition is that CSR is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society.” As such, companies have a responsibility to the marketplace, the workplace, the environment and the community. Understanding these four components it can easily be understood that the “life cycle of machine safety” plays a direct role in all four components. So, machine safety is a social responsibility! Right!
Not so fast!
KPIs are commonly used by an organization to evaluate its success or the success of a particular activity in which it is engaged toward specific strategic goals. Accordingly, choosing the right KPIs is reliant upon having a good understanding of what is important to the organization. Because of the need to develop a good understanding of what is important, performance indicator selection is often closely associated with the use of various techniques to assess the present state of the business, and its key activities with 'performance improvement' initiatives. A very common way for choosing KPIs is to apply a management framework such as the balanced scorecard approach. A recent Aberdeen Study, “Integrated Safety Systems, November, 2011” points out the KPI’s of “Best In Class” companies.
So what’s all this got to do with Machine safety? In my opinion, it’s strategies like “Best In Class” and “Overall Equipment Effectiveness” (OEE) that bring together the business macro’s like Social Responsibilities and Business Strategy KPI’s with a key common focus called – Machine Safety.
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Machine Safety – are you staying on target?
Machine Safety – the myths of safety cultures.
Updating Minds About Machine Safety
Contact: www.jbtitus.com for “Solutions for Machine Safety”.
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