Journal of Safety Research

33 (2002) 1 – 20
www.elsevier.com/locate/jsr

Editorial
From the traditional concept of safety
management to safety integrated with quality
Susana Garcı́a Herreroa, Miguel Angel Mariscal Saldañaa,
Miguel Angel Manzanedo del Campoa, Dale O. Ritzelb,*
a
Area de Organización de Empresas, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Avda. Cantabria S/N,
09006 Burgos, Spain
b
Center for Injury Control and Worksite Health Promotion, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale,
IL 62901, USA

Received 19 February 2001; received in revised form 1 August 2001; accepted 10 October 2001

Abstract

This editorial reviews the evolution of the concepts of safety and quality that have been
used in the traditional workplace. The traditional programs of safety are explored showing
strengths and weaknesses. The concept of quality management is also viewed. Safety
management and quality management principles, stages, and measurement are highlighted.
The concepts of quality and safety guarantee are assessed. Total Quality Management
concepts are reviewed and applied to safety quality. Total safety management principles
are discussed. Finally, an analysis of the relationship between quality and safety from data
collected from a company in Spain is presented. D 2002 National Safety Council and
Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Safety management; Safety quality; Total safety management

1. Traditional methods of safety management

There are many forms of safety management in the workplace. The types most
commonly used are (a) the traditional method of safety and (b) the methods and
philosophies of quality in conjunction with safety (Smith, 1996).

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-618-453-2080; fax: +1-618-453-2879.

0022-4375/02/$ – see front matter D 2002 National Safety Council and Elsevier Science Ltd.
All rights reserved.
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2 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20

Safety professionals from companies adhering to the traditional method of

safety direct and control workers so that they complete the expected company
safety standards and regulations. They also enforce laws and government
regulations. They are informed on new regulations, devoted to impose rules
and regulations to their employees, carry out inspections, audit the system, direct
investigations of accidents and injuries, and establish recommendations in order
to prevent accidents and injuries in the future. For the safety professionals,
adhering to this concept means modifying the behavior of the worker, motivating
them, and using prizes and incentives to help them work in a safer way. Rewards
are given only to those workers or departments that meet the preset safety
objectives (Smith, 1996).
The traditional safety management programs do not always improve the
results of safety because they are centered exclusively on the technical
requirements and on obtaining short-term results (Weinstein, 1996). Fig. 1
provides an illustration of a representation of the traditional focus of safety
management, in which we observe that the company only acts when accidents
or injuries happen.
Another shortcoming of the traditional safety management program is that the
program is isolated and many times not integrated with the rest of the functions of
an organization. The common elements of traditional safety programs include:
safety director, safety committees, meetings relating to safety, list of rules
pertaining to safety, posting of slogans, posters, and programs of safety
incentives. The responsibility of the safety program falls on the safety director
who occupies a position inside the organization of the company and, in many
cases, does not have the authority to make changes (Hansen, 1993).
A system that is centered on taking a proactive approach is more effective than
the one that continually analyzes accidents after they happen in order to generate
data on which to base improvements. Prevention is based on established rules,
regulations, and safety instructions, but the mere publication of those rules and

Fig. 1. Traditional focus of safety management (adapted from Rahimi, 1995).

 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20 3

regulations in a safety manual is not enough for their effective implementation.

Only when all personnel work in accordance with the safety norms and the
established instructions will the company have safe practices.
The 10 obligations of management as defined by Petersen (1994) represent the
way of leaving traditional safety management. Under these new obligations
within the company:

 Progress is not measured by injury ratios.

 Safety becomes a system, more than a program.
 Statistical techniques drive the efforts of continuous improvement.
 The investigation of accidents and injuries is renewed or is eliminated.
 Technical principles and tools for the statistical control of the process
are used.
 Emphasis is placed on improving the system.
 Benefits are provided for people that discover illegal situations.
 The participation of workers in the resolution of problems and making
decisions is formalized.
 Ergonomic well-being is projected inside the place of work.
 The traps within the system that cause human errors are eliminated.

2. Integration of quality and safety

If the evolution of quality management is analyzed, the results should show

that three stages exist: (a) quality control, (b) quality assurance, and (c) total
quality. If the same analysis is carried out for the safety management system,
three similar stages would be found: (a) safety control, (b) safety assurance or
guarantee, and (c) total safety. These stages are shown in Table 1.

2.1. Safety control

One of the first contributions relating to the integration of quality with safety
was Dumas (1987). After carrying out a study in more than 200 companies for 5
years, Dumas discovered that programs of quality and programs of safety have
the same components. One of the conclusions of his study was that ‘‘safety is a
dimension of quality, after everything, the elimination of defects includes the
elimination of practices of unsafe work.’’ Minter (1991) affirms that if one looks

Table 1
Evolution of the concepts quality and safety
Quality management steps Safety management steps
Quality control Safety control
Quality assurance Safety assurance or guarantee
Total quality Total safety
4 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20

at safety as a consequence of making things well, then the program will

undoubtedly bear quality.
Therefore, if the objective of quality control is to improve the quality of the
products through the detection and elimination of defects, we can define the
objective of safety control as the reduction of injuries through the elimination of
unsafe acts and work conditions.

2.2. Stages of safety control

Safety control could be synthesized in three phases or stages: (a) the

postcontrol, (b) the control of the events, and (c) the precontrol (Montante, 1991).
The postcontrol stage includes all the safety performances and activities
that occur as a result of an accident or injury. Some of these performances
are: (a) first aid and medical care that were needed, or that were required, on
the part of the injured victim; (b) control of the damages resulting from the
accident or injury; (c) emergencies or reactions in the face of a certain
situation; and (d) programs of rehabilitation offered to the accident/injury
victim. We could also include in this stage the studies that investigate the
causes of accidents and injuries and communicating results of the event to the
rest of the company members.
The second stage of safety control makes reference to the control of the events.
In this phase, the visible side of safety is observed and all of the measures that
should be taken are taken so that in the moment of the accident, the damages and
the occasional injuries are diminished.
Lastly, precontrol is directed to eliminate accidents and injuries by preven-
tion techniques.

2.3. The measure of safety results

In the first phase of safety management, there are several techniques of safety
that are used to control accidents and injuries, one of which is statistical analysis.
Several authors, among them Krause and Salazar, have indicated that
statistical analysis is used to control worker risk through a technique called the
statistical processes control (SPC). SPC is a tool that is used to control the quality
of the processes. SPC shows that the outcomes of a system do not have a constant
value because random variations will always exist.
In many systems, this random variation is represented in the time that comes
from a rise in the function of normal distribution. Statistics provide a tool to
predict the probability that the value of a variable is understood between a range
of values. For example, if a system is stable, or ‘‘under control,’’ more than 99%
of all the values that are measured will be understood in a range of ±3 S.D.
centered around the central value.
The statistical analysis of accidents and injuries shows the situation of the
company in regards to safety. However, statistics are not always a useful tool to
improve safety.
 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20 5

On one hand, when safety management is based on the results of accidents and
injuries, the efforts of safety are stimulated as a function of accident and injury
statements, and one can tell top management about the need to pay more attention
to the prevention of accidents at times when the rates of accidents and injuries
increase. This will also diminish having to pay attention when injuries rates are
lower (Krause & Hidley, 1989).
On the other hand, if the number of accidents are represented graphically,
over time, and injuries within a company are determined to be stable, or
‘‘under control,’’ then this could be a more difficult situation. This means that
the rate of accidents and injuries may remain at the same level, and that the
increase or decrease in the number of accidents and injuries may simply result
from random variations in the system of safety (Salazar, 1989). In order to
combat this phenomenon and improve the results of safety, it is necessary to
measure the performances of safety before the accidents happen (Krause &
Hidley, 1989).

2.4. The problem of measuring the quality of the results

When the number of accidents and injuries are measured, the number of
defects produced by a system are being measured. When these indicators are used
to establish objectives, we work with numeric quotas that do not contribute value.
This measure of quality could create conflict between the workers, supervisors,
and others responsible for safety. This type of situation can force those involved
to choose between what is best for themselves or best for the company.
One problem for those who are responsible for the safety in a company is that
they must require workers to notify them when accidents and injuries occur.
Many workers hide their own accidents and even those of their companions in
order to decrease the index of frequency and obtain safety incentives (Geller,
1994; Promfret, 1994). In addition, according to Krause and Russell (1994), the
fact that workers experience negative consequences after accident and injury
investigations makes them elect to hide them.
At times, Promfret (1994) affirms that workers suffer injuries caused by a
series of factors that are outside their control: unsafe conditions, wrong systems
designed, excessive work load, or a culture that advocates the individual and
impedes a perspective of team work.
According to Deming (1986), top management is responsible for 94% of
the problems because they control the assignment of resources, establish and
implement the methods of work, develop the politics, and so forth. For these
reasons, each manager should be the lone sponsor of their own particular
results (Sznaider, 1998). The improvement of the system is the responsibility
of top management, without forgetting that in order to reach the global
objectives of the company, the workers and members of work teams play an
important part.
The Consultant Unit for the Prevention of Accidents of the Executive of
Safety and Health of the United Kingdom carried out a study entitled ‘‘Success
6 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20

and Failure of the Prevention of Accidents.’’ The study concluded that the index
of frequency of accidents was not a sure guide to measure the safety of a
company, and that in order to carry out more exact measurement of the efforts of
safety, it was better to carry out inspections and systematic audits.
If we compared the evolution of safety with that of quality, we realize that in
order to improve safety we should not remain in the postaccident analysis
because the same accidents could happen as they do now in quality analysis.
Analyzing the defects at the end of the process of production does not show our
level of quality and we do not know how to improve it.
Deming (1986) proposes that we must measure the quality of the system (or
program of safety) and not the quality of the results of safety.

2.5. The measure of the quality of the program of safety

Two tools exist that can be used to measure the quality of the program of safety:
safety inspections that identify the practices, behaviors, and unsafe conditions; and
safety audits that identify the actions carried out by top management of the
company that affect positively the system of safety (Salazar, 1989).

3. Safety assurance

If we analyzed the history of quality management, we observe that the concept

of quality evolves from quality control toward quality assurance. In quality
assurance, the center of the activity, the planning, and the culture are directed
toward the client and the product. In terms of safety, the workers and managers of
the company are the clients and safety is the product (absence of injuries and
illnesses; Roberge, 1999).
As is the case for quality assurance (ISO 9000), top management should visibly
commit to safety, establish a managerial culture that does not tolerate unsafe
performances, and facilitate channels of communication that permit workers to
report the conditions of risk. On the other hand, workers should participate in the
planning of safety and share their responsibility. The objectives of safety can be
reached when both workers and top management have the same understandings.

3.1. The ISO 9000 and systems of management of prevention of worker risks

The international standards of the ISO 9000 have helped many organizations
implement quality systems since they describe the essential elements.
Regulations based on ISO 9000 have been created to guide companies in
developing systems for the management and the prevention of worker risks.
Some examples include: the British BS 8800 (1996), a guide for the systems of
safety management and worker health; the experimental Spanish UNE 81900
(1996) that indicates the general rules for the implementation of a system of
management to prevent worker risks; and the American Association of Industrial
 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20 7

Hygiene, Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS), which

is a guide for safety management and worker health.
In Spain, big companies tend to implement systems of management and
prevention of worker risks based upon the UNE 81900, ‘‘Prevention of occu-
pational risks. General rules to implementation of a management system for
occupational risks prevention.’’ This regulation, which shares the same general
principles that the norms of quality assurance UNE-EN-ISO series 9000,
specifies the elements that integrate a management system for the prevention
of occupational risks.

3.2. The concept of safety guarantee

Companies that have implemented occupational risk prevention systems are at a

level of safety management comparable with quality assurance or quality guar-
antee. Based on the definition of quality assurance, safety guarantee is defined as
the group of actions, planned and systematic, implemented inside the management
system for the prevention of occupational risks, which provides the appropriate
trust that an entity will complete the requirements of occupational safety and health.

3.3. The integration of the systems of prevention of worker risks with the systems
of quality and environment

Some authors defend the idea of integrating occupational risk prevention

management systems with quality management systems. Others are in favor of
integrating occupational risk prevention systems with the system of environmental
administration. And others favor integrating the three disciplines: quality, safety,
and environment, by means of a system of integrated administration.
Manzella (1997) affirms that in order to get excellent safety results, one needs to
integrate the safety system in the quality management system. The author com-
ments that the quality and safety principles are essentially the same (see Table 2).
Luce (1990) developed an Integrated Management Program (IMP), which
integrated environment issues with safety and health. Later on in Spain, Urrutia

Table 2
The principles and relationship of quality and safety
Safety Quality
Objective: zero accidents Objective: zero defects
Analysis of incidents Analysis of events
Documenting the politics of safety, Documenting the politics of quality,
the procedures and the instructions the procedures and the instructions of work
Safety committees Quality circles
Participation of the workers Participation of the workers
Statistical analysis Statistical control of the process
All accidents and injuries could be prevented The not conformities could be prevented
Source: Manzella (1997).
8 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20

(1995) developed a model of management that integrated safety, environment,

and quality. The model consisted of 24 elements:

1. Top management leadership

2. Politics and strategy
3. Recruiting and selection
4. Programs of formation
5. Motivation of personnel
6. Control of health
7. Financial resources
8. Information resources
9. Documentation
10. Material and technological resources
11. Contract revisions
12. Design
13. Purchases
14. Identification and product tracking
15. Processes
16. Inspection and testing
17. State of inspection and testing
18. Control of products that do not conform
19. Analysis of accidents/incidents/injuries
20. Work correctives
21. Preventive actions
22. Manipulation, packing, and delivery
23. Service after-sale
24. Diffusion

4. Total Safety Management (TSM)

Lastly, if we continue analyzing the evolution of the concept of quality, we

observe that the last phase is Total Quality Management (TQM). TQM caused a
great deal of interest in the 1990s. Many authors indicate that the TQM
philosophy could improve the management of any area inside the company,
and they lend special attention to the improvement of the safety management and
to the improvement of environmental management.

4.1. TQM and safety

Since 1992, in the United Kingdom, occupational safety and health has been
viewed as an integral part of TQM and is based upon two respects: the model
HS(G)65 and the norm BS7850 (Deacon, 1994).
On one hand, the British model HS (G) 65, published in 1991, was used for
safety and health management. On the other hand, the quality regulation BS7850
 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20 9

Fig. 2. Model of integrated quality safety.

from 1992 added to the traditional concept of TQM that satisfaction of the client,
the safety, the health, the environment, and the managerial objectives are checks
to each other (see Fig. 2).
Weinstein (1996) developed the Safety Hazard Management System (SHMS),
which integrates the principles of the TQM, the requirements of the ISO 9000 and
the technical requirements (laws, norms, etc.). This system is displayed in Fig. 3.
Rahimi (1995) suggested integrating the strategic planning (long term) of
safety inside TQM. A conceptual frame was developed that included the
concepts of strategic safety management (SSM) and self-managed teams
(SMT). One of the characteristics of Rahimi’s model is the integration of teams
of safety and the teams of quality. The idea included integrating the organization
of a company into teams of work, with workers from several levels, in order to
have on the same team: (a) people with enough experience to design and

Fig. 3. SHMS (source: Weinstein, 1996).

10 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20

supervise the physical components of the environment of work (for example

machines, teams and facilities, buildings, etc.); and (b) people able to plan,
organize, direct, and control the actions that need to be carried out. These work
teams do not eliminate the authority of top management but they provide
additional tools for continuous improvement.
These work teams have to begin to be integrated little by little, so that top
management and the workers have time to adapt to the new rules. The work
teams should begin by working on small pilot projects and move forward to adopt
new organizational forms (Rahimi, 1995).
Rahimi suggests the following recommendations, described by Wilson (1993),
for the good operation of work teams:

 Teams need to know how their contributions will help meet the objectives
of the company and what they will receive in return.
 Team members and supervisors have to differentiate the routine activities
carried out with the team.
 Measures of performance need to specify what kind of behavior or actions
can lead to ‘‘overachievement.’’ They need to know how they are
performing with a performance yardstick or ‘‘benchmark.’’
 Team members need the support of their supervisors, top management,
their clients, and all those that are involved in the process.
 Supervisors need to be evaluated and given reinforcement for actions they
have taken to build, support, maintain, and contribute to the success of
teams in their areas.
 The previous item is also applicable to middle and top management.
Supporting the formation of continuous improvement is an essential element.
 An effective system of measuring and providing feedback is essential.

When worker safety and health is desired, the first motivation should come
from the interior of the company, through the development of a solid culture of
safety and health. On the contrary, worker safety and health should not come from
the exterior of the company as a result of the legal imperatives (Deacon, 1994).
The people that work in safety management and, at the same time, are
members of quality teams, assure that quality management has a great relation-
ship with risk management. The actions that are carried out to achieve quality are
the same actions necessary to achieve effective risk management.

4.2. The principles of the TQM applied to safety quality

Many authors defend the idea that the concepts of TQM can be applied to the
practices of safety and health (Blair, 1996; Goetsch, 1999; Manzella, 1997;
McMillan & Mahoney, 1994; Pollock, 1995; Rine, 1994; Saunders, 1995; Senecal,
1994; Weinstein, 1996; Yarborough, 1994; Zera, 1994). The basic principles of
TQM provide us an excellent description of the daily activities of the people
responsible for safety and health management in the work place (Vincoli, 1991).
 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20 11

Experts in quality, like Deming, Juran, and Crosby, have developed the
concept of Total Quality in their studies. Some points exist in which they differ,
but in general the principles of quality endorsed by the authors are: (a) the
organizational commitment; (b) the culture; (c) the formation; (d) the continuous
improvement; (e) the satisfaction of the client; and (f) the use of systems of
measuring and communication. Roughton (1993) expressed the necessity of
applying these principles in safety management:

 Organizational commitment. Top management should involve both the

processes of improvement of quality and of safety, and should act as the
leader. The processes of improvement should integrate daily activities.
 Culture. The organization should understand that quality and safety operate
as one. The problems of quality and of safety should be tried not only for
top management but also for supervisors and workers. The identification of
problems should be seen as an opportunity to improve, instead of using it to
accuse a worker or a workers’ group.
 Formation. Formation is important because it provides an understanding
and a common language for all the workers. The formation in relation to
quality and safety should incorporate the knowledge of basic tools like
those of resolution of problems, the diagrams of cause-effect, the data
collection, and statistical principles.
 Continuous improvement. Quality management and safety should center on
the continuous improvement of all the parts of the organization.
 Satisfaction of the client. Identify the necessities of the client, measure and
control their satisfaction, and develop a system of managing complaints
or reclamations.
 Systems of measuring. It is necessary to develop a system of measuring and
identifying areas where opportunities exist for improvements.
 Communication. Communication is the key to the relationship between top
management and workers. The system could be damaged if the
communications are unusual. The improvements of quality and of safety
proposals for the operatives should be recognized.

The principles that Deming (1986) proposed in his book Out of the Crisis for
quality management are directly related to the success that one can obtain in risk
management. Some of the principles proposed by Deming, related to the
management of risks, were summarize by Manuele (1994) where he indicates
that one could substitute the word ‘‘safety’’ for ‘‘quality’’:

 Quality begins with top management.

 The important improvements in quality require a change in the manageri-
al culture.
 The long-term commitment of top management is necessary for improve-
ments of quality.
12 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20

 The support of top management is not enough. What is required is their

behavior and leadership. The obligations of top management could not
be delegated.
 Everybody has clients. The persons that are not aware of who their clients
are do not understand their work.
 Quality should be built in the stages of design. Quality is reached by
improving the processes continually.
 Quality does not come from inspections, but from the improvement of
the processes.
 The directors tend to make workers responsible for aspects that are not
under their control. People work in a system created by top management,
therefore, only top management can change it.
 Gathering the established specifications are necessary for the maintenance
of the current situation, but they do not improve the results.
 It is essential to distinguish between a stable and an unstable system.
Statistical diagrams indicate whether a system is or is not stable.
 The common causes are shortcomings of the system (capacity of the team,
design of the processes of work, not very clear procedures) and often can
only be corrected by top management. The special causes (wrong operation
of the machinery, assignment of workers) come from fleeting events.

In order to apply the 14 points of the philosophy of Deming to the safety

system, Salazar (1989) proposes four basic topics:

 The stability. Top management should commit to a philosophy or politics of

safety in order to guide the daily decisions.
 The formation. The basic difference between safe employees and those that
are prone to injuries is that safe employees have the capacity to recognize
the risks, determine their actions, and understand the consequences. This
capacity is not present at birth, but rather is acquired through learning. In
order to improve the safety quality of each employee, it is necessary to
systematize safety training: Defining the functions of the technical aspects
of safety clearly and providing training to all levels, facilitating the
necessary resources for safety training, establishing programs of training
for the new workers, providing training to Directors and supervisors, and
institutionalizing systems of continuous training, are all necessary functions
of safety training.
 The measure of the quality of the system. When we measure the number of
accidents and injuries, we are measuring the number of defects produced
by the system. When we use these indicators to establish objectives, we
work with numeric quotas that do not contribute value. The quality of the
results should not create conflict between the workers, supervisors, and
those responsible for safety, because they are often forced to choose
between what is best for themselves or best for the company. The solution
according to Deming is to measure the quality of the system, and not the
 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20 13

quality of the results. As we indicated previously, two types of indicators

are key for the measure of system quality, on one hand the practices,
behaviors, and insecure conditions, and on the other hand the measure-
ments of actions carried out by top management that affect positively the
system of safety.
 The implementation of the processes of improvement. Deming integrates
the responsibility of management and the participation of workers through
the extensive use of committees and quality groups. The practical
application of this to safety is the creation of teams of safe work.

One of the better descriptions of the TQM is captured in the 14 Obligation

Management by Deming:

 Concentrate on the long-term objectives in order to develop a system of

world quality.
 Discard the old philosophy of accepting accidents and injuries.
 Use statistical techniques to identify the two sources of accidents and
injuries (the system and the human error).
 Institutionalize more training.
 Eliminate the dependence on the investigation of accidents and injuries. In
their place use such methods as checking behavior, cause-effect diagrams,
flow charts, and so forth in order to demonstrate the defects of the system
and achieve a continuous improvement of the system.
 Provide supervisors (and employees) with training about using statistical
tools and assure that those tools are used in order to identify areas that need
additional studies and corrective actions.
 Reduce fear by encouraging the workers to identify the defects of the
system and help them find solutions.
 Reduce accidents and injuries by designing safety within the process. Use
engineering concepts in all aspects of safety.
 Eliminate the use of slogans, incentives, and posters.
 Examine the standard of work in order to eliminate the traps of accidents
and injuries.

Other aspects of total quality are also valuable. In fact, measurements that
follow are necessary in safety:

1. Ask employees to define and solve the problems of the company and
identify the weakness of the system.
2. Provide workers with simple tools to solve problems.
3. Replace the statistics based on accidents and injuries by measuring ‘‘waters
up’’ (e.g. show you the behavior).
4. Replace the statistics based on the accidents and injuries by measur-
ing ‘‘waters below’’ (e.g. perceptions of the workers through surveys
and interviews).
14 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20

Table 3
Phases for the implementation of TSM
Planning and preparation
(1) Gain executive-level commitment
(2) Establish the TSM steering committee
(3) Mold the steering committee into a team
(4) Give the steering committee safety and health awareness training
(5) Develop the organization’s safety and health vision guiding principles
(6) Develop the organization’s safety and health mission and objectives
(7) Communicate and inform

Identification and measure

(8) Identify the organization’s safety and health strengths and weakness
(9) Identify the defenders and opponents of safety and health
(10) Benchmark initial employee perceptions concerning the work environment
(11) Make it extensive to the organization
(12) Identify specific improvement projects

Execution /implementation
(13) Create improvement project teams
(14) Activate the feedback loop (new projects/new teams)
(15) Establish a TSM culture
Source: Goetsch (1999).

Petersen (1994) underlines the idea of negotiating safety using the philosoph-
ies of TQM, and comments that one could get, by means of the participation of
workers, the creation of a new culture where safety is perceived as a key value,
where statistical tools are used to solve problems, where continuous improve-
ments are emphasized, and where indicators are used to measure the quality of
the system and not the quality of the results.

4.3. TSM

TSM is safety management written and practiced using the principles of TQM.
TQM has demonstrated that it is an effective way of maximizing the long-term

Table 4
Differences between TQM and TSM
TQM TSM
Know the processes Know the sources of risks
Minimize the errors Minimize the risks
Center on prevention Center on prevention
Reduce variations Reduce the uncertainty
Deepen in the satisfaction of the client Deepen in the safety of the workers,
the organization and the clients
The problems are caused more by the The accidents and injuries are caused
system than by the individuals more by faulty planning than by the people
Source: Saunders (1995).
 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20 15

Table 5
Areas of suggestions by company employees by year
Suggestions 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Safety 85 128 213 204 268 177 172 141 149 118
Productivity 31 127 77 70 42 39 22 53 29 57
Quality 83 115 160 147 115 64 62 67 89 78
Ergonomics 58 141 168 164 140 109 121 109 147 117
Order and cleaning 10 65 92 87 81 38 29 30 56 62
Saving of energy 0 7 13 4 6 1 0 0 10 0
Waste Removal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 0
Total 267 583 723 676 652 428 406 400 493 432

competitiveness of a company. It is also a method than can improve the

effectiveness of the programs of safety and health (Goetsch, 1999).
Manzanedo (1994) advanced the concept of TSM, indicating that many
concepts, principles, rules, technical and included objectives, of the TQM could
move the TSM, with the single change of quality (Q) for safety (S).
The problem of isolation that quality directors had, when quality was
exclusively the responsibility of the Department of Quality or the Director of
Quality, was solved with TQM. TQM makes everybody involved in the processes
of quality, and the Director of Quality acts like a coordinator and assistant. The
same type of isolation happens with safety, where the top management and
workers sometimes see safety as the responsibility of the Safety Department or
the Safety Director. In these cases, the TSM could also make sure everybody is
involved in the topics of safety, and the functions of the Safety Director would be
one of coordinating the processes and facilitating the necessary resources
(Goetsch, 1999).
According to Goetsch (1999), three components are needed to take the TSM
philosophy to practice: (a) a TSM committee, (b) teams for improvement
projects, and (c) a facilitator:

 The committee would define the politics of safety and health, approve the
rules and procedures of work related to worker safety and health, provide
the resources, and approve the recommendations carried out by the teams
of improvement.
 The teams for improvement will propose improvements related to the
environment of work.
 And the facilitator, an expert in safety and health, possibly the director or
person responsible for safety within the company, will take the
responsibility of implementing the TSM program.

Table 6
Combination of safety and ergonomics suggestions by year
Number of suggestions 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Safety and ergonomics 143 269 381 368 408 286 293 250 296 235
16 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20

Table 7
Number of employee observations of safe and unsafe acts by year
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Number of observations 80 398 415 503 318

According to Goetsch (1999), there are three phases to implement TSM inside
a company: (a) planning and preparation, (b) identification and measure, and
(c) execution and implementation. Table 3 outlines the stages of each one of
these phases.
Some similarities and differences between the TQM and TSM are expressed
by Saunders (1995), as shown in Table 4.

5. Analysis of the relationship between quality and safety: A Spanish

company assessment

Herrero (2001) analyzes the relationship between quality and safety in a

company in Spain during the last 10 years. This study analyzes the information of
a labor intensive, manufacturing company including: (a) the suggestions of
improvement by employees, (b) the employee observations of safety, and (c)
the results of safety practices.
In Herrero’s (2001) investigation, the suggested improvements are classified in
seven areas: (a) safety, (b) productivity, (c) quality, (d) ergonomics, (e) order and
cleaning, (f) saving of energy, and (g) waste removal. Table 5 indicates the
frequency of suggestions for improving the work environment as reported by
employees over a 10-year period.
The ergonomics suggestions by employees have been assembled together with
the safety suggestions into one category. The number of safety suggestions is
shown in Table 6.
Besides the employees’ suggestions for improvement, the company has
systematized, since 1995, a system of using employee observations of safe and
unsafe acts that contribute to improving safety. The number of observations is
shown in Table 7.
If the employee safety observations are added (Table 7) to the safety
suggestions (including ergonomics; Table 6), the data shown in Table 8 is

Table 8
Frequency of employee suggestions and observations of safety
Improvements 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99
Safety 143 269 381 368 408 366 691 665 799 553
Productivity 31 127 77 70 42 39 22 53 29 57
Quality 83 115 160 147 115 64 62 67 89 78
Another 10 72 105 91 87 39 29 30 66 62
Total 267 583 723 676 652 508 804 815 996 750
 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20 17

Table 9
Number of accidents and injuries relating to lost workdays
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Accidents and injuries with 30 11 17 13 21 21 13 7 3 6
lost work days

obtained. The new safety area shown in Table 8 is the combined data from Tables
6 and 7.
In order to analyze the influence of improvement acts on the results of safety,
the number of accidents and injuries resulting in lost workdays within the
company are shown in Table 9.
A statistical analysis demonstrates that the correlation between the accidents
and injuries with lost workdays and safety improvements are weaker than the
correlation between the accidents with lost workdays and the total improvements,
including safety, quality, and productivity. These results are shown in Table 10.
This statistical analysis has allowed us to demonstrate how certain actions of
improvement, which were initially designed to improve aspects of quality and
aspects of production, improve occupational safety. This information allows us to
indicate that occupational safety in an industrial company should be integrated
with quality and productivity functions.

6. Evolution of the concept of safety in the Spanish company

Earlier three phases of safety management were defined: safety control, safety
guarantee, and TSM. Analyzing the results of occupational safety and health in
the company in Spain, two of the phases were identified: safety control and the
safety guarantee.
Table 11 shows the number of accidents without lost workdays, with lost
workdays, and the total registered in the company from 1990 to 1999. The total
number of accidents and injuries has generally had a negative trend, in
particular, the numbers from the early 1990s shows that accidents and injuries

Table 10
Correlations between the lost time accidents and injuries, number of improvements, and safety
improvements
Accidents Number of Safety
lost days improvements improvements
Accidents with lost days Pearson correlation 1.000
Significance level .001
Improvements Pearson correlation .869 1.000
Total Significance level .001 .001
Improvements Pearson correlation .775 .913 1.000
Safety Significance level .008 .001 .001
18 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20

Table 11
Work accidents from 1990 through 1999
Accidents 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Without lost days 25 30 34 19 19 14 18 20 21 15
With lost days 30 11 17 13 21 21 13 7 3 6
Total 55 41 51 32 40 35 31 27 24 21

were not stable. However, since 1994, the number of total accidents is in a
downward trend.
Analyzing this information, one can observe that during the years of
uncertainty (for the number of accidents), from 1990 to 1994, the actions that
are carried out in regards to worker safety are punctual actions, most of them are
not systematize. This act is characteristic of the safety management phase called
safety control.
From 1995 to the present, one can observe that the actions implemented
continue in the years that follow as a part of the daily management of the
company (they are systematized). On the other hand, we also observed that from
1995 up to 1999, at no time did the company stop undertaking actions in safety
and health.
Therefore, two phases of the safety management can be clearly identified in
this company: the concept of safety control that occurred up to 1994 and the
safety guarantee that began in 1995. Fig. 4 illustrates this information.
Beginning in the year 2000, a new stage in safety management was started in
the company, denominated by a TSM model. This new model, called Tree of
Safety Management, was developed by the authors of the present article, and it
will be published in the near future. With the results of the evaluations, the
company is expected to introduce the improvements identified by unfolding their
objectives in the 2001.

Fig. 4. The accident trend line of the Spanish company relating to safety control and safety guarantee.
 S. Garcı́a Herrero et al. / Journal of Safety Research 33 (2002) 1–20 19

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