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Methodology for a safe work
environment
Metodología para contar con ambientes seguros de
trabajo
José Alberto Bran Cevallos
*
Leonardo Álvaro Banguera Arroyo*
Rina Jacqueline Vera Nicola*
Gerardo David Llamuca Baque*
Abstract
This article has as its theme: "Methodology to have safe work
environments" was developed to make available to the people
involved in occupational safety, whether technicians or employers
and have a set of well-directed actions and interacting with
engineering tools will result in a safe work environment. This
methodological proposal is based on the Lean 5s Tool. This tool has
been successfully implemented by many professionals in different
organizations, achieving an increase in labor productivity in the first
instance and generating other benefits such as the reduction of
occupational accidents. What is proposed in this research are short,
* Master, Universidad de Guayaquil.
Facultad de Ing. Industrial. Magister en
seguridad Higiene Industrial y Salud
Ocupacional, alberto.branc@ug.edu.ec,
https://orcid.org/0009-0001-6856-2793
Master, Universidad de Guayaquil. Facultad
de Ing. Industrial. Doctor en ciencias de la
Ingeniería mención Ingeniería Industrial
leonardo.bangueraa@ug.edu.ec
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0261-2372
Master, Universidad de Guayaquil. Facultad
de Ing. Industrial. Magister en Gerencia de
Servicio de Salud rina.veran@ug.edu.ec
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6625-0905
Master, Universidad de Guayaquil. Facultad
de Ing. Industrial. Magister en seguridad
Higiene Industrial y Salud Ocupacional –
gerardo.llamucab@ug.edu.ec
https://orcid.org/0009-0007-7449-1577
Article
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medium and long term actions that comprise firstly the improvement
of the organizational image of the company or work area and
secondly to create in the worker a change of culture or work
discipline. Since these two approaches involve all the human
resources of the company and therefore the employer, all actions are
of course feasible in all areas of work, generating a minimum
investment in exchange for a greater benefit.
Keywords: Methodology, leam manufacturing, occupational safety,
organization, organizational image, safe work
Resumen
El presente artículo tiene como tema: “Metodología para contar con
ambientes seguros de trabajo” se desarrolló para poner a disposición
de las personas involucradas en la seguridad laboral, ya sean técnicos
o empleadores y dispongan de un conjunto de acciones bien
direccionadas y que interactuando con herramientas de ingeniería se
tendrá como resultado un ambiente de trabajo seguro. Esta propuesta
metodológica se sustenta en la Herramienta Lean 5s. La cual ha sido
implementada por muchos profesionales en distintas organizaciones
de manera exitosa, logrando incrementar la productividad laboral en
primera instancia y generando otros beneficios como lo es la
reducción de accidentes laborales. Lo que se propone en esta
investigación son acciones a corto, mediano y largo plazo que
comprende primero la mejora de la imagen organizacional de la
empresa o área de trabajo y en segundo lugar crear en el trabajador
un cambio de cultura o disciplina laboral. Pues estos dos enfoques
comprometen a todo el recurso humano de la empresa y por ende a
su empleador, todas las acciones son desde luego viables en todo
ámbito de trabajo, generando una mínima inversión a cambio de un
mayor beneficio.
Palabras clave: Metodología, manufactura leam, seguridad laboral,
organización, imagen organizacional, trabajo seguro
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Introduction
Safe work environments are essential for the health and well-being
of workers, as well as for the productivity and efficiency of
companies. This article presents a methodology to have safe work
environments, also based on the need to prevent accidents and
occupational diseases, and to comply with the corresponding norms
and regulations. (Céspedes Socarrás & Martínez Cumbrera, 2016;
Otero Gorotiz et al., 2018; Patlán Pérez, 2020).
For Enderwick, (2018) in his research states that at the end of the
Second World War, Japan had to take on a great challenge to rebuild
its economy. Therefore, the manufacturing sector gave a boost to its
productive matrix being necessary other strategies to improve and be
more competitive. It was thus that Edward Deming was invited to
participate in some conferences on continuous improvement and
other topics focused on quality, becoming a great pillar for the
Japanese industry, who took full advantage of these principles. With
a country committed to sustainable growth, TOYOTA MOTOR
CORPORATION was officially created in 1937. With the beginning
of the war (1940 - 1949) its production was only of trucks, and in the
period (1950 - 1959) began its worldwide expansion, being led by
Mr. Toyoda Kiichiro.
For (Liker, 2021; Mohan Prasad et al., 2020; Oudhuis & Tengblad,
2022)Lean manufacturing has been considered from the beginning
as a work philosophy in the automotive industry. Toyota becomes
the pioneer in using the lean concept in its working methods driven
by its creator, the engineer Taiichi Ohno. Today the Toyota
production system is a model for all companies around the world,
achieving benefits such as: increased productivity, quality
improvement, waste reduction and reduction of accidents at work.
Many companies in Ecuador, in the last two decades have been very
interested in the implementation of continuous improvement and
with much emphasis on the application of lean tools focused on
reducing waste and therefore accidents at work. The Constitution of
the Republic of Ecuador "Reforms", (2008)In its third section, forms
of work and its retribution, Article. 326 Lit. 5 states the following:
"Everyone shall have the right to develop their work in an adequate
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and conducive environment that ensures their health, integrity,
safety, hygiene and welfare". In addition, this same article in
paragraph 2 states: "Labor rights are inalienable and intangible. Any
stipulation to the contrary shall be null and void. Therefore, it is the
responsibility of every natural or legal person to enforce and comply
with the provisions of the Constitution.
This right of dependent persons in Ecuador has allowed many public
and private employers to provide workers with safe work, the latter
being a corporate policy and most of all promulgated by the
International Labor Organization (ILO). Safe work not only means
providing the worker with social security coverage from the first day
of work, but also that the worker carries out his/her work activities
in an adequate and conducive environment, as well as being
informed in an obligatory manner by the employer of the
occupational hazards to which he/she will be exposed during the 8-
hour workday, as established in Chapter IV of the Rights and
Obligations of Workers in Art. 19 of the Andean Safety and Health
Instrument of the ILO. Andean Instrument on Safety and Health at
Work. DECISION 584, (2006)
It must be recognized that not all countries comply with labor safety
and Ecuador is not exempt from this. According to evidence of
indicators published in their yearbooks by the General Directorate of
Labor Risk Insurance of the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security
(IESS). Each period the rate of occupational accidents grows, which
during the period 2017 - 2021 the year 2019 is considered the highest
peak in relation to occupational accidents reported to the division of
risks of the IESS. These annual records are described by city and
province, with Guayas leading with a high accident rate and in
second place Pichincha. For international organizations such as the
ILO, the root cause of these work accidents is due in a higher
percentage to substandard acts and in a lower proportion to
substandard conditions, the same that occur or originate in the usual
workplace. For this reason it is necessary to carry out actions in the
work stations.
In view of the above, the main contribution of this methodology will
be to propose two fundamental steps that will allow the employer or
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technician to have safe working environments and therefore will
contribute to reduce accidents at work in the company and finally
cause a change of culture in the worker. Leam Manufacturing
represents a set of tools that contribute to continuous improvement
and are easily adaptable to any production or service environment.
The structure of this research is given by an abstract, introduction,
background, methodology, results, discussion and conclusions. This
is expected to cover the purpose of the paper related to the
methodologies given for safe work within organizations.
According to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO, 2004),
Latin America was registering between 5 and 10 percent of all
occupational accidents on average. Thus, the number of accidents
interrupts work for two, three and up to five days.
According to Juan Carlos Hiba, ILO consultant for Latin America
and the Caribbean, stated in an interview in 2004. That when one
looks at the indicators of work accidents and occupational diseases
in the world these statistics are significant to the point that it has been
considered that about 5000 people a day in the world are dying. And
that the figures handled by the ILO are not updated and incomplete
since many countries do not report occupational accidents and
diseases.
Ecuador's constitution contemplates the right of workers to carry out
their activities in a safe environment, and to this end provides legal
regulations that leverage all the pillars of occupational safety and the
order established in Art. 425 of the Constitution. Currently there is a
convergence in terms of standards related to labor safety as a result
of the integration of the Andean countries allowing to provide decent
and safe working conditions.
Ecuador has an Inter-institutional Committee that, according to
Executive Decree 2393 - 1998, is made up of the Ministry of Labor,
the Ministry of Health and the Ecuadorian Institute of Social
Security (IESS), as well as representatives of workers and
employers. It is the employer's responsibility to maintain its facilities
in good condition for safe work. To instruct its workers about the
risks in the different work positions and the way and methods to
prevent them.
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Change for the better is a Kaisen philosophy, focused on continuous
improvement, therefore companies today cannot put their investment
at risk, which is why by establishing a security policy within them
they are committing resources to minimize substandard acts and
conditions. Achieving effectiveness in change management will
depend largely on the strategies used for each leam tool to be
successful, which is why it is necessary to collect the experience of
some researchers as a baseline for this research.
To understand the importance of having safe work environments, it
is necessary to know the key concepts related to the methodologies
used for continuous improvement that can be used in work
environments, as well as the norms and regulations that apply in each
country. In addition, it is essential to know the background and state
of the art in research on safe work environments presented by
different authors such as:
Barraza & Dávila, (2008)mentions that the methodology to elaborate
a continuous improvement plan is based on the third concentric
sphere of Kaizen where its purpose is to eliminate waste in order to
improve the quality of processes and products.
In relation to the article published by Proaño Villlavicencio et al.,
(2017) who describe the methodology to develop a continuous
improvement plan. it consists of the analysis of the areas to be
improved, defining the problems to be solved, and based on these to
structure an action plan, which is formed by objectives, activities,
responsible parties and management indicators that allow constant
evaluation, this process must be achievable in a given period.
For Aguilera Hintelholher, (2013)in an article on Identity and
differentiation between Method and Methodology, explains the
distinction between methods and methodology, scientific research
requires that these topics be understood as useful tools, which allow
the understanding and argumentation of the different problems of
study.
Vargas Crisóstomo & Camero Jiménez, (2021) in their research
considered it necessary to apply an improvement strategy based on
the Lean manufacturing methodology, so the Kaizen methodology
and the 5s were selected.
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Morles, (2002)in his research on methodology as a science and the
scientific method in a polemic space, gives a non-traditional
approach to methodology as a science, not only for the search for
new knowledge (today's dominant approach) but as a discipline that
guides to solve complex human problems of all kinds in a rational
and optimal way. In this sense, it is expressed that methodology is a
science with a well-defined object, rules and structure.
In addition, Proaño Villlavicencio et al., (2017)present a
methodology to develop a continuous improvement plan, which
consists of five levels: analysis of the causes that provoke the
problem, proposal and planning of the improvement plan,
implementation and continuous monitoring, and finally an
evaluation of the entire methodology applied. As a result of this,
there are some benefits for both the internal and external customer
Materials and methods
This exploratory study was directed to micro, small and medium
enterprises located in zone 8 of the city of Guayaquil, for which a
group of 40 students of the University of Guayaquil (UG), were
trained to conduct field work in which each student had to locate the
company in which they would develop their work which is related to
their academic syllabus. The theoretical foundation of this work is
based on Kaisen's philosophy of "Change for the better", transferring
knowledge to an environment in which the lack of organization
prevails. Therefore, this qualitative methodology is oriented to the
analysis of case studies in which answers to the questions (how and
why) are sought. In this research and given the nature of the
methodology, we were able to count on a number of 35 companies,
of which we will omit their legal or commercial names because we
are not authorized to do so; but Table 1 identifies the economic
activities that were used for this work as well as the number of
companies by number of workers.
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Table 1. Register of work centers under study
ECONOMIC
ACTIVITIES
MICROEMPRESA
SMALL
COMPANY
MEDIUM
ENTERPRISE
Industrial
mechanics
workshop.
Automotive
mechanic shop
Locksmith
workshop
Sewing
workshop
Wood craft
workshops
Food supply
centers
Aluminum and
glass workshop
# of Workers: 1-
9
Registered: 24
Informant:
Owner or
manager
# of
workers: 10-
49
Registered:
10
Informant:
Owner or
Manager
# of workers: 50-
99
Registered: 1
Informant:
Workers
As shown in Table 1, the largest number of workplaces that allowed
the field study were micro and small enterprises, the only medium-
sized enterprise that had access to this study is because the student
was part of the internal clients of the medium-sized enterprise. As
can be seen, their economic activities are related to the
transformation of raw materials and therefore correspond to the
manufacturing sector for the most part. This sector is considered in
the field of occupational safety, of greater vulnerability for the
division of labor risks of the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security
(IESS) due to the high presence of unskilled labor and that gives rise
to a high rate of substandard acts that result in occupational
accidents.
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Once the authorization of the owner of the business or company
(Natural or Legal) was obtained, the study process had to follow the
following steps:
Step 1. Prepare a company resume, which should include
information such as: economic activity, detailed description of the
company's main process, number of employees and geographic
location.
Socialize with the workstation owner and workers about the purpose
of the field study and the tools to be used.
Step 3. Perform an analysis of the workstation processes for this will
be done: Plant and Route Layout, Process Map, Current Process
Flow Diagram, Analytical Cursogram and Process Sheet.
Identify the waste generated (MUDA, MURA and MURI).
Design a problem prioritization matrix and apply a screening tool
(PARETO).
Step 6. Conduct a causal analysis of the problems of greatest impact
Step 7. Conduct a situational diagnosis
Results
After the field work carried out by the UG students at the 35 work
stations following the proposed methodology, the following results
were obtained, which are also shown in Table 2 and Table 3:
High: Corresponds to a rating assigned to workstations that are not
committed to improving their processes.
Medium: Corresponds to a rating assigned to workstations that have
little interest in making improvements to their processes.
Low: Corresponds to a rating assigned to workstations that are
somewhat committed to making improvements in their processes.
Table 2. Results of field management
PROBLEMS
DETECTED
SMALL COMPANY
MEDIUM
ENTERPRISE
1.DO NOT HAVE
MANAGEMENT
SYSTEMS
ALTO
UNDER
2. POOR
ORGANIZATIONAL
ALTO
MEDIO
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IMAGE AT
WORKSTATIONS
3. LACK OF
MANUALS AND
WORK
INSTRUCTIONS
ALTO
ALTO
4.
DISORGANIZATION
IN ITS PROCESSES
AND WORKING
ENVIRONMENTS.
ALTO
ALTO
With these results obtained after field management, the general
purpose of which is to document the management of MSMEs at their
workstations, the next step is to determine the root causes of these
problems and their consequences, as described in the following
table. Having identified the problems of greatest impact, the next
step is to determine the root causes of these problems and their
consequences as described in the following table.
Table 3. Analysis - causes and consequences in relation to detected
problems
TYPE OF COMPANIES
CAUSES
CONSEQUENCES
MICRO ENTERPRISES
1. Lack of resources
2. 2.- Ignorance of
standards
3. 3.- Human talent
- - Low competitive level
- - Loss of customers
- - Labor inefficiency
- - Occupational hazards
SMALL COMPANY
1. Lack of resources
2. 2.- Ignorance of
standards
3. 3.- Human talent
- - Low competitive level
- - Loss of customers
- - Labor inefficiency
- - Occupational hazards
MEDIUM ENTERPRISE
1. Lack of resources
2. Lack of government
support
3. 3.-Human talent
- - Low competitive level
- - Low productivity
- - Low effectiveness in its
processes
- - Occupational hazards
With these results obtained: Lack of resources, lack of knowledge of
standards and poor selection process of their workers has resulted in
a low level of competitiveness in the current market, which limits
the number of their customers allowing them to serve their work
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sector, the failure to comply with their work orders and the lack of
quality of their processes leads to this sector considered highly
vulnerable, to be unsuccessful in their management.
Discussion
Taking into account the results obtained from the field study, it is
concluded that these economic sectors require prompt attention to
prevent them from disappearing with the passage of time, therefore,
being their current situation completely critical, it is necessary to
intervene through public or private organizations that can provide
free advice to improve their management.
The study group raises the need to implement a Lean tool, 5s. After
the experiences of many organizations in the world on the benefits
granted in the application of 5s, there is full confidence that its
implementation will allow the following benefits: Improve the
organizational image, Create a culture of quality and make the most
of the resources achieving safe working environments.
The field work in general terms shows that these micro-companies
maintain a high rate of work accidents according to IESS statistics,
in the companies under study it is concluded that the main cause is
the lack of resources and in second place the lack of knowledge of
the legal norms in the matter of labor safety. To this end, the need to
leave in the hands of each one of them a chet list of the management
that should be done to raise awareness in the worker about
occupational safety and its importance within their scenarios was
raised, at the same time the existing employer responsibility within
the legal framework in case of non-compliance with the regulations
was detailed. Applying leam tools to have safe work processes and
environments will require each employer to progressively allocate
resources to generate the recommended actions, therefore these
results will be seen in the short and medium term.
The results obtained through the implementation of the methodology
presented demonstrate a significant decrease in the incidence of
occupational accidents and occupational diseases expressed in the
accident rates of the organizations. In addition, the implementation
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of preventive measures improves the productivity and efficiency of
the companies, which translates into economic benefits for them.
The discussion of the results focuses on the importance of the
identification of occupational risks and the implementation of
preventive measures in order to have safe work environments.
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