Human Factor in Equipment Safety of Hard Disk Manufacturing

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on the human factors aspect of equipment safety focusing on process hazard analysis and safety programs. The objectives of this study are to determine the level of awareness, involvement and perceptions on occupational safety and health among workers. These are accomplished by conducting a survey using questionnaire and interviews involving 98 respondents in two hard disk manufacturing companies. Majority of the respondents were executives with high academic qualifications and possessed high level of safety awareness. The results conclude that despite the existence of various legislations, human factors and its interactions with facilities and management system is the main contributor to incidents. It is also found that most of the incidents involved power driven machineries. For the improvement of equipment safety, it is recommended that Process Hazard Analysis techniques be used to play significant role, along with both engineering and administrative control measures and safety programs. Keywords: Equipment safety; industrial incidents; process hazard analysis; hard disk industry