safety design guideline

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FOREWORD The Australian Safety and Compensation Council (ASCC), formerly the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC), leads and coordinates national efforts to prevent workplace deaths, injury and disease in Australia and aims to improve national workers compensation arrangements and return to work of injured employees. Through the quality and relevance of the information it provides, the ASCC seeks to influence the awareness and activities of every person and organisation with a role in improving Australia’s occupational health and safety (OHS) performance. More specifically, the ASCC aims to: • support and enhance the efforts of the Australian, State and Territory governments to improve the prevention of workplace deaths, injury and disease, • work in alliances with others to facilitate the development and implementation of better preventative approaches, and • ensure the needs of small business are integrated into these approaches. The National Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Strategy 2002-2012, which was endorsed by the Workplace Relations Ministers’ Council on 24 May 2002, records a commitment by all Australian, State and Territory governments, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Australian Council of Trade Unions, to share the responsibility of ensuring that Australia’s performance in work-related health and safety is continuously improved. The National OHS Strategy sets out five ‘national priorities’ to achieve short-term and long-term improvements. The priorities are to: • reduce high incidence and high severity risks, • improve the capacity of business operators and workers to manage OHS effectively, • prevent occupational disease more effectively, • eliminate hazards at the design stage, and • strengthen the capacity of government to influence OHS outcomes. This guideline has been developed to support the priority – eliminate hazards at the design stage – of the NOHSC National OHS Strategy 2002-2012. The Office of the ASCC acknowledges the assistance of all the persons and organisations who contributed to this Guideline, in particular: • Chris Beale (Risk Manager - Sinclair Knight Merz); • Liz Bluff (National Research Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, Australian National University); • Sandra Cowell (Health Safety and Environment Manager – PMP Limited); • Dr John Culvenor (Consulting Engineer); • Dr Tim Driscoll (ELMATOM Pty Ltd); • Rob McLaughlan (University of Technology Sydney); and • Commission for Occupational Safety and Health (Western Australia)

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FOREWORD The Australian Safety and Compensation Council (ASCC), formerly the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC), leads and coordinates national efforts to prevent workplace deaths, injury and disease in Australia and aims to improve national workers compensation arrangements and return to work of injured employees. Through the quality and relevance of the information it provides, the ASCC seeks to influence the awareness and activities of every person and organisation with a role in improving Australia’s occupational health and safety (OHS) performance. More specifically, the ASCC aims to: • support and enhance the efforts of the Australian, State and Territory governments to improve the prevention of workplace deaths, injury and disease, • work in alliances with others to facilitate the development and implementation of better preventative approaches, and • ensure the needs of small business are integrated into these approaches. The National Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Strategy 2002-2012, which was endorsed by the Workplace Relations Ministers’ Council on 24 May 2002, records a commitment by all Australian, State and Territory governments, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Australian Council of Trade Unions, to share the responsibility of ensuring that Australia’s performance in work-related health and safety is continuously improved. The National OHS Strategy sets out five ‘national priorities’ to achieve short-term and long-term improvements. The priorities are to: • reduce high incidence and high severity risks, • improve the capacity of business operators and workers to manage OHS effectively, • prevent occupational disease more effectively, • eliminate hazards at the design stage, and • strengthen the capacity of government to influence OHS outcomes. This guideline has been developed to support the priority – eliminate hazards at the design stage – of the NOHSC National OHS Strategy 2002-2012. The Office of the ASCC acknowledges the assistance of all the persons and organisations who contributed to this Guideline, in particular: • Chris Beale (Risk Manager - Sinclair Knight Merz); • Liz Bluff (National Research Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, Australian National University); • Sandra Cowell (Health Safety and Environment Manager – PMP Limited); • Dr John Culvenor (Consulting Engineer); • Dr Tim Driscoll (ELMATOM Pty Ltd); • Rob McLaughlan (University of Technology Sydney); and • Commission for Occupational Safety and Health (Western Australia)

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1. INTRODUCTION This guideline provides information and advice on eliminating hazards and controlling risks at the design stage to persons involved in the design or modification of products, items (including buildings, vehicles and structures) and processes used for work. In response to societal demands for safer products and workplaces, governments, businesses, engineers and other decision makers are requiring that safety be a fundamental element of design. There are health and safety duties for designers in State and Territory occupational health and safety laws. This document introduces the concept of safe design and the principles underpinning it. 1.1 What is Safe Design? Safe design is a process defined as the integration of hazard identification and risk assessment methods early in the design process to eliminate or minimise the risks of injury or damage throughout the life of the item being designed. It encompasses all design including facilities, hardware, systems, equipment, products, tooling, materials, energy controls, layout, and configuration.1 A safe design approach begins in the conceptual and planning phases; with an emphasis on making choices about design, methods of manufacture or construction and/or materials used which enhance its safety. The designer needs to consider how safety can best be achieved in each of the lifecycle phases eg. designing a machine so that maintenance activities will not require removal of protective guards. Safe design will always be part of a wider set of design objectives, including practicability, aesthetics, cost and the functionality of the designed-product. Safe design is the process of successfully achieving a balance of these sometimes competing objectives, without compromising the health and safety of those potentially affected by the designed-product over its life. New risks may emerge as designed-products are modified or the environments in which they are used change. Any person who influences decisions in any of the lifecycle phases should apply a safe design approach. There are many groups involved in the function of design. They include: • design professionals such as architects, engineers, industrial designers, software developers; • other groups who can influence design decisions, such as developers, builders, owners, insurers, project managers, purchasers, clients, OHS professionals, human factors and ergonomics practitioners; • suppliers (including manufacturers, importers, plant-hire), constructors, installers and trades/maintenance personnel; and • government regulators and inspectorates.
1 modified from; W Christensen & F Manuele, Safety Through Design, National Safety Council,

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1.2 What are the Principles of Safe Design? The key elements that impact on achieving a safe design are: • Principle 1: Control and Duty of Care – the responsibility for ensuring safe design rests with parties or persons having control or influence over the design of products, items or processes. • Principle 2: Lifecycle of Designed-Products – safe design applies to every stage in the life-cycle from conception through to disposal; and involves eliminating hazards or minimising risks as early in the lifecycle as possible. • Principle 3: Systematic Risk Management – the application of hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control processes to achieve safe design. • Principle 4: Knowledge and Capability for Safe Design – should be either demonstrated by, or accessed by, any person with control or influence over design. • Principle 5: Information Transfer – effective communication and documentation of design and risk control information between all persons involved in the phases of the lifecycle is essential for the safe design approach. These principles have been derived from a report titled Towards a Regulatory Regime for Safe Design2; with some modification following public consultation. Further detail on each of the principles is outlined in Chapter 2. Ergonomics and Safe Design Safe design also incorporates ergonomics principles. Ergonomics is a scientific, user-centred discipline applied to design but it is also a philosophy and way of thinking. An ergonomics approach ensures that the design process takes into account a wide range of human factors, abilities and limitations3 affecting end users. An ergonomics approach to design considers the physical and psychological characteristics of people, as well as their needs in doing their tasks – how they see, hear, understand, make decisions and take action. User safety, efficiency, productivity and comfort are indicators of how effective the design is in fulfilling its purpose. Ergonomics Principles When analysing the need for a designed product or space, an ergonomics approach will address five main elements:4 • The user – their characteristics, including the physical, psychological and mental capacities, skills knowledge and abilities • Job and task characteristics – what the user is required to do or actually does. This includes task demands, capacity to make decisions, work organisation and time requirements • The work environment – the work area and space, lighting, noise and thermal comfort

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1.2 What are the Principles of Safe Design? The key elements that impact on achieving a safe design are: • Principle 1: Control and Duty of Care – the responsibility for ensuring safe design rests with parties or persons having control or influence over the design of products, items or processes. • Principle 2: Lifecycle of Designed-Products – safe design applies to every stage in the life-cycle from conception through to disposal; and involves eliminating hazards or minimising risks as early in the lifecycle as possible. • Principle 3: Systematic Risk Management – the application of hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control processes to achieve safe design. • Principle 4: Knowledge and Capability for Safe Design – should be either demonstrated by, or accessed by, any person with control or influence over design. • Principle 5: Information Transfer – effective communication and documentation of design and risk control information between all persons involved in the phases of the lifecycle is essential for the safe design approach. These principles have been derived from a report titled Towards a Regulatory Regime for Safe Design2; with some modification following public consultation. Further detail on each of the principles is outlined in Chapter 2. Ergonomics and Safe Design Safe design also incorporates ergonomics principles. Ergonomics is a scientific, user-centred discipline applied to design but it is also a philosophy and way of thinking. An ergonomics approach ensures that the design process takes into account a wide range of human factors, abilities and limitations3 affecting end users. An ergonomics approach to design considers the physical and psychological characteristics of people, as well as their needs in doing their tasks – how they see, hear, understand, make decisions and take action. User safety, efficiency, productivity and comfort are indicators of how effective the design is in fulfilling its purpose. Ergonomics Principles When analysing the need for a designed product or space, an ergonomics approach will address five main elements:4 • The user – their characteristics, including the physical, psychological and mental capacities, skills knowledge and abilities • Job and task characteristics – what the user is required to do or actually does. This includes task demands, capacity to make decisions, work organisation and time requirements • The work environment – the work area and space, lighting, noise and thermal comfort

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minimum standards for structural adequacy, fire safety, ventilation, etc). These regulations impose duties on relevant building practitioners (designers, engineers) and provide a verification process by independent authorities. 1.5 The Benefits of Safe Design The opportunities to create safer workplaces and plant are most cost effective in the earliest phases of the lifecycle of designed-products. In contrast, by the time the designed-product is ready for import, supply or commissioning (in the case of a building) there are likely to be fewer options to make the product inherently safer. A safe design approach results in several benefits, including: • Improved useability of products, items, systems and facilities; • improved productivity; • reduced costs; • compliance with legislation; and, • innovation, in that safe design demands new thinking. Better prediction and management of production and operational costs across the lifecycle of a product can be achieved. The costs associated with unsafe design can be significant (e.g. retrofitting, workers compensation levies, environmental clean up costs, public liability). Figure 1 shows the relative cost advantages of applying a safe design approach in construction. Figure 1 – Cost Effectiveness of Early Intervention on Safety Problems in It is estimated that inherently safe plant and equipment would save at least 5%, often 10%, of their cost through reductions in inventories of hazardous materials, reduced need for protective equipment and the reduced costs of testing and maintaining the equipment. 7

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2. THE PRINCIPLES OF SAFE DESIGN 2.1 Persons with Control have a Duty of Care Responsibility for safe design rests with parties or persons with control over design functions. Responsibilities should be consistent with the degree of control that a person has. Often, the design process will occur over various stages and involve different persons who make specialist or technical decisions for incorporating into the design, which may affect the safety of the product or item. In these situations there will be shared responsibility between the parties, depending on the level of control they have over the design function. For example, persons who have a responsibility to ensure safe design in the case of a building or structure include: • architects, building designers or draftspersons who undertake the design on behalf of the client, including conducting a feasibility study, producing a schematic design or preparing construction documentation or tendering, depending on the contractual arrangement; • persons who participate in the design or make decisions during any of the project phases, such as engineers, building surveyors, interior designers, builders, contractors; • anyone who alters a design, or who specifies the use of a particular method of work or material (for example, a quantity surveyor who insists on specific material, or a client who stipulates a particular layout); • building service designers or others designing fixed plant such as ventilation and electrical systems; • those purchasing material where the choice has been left open (for example, people purchasing building blocks and so deciding the weights that bricklayers must handle); • temporary works engineers, including those designing formwork, false-work, scaffolding, and sheet piling; • anyone specifying or designing how demolition, dismantling work, structural alteration is to be carried out. 2.2 Lifecycle of Designed-Products The lifecycle of a designed-product is a key concept of safe design that provides a framework for eliminating the hazards at the design stage and/or controlling the risk as the product is: • constructed or manufactured; • imported, supplied or installed; • commissioned, used or operated; • maintained, repaired, cleaned, and/or modified; • de-commissioned; demolished and/or dismantled; and, • disposed of or recycled.

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• Conducting workshops with customers/clients at the conceptual design stage • Using models or mock-ups to facilitate user input • Receiving feedback through user surveys • Field testing or trialling proto-types with users • Inviting specialist expertise (such as engineers) as well as end-users to participate in the risk assessment process • Consulting users while doing technical and market research. All issues identified through research and consultation should be documented so that they can be used to inform future phases of the lifecycle. Employers or purchasers of design services should have contractual arrangements and procurement systems that operate to minimise the OHS risk of designed-products they purchase. Such arrangements should ensure: • purchasing and contractual arrangements (e.g. specifications, supplier pre-qualification and tender documentation) include a requirement to eliminate OHS hazards, minimise OHS risks, and provide residual OHS risk information; and, • the design brief or draft specifications include an agreement to carry out a safe design approach. The agreement should also include production of a lifecycle OHS risk evaluation and a residual risk register. 2.2.2 Design Phase The design phase involves development of design plans in consultation with users. It should include, as part of the design plan: • assessment of the risk in each of the lifecycle phases beyond the design phase; • development of a trial and evaluation plan; • development of risk control options; and, • appropriate instructions for safe construction/manufacture, supply/installation, commissioning/use, maintenance, de-commissioning, and disposal/recycling. Consultation with the person commissioning designed-products at this stage can inform the designer’s understanding of the requirements, and better enable the designing-out of hazards. Designed-products should be designed so that they can be used safely. They must therefore be designed to suit the capacities of the widest range of people. The science of ergonomics has been developed for this purpose. Ergonomic studies include allowing for the range of physical dimensions of users (anthropometry), their strength capabilities, their skills of perception, and their expectation of the use of products. Designed-products should be evaluated for all reasonably foreseeable uses and harm that may affect users. Effective trials and evaluation of the designed-product and any risk control options (including maintenance and emergency cut-off switches), in consultation with the users, is critical to the design phase. The trial and evaluation of design should extend into all phases of the lifecycle that follow, in order to: • monitor the design risk, • confirm the effectiveness of risk controls, and

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2.2.2 Design Phase The design phase involves development of design plans in consultation with users. It should include, as part of the design plan: • assessment of the risk in each of the lifecycle phases beyond the design phase; • development of a trial and evaluation plan; • development of risk control options; and, • appropriate instructions for safe construction/manufacture, supply/installation, commissioning/use, maintenance, de-commissioning, and disposal/recycling. Consultation with the person commissioning designed-products at this stage can inform the designer’s understanding of the requirements, and better enable the designing-out of hazards. Designed-products should be designed so that they can be used safely. They must therefore be designed to suit the capacities of the widest range of people. The science of ergonomics has been developed for this purpose. Ergonomic studies include allowing for the range of physical dimensions of users (anthropometry), their strength capabilities, their skills of perception, and their expectation of the use of products. Designed-products should be evaluated for all reasonably foreseeable uses and harm that may affect users. Effective trials and evaluation of the designed-product and any risk control options (including maintenance and emergency cut-off switches), in consultation with the users, is critical to the design phase. The trial and evaluation of design should extend into all phases of the lifecycle that follow, in order to: • monitor the design risk, • confirm the effectiveness of risk controls, and