The construction industry records the highest number of work-related injuries and fatalities in
the United States according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers exposure to risk may
be affected by implementing Lean concepts. This study describes the effects on workers
safety environment after a Kaizen event, a Lean tool, conducted in three workstations within
a modular home manufacturer: base-framing, sheet-rock hanging, and painting. The effects
of Lean on safety hazards at each of the three workstations were determined by conducting a
Job Safety Analysis (JSA) before and after each Kaizen. Based on the JSAs a risk assessment
tool (questionnaire) was developed to determine the workers exposure to risk before and
after each Kaizen. This study also focused on determining the reliability of the risk
assessment tool. Twelve students with prior knowledge of safety and four certified safety
experts completed the questionnaire by rating probability and severity of a list of hazards
potentially present in each workstation. According to students there was a significant
reduction in risk values for base-framing station and sheet-rock hanging station. Whereas,
according to safety experts significant reduction in risk values was confined to base-framing
station. Based on the reliability analysis the risk assessment tool was reliable in measuring
risk at each of the three work station as per safety experts, and as per students the reliability
was confined to only sheet-rock hanging station. As per the reliability analysis the finding of
safety experts should be supported. The safety experts supported the finding that Lean
showed significant reduction in risk values in base-framing station. Thus, it could be
concluded from the study that Kaizen could occasionally reduce or eliminate specific safety
hazards.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-03292012-193752 |
| Date | 04 April 2012 |
| Creators | James, Joel |
| Contributors | Nahmens, Isabelina, Aghazadeh, Fereydoun, Ikuma, Laura |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-03292012-193752/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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