Safety management in industrial services - encountered problems and recommended solutions for service providers in manufacturing industry

This paper discusses safety management in shared workplaces in manufacturing industry. The paper reviews encountered problems and recommends solutions for the effective implementation of safety management. The focus is in the service provider’s operations but also cooperation with customers is considered. The material utilized has been collected by literature review, interviews, questionnaire and accident report analysis. According to the study, service providers encounter various safety management problems when operating with several customers in multiple worksites. Common encountered problems relate to e.g. hazard identification, communication, task planning and organization of instruction and guidance. Most of the problems are congruent to those contributing to the accidents occurred at industrial workplaces. An operational model for service provider safety management was constructed as a solution for the problems encountered. The operational model takes into account the major challenges of safety management and promotes cooperation between providers and customers in the implementation of safety measures.