Development and application of a quantitative index for predicting unsafe behavior of shop floor workers integrating cognitive failure reports and best worst method

Abstract

Abstract The reliability of shop floor workers, mostly as the last level of a socio-technical system, has been identified as an essential factor in complex systems. This study aimed to develop and apply a quantitative and applicable method to help safety practitioners to manage unsafe behavior in industrial systems. This work is a descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study, which was conducted in an Iranian manufacturing company. A questionnaire with six main unsafe behavior scales was used to determine the participants’ unsafe behavior scores. Since the effect of each of the six scales on unsafe behavior occurrence was different, the scales were weighted using best-worst method (BWM). Finally, to determine a quantitative score for unsafe behavior of the workers, the total unsafe behavior index (USBItotal) score was computed. The maximum and minimum mean scores were 10.68 and 5.09 for routine violations (RVs) and exceptional violations (EVs), respectively. The present study introduced an innovative proactive tool to provide safety practitioners with a practical hint using a quantitative cost-effective accessible method for predicting cognitive unsafe behavior of shop floor workers.