Comparative Study of Safety Management System for Application in

Municipal Engineering Enterprises

Jian Xu

, Mengqiang Duan

, Xuge Li

and Yuan Gao

Hangzhou Urban Infrastructure Construction Management Center, Hangzhou 310012, China

Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited, Hangzhou 311100, China

Keywords: Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS), Comparative Study, System Establishment,

Municipal New-energy Enterprises.

Abstract: With the rapid development of new-energy industry, improving as soon as possible the common phenomenon

of crossover & waste of resources, and lax system implementation in the management is a problem that needs

to be urgently solved. In recent years, occupational health, safety and environmental issues have attracted

increasing attention in countries around the world. Despite the world-renowned high-speed growth of

economy in China, occupational safety and health, one of the important contents of social progress, has lagged

far behind the pace of economic construction. Thus, on the basis of the comparison of four world recognized

occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS) standards, this paper studies reasons for the

emergence and development of OHSMS and summarize the core construction content by analysing the

domestic and foreign backgrounds, the operation mode and basic elements of OHSMS to give necessary

suggestions on the application and establishment of OHSMS for Chinese municipal new-energy enterprises

so as to well support their production and management.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the late 1980s, the rapid development of industry

brought about a series of problems such as accidents

and occupational diseases, which seriously affected

the safety and health of workers and restricted the

harmonious development of enterprises and society

(Zhang et al. 2014). A scientific, advanced, and

dynamic modern management model of safety

production has gradually emerged internationally

with the name of occupational health and safety

management system (OHSMS). Some developed

countries took the lead in the implementation of

occupational health and safety management system

activities, and formulated the corresponding

standards. Relevant legislative policies and measures

are constantly issued and improved. In order to

strengthen their social attention and due to the need

to control losses, some multinational companies and

large modern joint enterprises have also begun to

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establish self-disciplined occupational safety, health

and environmental protection rules and regulations.

They gradually formed a relatively complete system

(Miao et al. 2008). Since the development of

OHSMS, the problem of production safety has been

resolved to a certain extent. Many countries have their

own OHSMS. In western industrialized countries,

OHSMS can not only reduce the economic loss of

enterprises caused by occupational injury, but also

improve the self-image through strengthening social

responsibility.

At present, municipal new-energy companies that

make a living by manufacturing charging piles still

lack an effective safety management system. This has

caused its safety management to face many unclear

problems. According to the latest statistics, in 2019,

there were a total of 773 construction and municipal

engineering safety accidents and 904 deaths in China.

The unclear management system is one of the root

causes of so many accidents. There is an urgent need

Xu, J., Duan, M., Li, X. and Gao, Y.

Comparative Study of Safety Management System for Application in Municipal Engineering Enterprises.

DOI: 10.5220/0011162000003437

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Public Management and Big Data Analysis (PMBDA 2021), pages 90-95

ISBN: 978-989-758-589-0

to establish a safety management system in line with

national conditions in the municipal industry.

Therefore, in this paper, four mature and widely used

OHSMS standards including BS8800 from BSI (BSI

1996), ILO-OSH 2001 from ILO, OHSAS 18001

(BSI 1999, BSI 2007) and ANS1/AIHA Z10 from

American national standard institute (ANSI) (ANSI

2005, ANSI 2012) are selected as study objects to

discuss the development trend of OHSMS,

summarize the potential mechanism of the system

standard and finally clarify the core content of safety

management by means of comparative analysis, so as

to find the development and improvement direction

suitable for Chinese municipal new-energy

enterprises while providing basis for OHSMS

construction.

2 RESEARCH FOUNDATION

2.1 Development Status of OHSMS in

China

Occupational safety and health management is an

important part of enterprise management, whose

purpose is to make the enterprise away from the

occurrence of occupational diseases, personal injuries

and other safety accidents. The effective

establishment, implementation and maintenance of

OHSMS is able to promote the continuous

enhancement of enterprise occupational safety and

health performance while improving image and

market competitiveness of enterprises. Overall,

OHSMS implementation is an important way for

enterprises to establish a modern standardized

management mode. In this context, China

promulgated the Trial Standard for Occupational

Safety and Health Management System in 1999, and

then approved and issued the GB/T28001-2001

Standard for OHSMS on November 2001, which is

the equivalent introduction of OHSAS 18001. With

the republication of OHSAS 18000 series of

standards since 2007, the GB/T28001 was updated

again in 2011 (Fan et al. 2015). Since the advanced

OHSMS and its standards have many years of history

and experience in foreign developed countries, they

certainly have important reference value to the

domestic standard formulation and improvement as

well as the safety construction of enterprises.

2.2 Necessity of Implementing OHSMS

for Municipal New-energy

Enterprises

With the promulgation and implementation of the

new version of safety laws and regulations in China,

it is anticipated that the national and industrial safety

supervision will be more and more detailed and strict

according to the related requirement from

governmental agencies such as opinions on the

reform and development of the safety production

field. With the continuous reform and all-round

progress of energy and construction industries, the

new historical period gives new tasks to safety

production and provides rare opportunities for the

development of occupational health and safety

management. In addition, new safety risks in

municipal new-energy projects are growing rapidly.

Briefly, the shift of safety production from the central

position to the basic position has brought about the

dilution of safety culture. The weakening of safety

standards is reflected in the lack of perfect standard

system, neglect of process control, insufficient

accident accountability and weak timeliness of

accountability. The lack of safety production

responsibility system, maladjustment between old

equipment with new standards, and mismatching of

old indicators and new situations all indicate

municipal new-energy enterprises have the problem

of insufficient safety management. The technical

means are seriously lagging behind, resulting in the

inability to accurately grasp the safety characteristics

of municipal construction, the lack of perceived

control of equipment and the lack of information

security guarantee capability. Enterprise safety

management system is not perfectly constructed,

leading to inadequate implementation of safety

responsibility, out-of-control on-site management

and weak safety awareness of grass-roots staff.

2.3 Comparative Analysis Method

The comparative analysis of this study will be

realized based on literature method. It is characterized

by objectivity and high efficiency. Since the main

objects of this study are various OHSMS standards,

the collection of these standards is convenient, and

the analysis content has a certain time span, it is

suitable to sort out the research problems by literature

method. Thus, we will respectively compare and

analyse the background, operation mode and basic

elements of OHSMS standards by literature review to

explore the building laws and characteristics of

Comparative Study of Safety Management System for Application in Municipal Engineering Enterprises

OHSMS and discuss its development trend and

application in municipal new-energy enterprises.

3 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF

VARIED TYPES OF OHSMS

3.1 Background Comparison of

OHSMS Standards

The background comparison of OHSMS standards is

mainly based on two dimensions including birth time

and safety management objectives. The origin of

OHSMS can be traced back to the presentation of the

Robens report in 1972 (Robens 1972). The report

provides important support for the establishment of a

more effective safety protection system, which plays

an irreplaceable role in the field of occupational

safety and health legislation in the world. The self-

regulation mode and employee participation

mechanism pointed out in the report show a new

direction and new strategy for the development of

occupational health and safety (Zhang 2014), laying

a solid foundation for subsequent OHSMS standards.

Based on literature analysis, differences in the

background of four OHSMS standards are shown in

Table 1.

Table 1: Comparison of background of OHSMS standards.

Standards Birth time Organizations or institutions Cause and background

Robens report 1972

Safety committee chaired by

Robens

Production methods and equipment

change rapidly and the old method is

difficult to adapt to new social

development; 144 persons died in the

Aberfan disaster

BS8800 1996

British standards institute

(BSI), employers, employees

and insurance

The enterprise management system

establishment lacks guidance

documents

OHSAS 180001 1999

BSI, DNV and other 13

international well-known

certification organizations

Repeatability and complexity of

certification standards

ILO-OSH：2001 2001

International Labour

Organization (ILO)

To obtain united criteria generated by

sorting, analysing and comparing 24

OHSMS standards formulated by 15

countries, regions and organizations

ANSI/AIHA Z10

(ANSI 2005,

ANSI 2012)

2005

American Industrial Hygiene

Association (AIHA) and

American National Standards

Institute (ANSI)

To establish a management system

suitable for the United States and its

enterprises based on ILO-OSH: 2001

In conclusion, all the four OHSMS standards hope

to provide an advanced safety management system to

enable the organization to control risks and improve

its occupational health and safety performance.

Specifically, ILO-OSH focuses more on establishing

its own OHSMS system according to national

conditions, but ultimately it still pays attention to the

health and safety of employees. Comparatively, both

BS 8800 and AIHA Z10 mention the establishment of

the organization's image in their objectives. This is

because the enterprise image is the core of enterprise

culture. By virtue of the OHSMS with self-

management concept, the enterprise or organization

is able to improve the safety performance and

strengthen the cultural construction, so as to get

comprehensive development in the market.

3.2 Operating Mode Comparison of

OHSMS Standards

Based on the literature method, the operating mode of

four OHSMS standards can be summarized in the

following figure.

PMBDA 2021 - International Conference on Public Management and Big Data Analysis

Figure 1: Comparison of operating mode of OHSMS

standards.

According to the above statistics, the four

OHSMS operating modes can be further summarized

as follows:

 The main structure of the operation mode in

BS8800: 2004 is initial and regular status

review -- policy -- organization -- planning and

implementation -- performance evaluation.

 The main structure of ILO-OSH: 2001

operation mode is policy -- organization --

planning and implementation -- evaluation --

improvement action.

 The operation mode of OHSAS18001: 2007 is

OH&S policy -- planning -- implementation

and operation -- checking and corrective

action -- management review -- continual

improvement.

 The main structure of ANSI/AIHAZ10: 2012

operating mode is planning -- implementation

review -- corrective action -- management

review -- continual improvement.

By comparison, the operation modes of the four

standards in this study are basically the same in the

main structure. They are all constructed based on the

management theory of PDCA cycle (i.e. plan-do-

check-act). They all have planning, implementation,

checking and continuous improvement stages.

Although BS8800 does not explicitly mention the

continuous improvement after the implementation

evaluation stage, the direction of the continuous

improvement line in the operation mode shows that

this OHSMS also follows a circular working logic.

3.3 Basic Element Comparison of

OHSMS Standards

Finally, the basic elements of each standard were

compared to understand the core content of OHSMS.

For instance, Tab. 2 shows the differences between

elements from BS8800: 2004 and ILO-OSH: 2001. It

is confirmed that ILO pays more attention to

employee participation and management than

BS8800.

Table 2: Comparative analysis of basic elements of

BS8800: 2004 and ILO-OSH: 2001.

Basic elements Main differences

1 Initial review

ILO-OSH further recommends

that the initial status review

should provide analytical data

from the health status of

workers.

2 OH&S policy

ILO-OSH further recommends

to declare compliance with

voluntary projects.

3 Organization

ILO-OSH puts more emphasis

on worker participation

Planning and

implementation

ILO-OSH further recommends

that workers should have

access to occupational health

and safety records for a

specified period of time.

Performance

monitoring and

measurement

BS8800 contains the contents

of ILO-OSH.

6 Audit

ILO-OSH further recommends

that the audit examines

employee participation.

Management

review

Periodic check is not

recommended in ILO-OSH.

ILO-OSH recommends that the

results of management review

should be communicated to

safety and health committees,

employees and their

representatives.

4 DISCUSSIONS

4.1 The Development Trend of OHSMS

based on the Background

Based on the background of OHSMS and its origin as

well as development in various countries, the main

causes of OHSMS can be summarized into the aspect

below:

 Improved demand of enterprises for production

and expansion

With the rapidly accelerating industrialization

process promoting the continuous development of

society, the scale of enterprises is expanding and the

Comparative Study of Safety Management System for Application in Municipal Engineering Enterprises

degree of production intensification is improving.

Thus, the self-regulation OHSMS comes into being

and gradually forms a relatively perfect system

(Robens 1972).

For a long time, OHSMS has developed

vigorously all over the world. The reasons behind it

and the underlying trend are also obvious:

 The trend towards integration of international

standards

With the rapid development of international trade,

developing countries are also increasingly

participating in world economic activities.

International uniform standard has gradually formed,

promoting the mutual imitation and learning among

countries. Meanwhile, due to the successful

implementation of quality and environmental

management system standards in the world, the

international OHSMS standard has developed more

rapidly.

 The people-oriented concept which is deeply

rooted in people's hearts

In many OHSMS from varied governments,

enterprises and organizations, people-oriented

concept and policy have been an important

embodiment. In the context of economic

globalization, it is no longer acceptable for a country

to gain unfair competitive advantages by sacrificing

the safety and health of its employees.

4.2 Application of OHSMS Core

Elements in Chinese Municipal

New-energy Enterprises

The key driving force in OHSMS is the continuous

improvement idea in PDCA cycle. Its connotation is

to constantly improve the features and characteristics

of the working results, continuously adapt to

management needs and objectives, and constantly

improve the process used for production. According

to the idea of continuous improvement, the key point

of OHSMS cycle operation is at the inspection stage

in which the main elements are hazard identification

and risk control. Hazard identification and risk

assessment are the main inputs of OHSMS, and all

other elements of the system are based on or

considered by the results of hazard identification and

risk assessment. For municipal new-energy

enterprises, the establishment and maintenance of

OSHMS are based on comprehensive identification

of risk and hazard factors as well as the risk

assessment implementation. The control and

management of the assessed unacceptable risks

would become the core of OSHMS.

However, there are still many problems in the

work of hazard identification and risk control in

municipal new-energy projects. For example, there is

no perfect organization in hazard identification and

risk analysis, and some operating environments have

not been re-identified for new hazards after

transformation, exposing a problem that hazard

identification is not comprehensive enough. In

addition to risk identification & control, the other

elements in OHSMS, such as employee training,

documentation and data control which do not directly

interact with hazard factors and do not propose

standards for risk management, have their own

functions and are indispensable and considerable in

the safety management, providing a necessary

guarantee for the implementation and maintenance of

enterprise development.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Based on the analysis and discussion presented

above, the core points for municipal new-energy

companies to establish a safety management system

are as follows:

(1) OHSMS, which is promoted by the needs of

enterprise safety development, is constantly

improved and updated under the trend of international

standard integration. People-oriented concept is an

important content that OHSMS constantly preaches.

(2) With the idea of continuous improvement,

PDCA cycle is the most basic and main operation

mechanism in the mature OHSMS, which ensures the

systematic operation of safety management.

(3) Hazard identification & risk control are core

elements and main input for municipal new-energy

enterprises to establish OHSMS. The results are one

of the important basis for the implementation of all

other elements.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank all participants of the

new-energy enterprises and projects in Hangzhou.

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PMBDA 2021 - International Conference on Public Management and Big Data Analysis

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Comparative Study of Safety Management System for Application in Municipal Engineering Enterprises