KYT : Hazard prediction technique for zero accident

On May 10, 2016

Mr. R.R. Deoghare, Dy. Director at National Safety Council, Navi Mumbai
M.E in Mechanical Engineering Started career from Engineering Safety Division in Ordnance Factory, Khamaria, (OFK) Jabalpur (MP)
Has developed KYT-Hazard Prediction Technique for Zero Accident training program in India

KYT – Hazard Prediction Technique for Zero Accident is comes under the zero-accident campaign which is an ideological campaign that focuses on the concept of respect for human beings. It is also a practical campaign that considers in detail what methods are to be used to release and promote the concept and how these methods are to be practiced in the field. Safety cannot be attained by a mere theory or just doing what you are told. You need to understand the concept (idea) and learn practical methods (techniques) to practice and achieve zero accidents. The zero-accident campaign consists of three elements; an idea, method, and practice, and it cannot function if any one of these elements is absent.

KEYWORDS: KYT, Zero-accident

1. INTRODUCTION

Predicting hazards and preemptive safety and health

The first line work operation is to have small groups of people work together as a team. These small groups are assigned a leader who is called a foreman or team leader.
Short-term meetings, centering on the small group leader and covering work operation, are held when work begins, upon arrival at the job site, before operations begin, during work operations, and at the close of operations.
To prevent accidents due to human error and ensure safety and health on a constant basis at front lines, it is necessary to sufficiently provide “team actions for preempting hazards” for voluntary discovering, understanding, and resolving hazards lurking at job sites or in work procedures by holding these short-term leader-oriented meetings and by enhancing each worker’s sensitivity to hazards, concentration, problem-solving capability, and motivation to practice such actions.
Hazard prediction training (KYT), as practiced under the zero-accident campaign, is a form of short-term (hazard), solving training. It is carried out by everyone at job sites or by individuals on a short-term basis as training in predicting hazards; in other words, a means of preemptive safety and health.
Because it is individual workers who actually perform tasks at job sites, it is necessary to confirm hazard points and safety at critical points in accordance with job site situation and conditions, by a process of “point and call” during operational procedures, so as to prevent accidents due to human error. Consequently, KYT involves “point and call” “point and repeat,” and these procedures are practiced as a single, unified endeavor.

2. OUTLINE OF KYT

KYT involves the following operations:

Model sheets describing the job site situation and operations are used, or work is performed using actual work pieces at job sites or shown how to operate.
Hazard factors (unsafe actions or situations that could cause accidents or injuries to workers) lurking at job sites or in operational procedures, and the phenomena (accident patterns) which such hazard factors bring about.
Are discussed, considered and comprehended by small groups at job sites (or through soliloquy by individuals).
Hazard points and action goals are determined and confirmed through “point and repeat” or items for “point and call” are confirmed.
Preemptive actions are taken prior to conducting activities to ensure safety and health.
KYT is a method whereby information on hazards is gathered, discussed, and shared. Its aim is to enhance sensitivity and problem-solving capabilities in response to hazards, to determine hazard points and action goals, and to impress them in the subconscious mind in the course of intensively discussing and resolving such hazards.
KYT is also a method whereby alertness is enhanced through a process of “point and call” at critical points during work. Workers are more alert in the conscious mind so that they act in a way that ensures safety.
From the time of birth, a person goes through a certain pattern of learning, and as a result, human activities are almost all patterns of habit; they are determined unconsciously and the body is left to move about naturally without conscious control. It is said that the individual is regulated, deep within, by his or her own subconscious mind. For this reason, it is important that one be fully alert when information on hazards is presented so that it will take root in the subconscious mind and result in new habits; so that at each critical point arises naturally in the conscious mind as a new habit.
Once an awareness or habit has taken root, it is very difficult to change it. And when something is taken to be true, but based on erroneous knowledge, the body responds accordingly without the individual even being aware of it. In KYT, hazard points and action goals are identified and created by professional colleagues familiar with the work at job sites, and nothing is more proper than to do this. Therefore, it is important to firmly impress hazards points and action goals upon the individual’s subconscious mind with KYT, through the process of “point and repeat,” so that the body reacts without the individual even being aware of it. It is also important to provoke these impressions on the conscious level through “point and call” at each critical point in the course of work operations.

3. OBJECTIVE OF KYT

Not carried out despite having the knowledge and ability
You have the necessary knowledge and skills. Of course you understand the countermeasures and should be able to carry them out. Yet those countermeasures were not carried out, and as a result, an accident occurred. Even with the knowledge and skills, the proper tasks were not completed. Why? There are three cases relevant to this question.
- Lack of sensitivity made the worker not recognize the hazard, so nothing was done– Sharpen your sensitivity
- Workers were careless and absent-minded, so nothing was done.–Enhance your alertness.
- Nothing was done because there was no motivation to do anything from the outset.-Boost your motivation to act.
Sharpening sensitivity
KYT involves cultivating intuitive awareness of hazards as such and sharpening your sensitivity towards it. When a situation is hazardous, intuition should tell workers that something is wrong, that there is some hazard, and that caution should be heeded. That there is something strange is clearly sensed. This type of intuition is referred to as sensitivity. Originally, human sensitivity to hazards used to be very keen. Amid the rapid advancement of our material (machine) culture, however, this sensitivity has often been inadequate, dull, weak or even faulty. To cultivate and heighten such sensitivity is the main objective of KYT. However, if KYT is held only once or twice a month, it is impossible to maintain such sensitivity at a high level for a long time. Short-term KY activities must be carried out repeatedly, day by day, at each critical point in order to ensure that sensitivity to hazards remain sharp.
Enhancing alertness
In the course of hazard prediction training, alertness is cultivated because the training takes place over a short time period, during which model sheets, for example, are used to identify hazards at job sites and in work operations, and countermeasures must be determined. KYT also enhances alertness by practicing a determined “point and call” at each critical point in the course of work operations, and thus prevents absent-mindedness or carelessness on the job.
What is meant by the critical points in work operations are the hazard points. The aim of KYT is to have hazard points isolated and alertness enhanced by “point and call” that is directly aimed to such hazard points so that accidents due to human error (that is, human imperfections such as false recognition, carelessness, shortcut reactions, or skipping procedures) caused by human characteristics can be prevented.
“Point and call” helps workers shift gears, so to speak, so that the worker’s awareness level becomes clear and normal. Reciting action goals or “touch and call” procedures also helps to enhance team member’s concentration and strengthen solidarity or unity among team members.
Improvement of problem-solving abilities
While detailed, executable countermeasures are devised in response to noticed hazards, and as key points are identified, KYT helps to build resourcefulness in solving problems associated with hazards.
Boosting motivation to act
Through hazard prediction training, the motivation to act decisive is boosted in the course of open talks on any hazard. KY activities and “point and call” only become effective when they are carried out, not as passive measures, but as active efforts pursued eagerly by each individual. This eagerness or motivation is brought out in the course of open talks on what the hazard is, where it lies hidden, and how it can be dealt with. It is in the process of determining the current status of a hazard, searching out its essential characteristics, and devising ways to remove it through open dialog that one’s motivation to act is strengthened.
Through open discussions over short time periods (3 minutes or 5 minutes), KYT based on the four-round method fosters a strong spirit of agreement in taking action.
Creating an ideal work environment
KYT not only aims to solve hazards at workplaces. Through repeating discussions to discover, understand and resolve hazards lurking at workplaces with the participation of everyone at the workplace, KYT is ultimately aimed at creating a bright and lively working environment with zero accidents, in which everyone participates with the idea of preempting problems or hazards.
Viewed from a long-term perspective, it is not likely that only safety has been improved and other problems associated with production or quality remained unsolved. The sensitivity and teamwork for predicting hazards and anticipating safety will work on all voluntary efforts to resolve problems.