Pit & Quarry, June 2012

BY CARL METZGAR Who is the key person I n 1931 H W Heinrich wrote that the foreman is the key man in Industrial Accident Prevention A Scientific Approach As Heinrich wrote There is little need for substantiation of the oft repeated assertion that the foreman is the key man in industry that he from an executive point of view is responsible for accidents or that he is the man upon whom dependence must be placed for the maintenance of practices and conditions that control quality and volume of work and safety as well With deep genuflection to political correctness it is agreed and nearly universally supported that today the term key man is about as wrong as you can get Glass ceiling or not women are succeeding at every level in every capacity that has been opened to them Foreman has to go away Supervisor is better Managing an organization is simple in conception but complicated in execution So we must question and challenge Heinrich on the notion that there is little need for substantiation Supervisory defense Carl Sagan once said extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence So when someone says there is little need for substantiation you can bet the farm thats when substantiation is needed most Even in 1931 anyone with good sense recognized that there were significant constraints on the frontline supervisor Heinrich asserts that the first line supervisor is responsible for accidents and the volume and quality of work but Heinrich grossly overstates the span of control of first line supervisors and writes nothing about their authority Frontline supervisors have minimal input to the capitol and operating budgets which determine the direction and action of the organization Part of Heinrichs failure is that in promoting his point of view he found himself elevated to a position of authority and his writings became dogma Loss control should be scientific not dogmatic In science ideas are tested with experiments If an experiment does not confirm the idea then the idea WHEN THINGS GO WRONG AND THERE IS AN INCIDENT OR INJURY DUE TO SOME FAILURE SOMEONE HAS TO BE BLAMED was wrong This of course generates a new speculation for testing Dogma on the other hand is handed down and protected by authority It is above questioning Heinrich gets blasted by the subtitle of his own book A Scientific Approach By enlisting science he invites criticism and reevaluation But criticism and reevaluation of Industrial Accident Prevention never occurred As a result the dogma established roots grew branches and flowered as error Heinrichs subsequent editions do not reflect any fresh insights By holding the first line supervisor responsible for preventing accidents Heinrich put management beyond scrutiny Upper management capitalized on this relief from responsibility and fell in love with supervisory training Supervisors and workers always need training Management of course had already achieved omniscience SPONSORED BY The key person is the first person in the chain of command not present at the incident who takes the prerogative of criticizing the supervisor The key person is Years ago there was a fad called transactional analysis for describing and gaining insights for the exchanges between people In supervision and loss control there are regular exchanges between supervisors and miners There is instruction observation correction and ordinary social exchanges in the workplace An outsider could observe these exchanges and separate them into individual transactions for analysis When things go right in the exchanges there is no issue to discuss When things go wrong and there is an incident or injury due to some failure someone has to be blamed Just compare MSHAs investigation and citation actions to its platitudes and propaganda The key person in any transaction is the first person in the chain of command not present at the incident who has or takes the prerogative of criticizing the supervisor and miners who were present at the incident for their actions or lack of action The unhappy result is that the self appointed second guesser always at least once removed and never present is the key person in loss control PQ Carl R Metzgar CSP has more than 30 years of safety and health experience in the aggregates industry He provides consulting services with a specialization in program evaluation training compliance and loss control and can be reached at 336 766 1218 cmetz46840@ aol com 48 PIT QUARRY June 2012 www pitandquarry com