Safety is not a department. It is a system: people who own it, a way to find and rate hazards, controls that work, a way to learn from events, measures that tell the truth, and audits that check the system is doing what it should. Each part uses methods this site already teaches, such as risk analysis, root cause analysis, statistics, audits, and standard work.
This hub organizes the site's safety material around a safety management cycle, and adds new guides, tools, and templates for the parts that were missing. Start with the cycle below, or jump straight to the tool you need.
About This Hub
Suggested Learning Path
- Safety Team and Committee — give safety owners, a charter, and a meeting rhythm
- Workplace Risk Assessment — find hazards, rate risk, and apply the hierarchy of controls
- Job Hazard Analysis — break a job into steps and control each hazard
- JHA and Risk Assessment Builder — score risk before and after the controls
- Energy Control and Machine Safety — lock out hazardous energy and guard machines
- NIOSH Lifting Equation Calculator — check a manual lift against the recommended limit
- Incident Investigation and Near-Miss Reporting — learn from events and fix the system
- Safety KPIs: Leading and Lagging Indicators — measure safety honestly, including small counts
- Safety KPI Calculator — get rates with exact intervals and a control chart
- Safety Audits and Inspections — check the system works and close the findings
- Safety Audit Scorecard — score an audit and grade the findings
- Safety Culture and Human Performance — understand human error and build trust
The Safety Management Cycle
The cycle repeats: assessing risk leads to controls, controls are checked by measurement and audits, and what you learn from events and findings feeds the next assessment. Leadership and culture sit at the center because every stage depends on people raising problems and leaders acting on them.
Safety Guides
Safety Team and Committee
Roles, charter, worker participation, meetings, and a worked first 90 days.
Workplace Risk Assessment
Hazard versus risk, the hierarchy of controls, risk matrices, and a worked register.
Job Hazard Analysis
The steps of a JHA, how to choose jobs, and a worked press-loading example.
Safety KPIs: Leading and Lagging Indicators
TRIR, DART, LTIFR, leading indicators, small-count statistics, and a worked year.
Safety Audits and Inspections
Inspections versus audits, checklists, grading findings, and corrective-action follow-up.
Energy Control and Machine Safety
Energy sources, the lockout/tagout sequence, safeguarding, and a worked audit of twelve machines.
Incident Investigation and Near-Miss Reporting
What to report, triage by potential, system causes, strong actions, and a worked near miss.
Safety Culture and Human Performance
Human error, just culture, maturity, how to measure culture, and a worked survey with observations.
Process Safety and Management of Change
Control modifications and track process safety indicators.
Patient Safety and HFMEA
Assess risk before harm occurs in healthcare.
Construction Safety and Planning
Plan work to remove hazards on a construction site.
Ergonomics in Kaizen
Reduce strain and injury while improving flow.
Layered Process Audits
Frequent short audits by different levels of management.
CAPA Process Effectiveness
Correct problems and prevent recurrence.
Mistake-Proofing
Design the error out of the process.
Tools and Calculators
JHA and Risk Assessment Builder
Job steps, hazards, controls by hierarchy level, and a risk matrix.
Safety KPI Calculator
TRIR, DART, LTIFR, and severity with exact intervals and comparisons.
Safety Audit Scorecard
A weighted audit checklist with graded findings and due dates.
NIOSH Lifting Equation Calculator
The revised NIOSH equation: recommended weight limit, lifting index, and what to change first.
Risk Matrix Builder
Plot risks by likelihood and impact.
HFMEA Hazard Scoring Tool
Score and prioritize failure modes.
RACI Matrix Builder
Clarify who does what in safety processes.
5 Why Root Cause Tool
Follow the chain of causes behind an incident.
5S and 7S Audit Scorecard
Audit workplace order and safety.
Templates
Safety Committee Charter and Meeting Pack
Charter, members, agenda, action log, and metrics.
Risk Assessment Register
Hazards scored before and after controls, with actions and reviews.
Job Hazard Analysis Worksheet
A printable one-page JHA form with hazard prompts.
Safety KPI Dashboard
Monthly rates with intervals, a control chart, and leading indicators.
Safety Inspection and Audit Pack
A weighted checklist, scores, and a findings tracker.
Lockout/Tagout Procedure and Audit Sheet
A machine inventory, a procedure form, periodic inspections, and coverage.
Incident Investigation Report
A report scored by potential, a timeline, causes, actions by strength, and a log.
Safety Gemba and Observation Checklist
Walk prompts, an observation log, share safe with intervals, and a walk plan.
5S and 7S Audit Checklist
Audit workplace order and safety.
HFMEA Worksheet
Analyze failure modes with a decision tree.
PFMEA Template
Failure mode analysis for a process.
Safety Terms You Will Meet
| Term or framework | What it means for improvement work |
|---|---|
| Hazard | Something with the potential to cause harm, such as a moving part, a chemical, or a heavy load. |
| Risk | The combination of how likely a hazard is to cause harm and how severe the harm would be. |
| Hierarchy of controls | A ranking of controls from most to least effective: elimination, substitution, engineering, administrative, and PPE. |
| Job hazard analysis (JHA) | A step-by-step review of a job to find the hazards in each step and decide how to control them. |
| Near miss | An event that did not cause harm but could have. |
| TRIR | Total recordable incident rate: recordable cases times 200,000 divided by hours worked. |
| DART rate | The rate of cases with days away from work, restricted work, or job transfer. |
| LTIFR | Lost-time injury frequency rate: lost-time cases per 1,000,000 hours worked. |
| Leading indicator | A measure of safety activity that comes before injuries, such as hazards closed on time. |
| Lagging indicator | A measure of outcomes after the fact, such as injuries and illnesses. |
| Stop-work authority | The right and duty of anyone to stop work they believe is unsafe, without reprisal. |
| Residual risk | The risk that remains after the controls are in place. |
Body of Knowledge Definitions
Safety Hub: Frequently Asked Questions
Where should an organization start with safety management?
Start with ownership and information: name who is responsible, form a team that includes workers, and find out where the risks are. A risk assessment of your highest-risk jobs, a simple way for people to report hazards and near misses, and a monthly review of open actions will do more than any slogan. Then add measurement and audits.
Why do lagging indicators alone mislead?
Because injuries are rare events, so counts are small and chance moves them a lot. A plant can have a good year by luck or a bad year with a sound system. Leading indicators, such as hazards found and fixed, audit results, and near-miss reports, have far more data and tell you whether the system is working before someone is hurt.
Is this hub legal or compliance guidance?
No. It is educational material about quality and improvement methods applied to safety, written from a quality and operations perspective. Requirements differ by country, region, and industry. Check the laws and standards that apply to you, and have qualified safety professionals review changes to live processes.
Which standards does the hub refer to?
The US OSHA framework and ISO 45001 are used as common references, with the hierarchy of controls from NIOSH and the audit principles of ISO 19011. Always check the current requirements for your own jurisdiction and industry.
Sources and Further Reading
- ISO 45001:2018, Occupational health and safety management systems: requirements with guidance for use (check current edition).
- US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs, and OSHA 3071, Job Hazard Analysis.
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Hierarchy of Controls and Prevention through Design materials.
- UK Health and Safety Executive, Managing for Health and Safety (HSG65) and Five Steps to Risk Assessment.
- ANSI/ASSP Z10.0, Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems.
- ISO 19011, Guidelines for auditing management systems.