New Risk Methodology Based on Control Charts to Assess Occupational Risks in Manufacturing Processes

The accident rate in the EU-28 region of the European Union showed a value of 2 fatal accidents per 100,000 people in 2019 that mainly affect construction (24%), manufacturing (19%) and logistics (19%). To manage situations that affect occupational risk at work, a review of existing tools is first carried out taking into account three prevention, simultaneity and immediacy characteristics. As a result, a new dynamic methodology called Statistical Risk Control (SRC) based on Bayesian inference, control charts and analysis of the hidden Markov chain is presented. The objective is to detect a situation outside the limits early enough to allow corrective actions to reduce the risk before an accident occurs. A case is developed in a medium-density fiberboard (MDF) manufacturing plant, in which five inference models based on Poisson, exponential and Weibull distributions and risk parameters following gamma and normal distributions have been tested. The results show that the methodology offers all three characteristics, together with a better understanding of the evolution of the operators in the plant and the safety barriers in the scenario under study.