Use of Multi Criteria Decision Making Methods in Assessment of Occupational Safety and Health

Abstract

Assessment of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) of process plants is an important aspect in safety management. Quantitative assessment is necessary to compare the OSH status of different plants. For this purpose, usually, an evaluation team is constituted which evaluates the OSH performance based on the available OSH related information. The evaluation team arrives at a decision through discussions and mutual agreement. However, while working in a group, there always remains a possibility of ‘groupthink’ behavior which may lead to an inappropriate decision without critically analyzing alternative hypotheses. Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods are useful in avoiding the groupthink behavior while decision making. Here, we used two MCDM methods, Delphi method and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Method, to develop an OSH index from a set of safety indicators. Delphi method was used to prioritize the safety indicators. Relative weights of the safety indicators to the final OSH index were estimated by AHP method. AHP analysis resulted that leading safety indicators have greater weightage compared to lagging indicators while assessment.  We believe that this method will be useful for safety professionals and regulators in evaluation of OSH performance by using easily available information from plant authorities.