A qualitative examination of safety-related compliance challenges for global manufacturing

Abstract

Globally operating machine manufacturing companies need practices for recognising local safety requirements, as well as for designing the products for, and delivering them to, wider markets. This study aimed to determine (1) companies’ product delivery strategies for managing product safety compliance and conformity in their supply chains, (2) the problems that arise in managing the product safety-related requirements and (3) how companies tackle these problems. The study comprised interviews with 25 representatives of 2 large internationally operating European companies manufacturing machines for use at work. The companies’ strategies for decoupling the local safety requirements from their standard products covered make-to-stock, assemble-to-order, make-to-order and engineering-to-order. The problems were experienced mostly in systematic discovering and processing of the requirements, responsibility issues and unequal practices within global organisation. To tackle these problems, a company must have tools and practices to manage the information needs and understand the concepts of product delivery strategies.

Relevance to human factors/ergonomics theory

Companies must have tools to integrate the design of safe and ergonomic products into engineering design process. This article discusses the safety design of machines intended for use at work from the compliance management and supply chain management perspectives. The topics are not new per se, but they can create a novel combination in the safety research for the scientific community. This article provides novel information for the safety researchers regarding safety-related challenges within global business as well as the applicability of adapted theories in safety research. As a conclusion, the authors give recommendations to better tackle the issue of manufacturing-compliant products cost-effectively for differing customers and markets.

Keywords:

• product safety
• requirements
• compliance management
• supply chain
• global market

Acknowledgements

Special compliments are given to the two case companies for their valuable materials and time.

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support received from the Finnish Doctoral Program of Concurrent Mechanical Engineering.

Notes on contributors

Juha Vasara

Juha Vasara received his M.Sc. in Safety Engineering from the Tampere University of Technology. He is a researcher and doctoral student at the Tampere University of Technology in the Center for Safety Management and Engineering.

Jouni Kivistö-Rahnasto

Jouni Kivistö-Rahnasto received his D.Sc. (Tech.) in Safety Engineering from the Tampere University of Technology. He is a professor of Safety Engineering and Risk Management at the Tampere University of Technology in the Center for Safety Management and Engineering.