Workplace safety incidents are a key driver of risk in manufacturing organizations. There are the obvious risks to workers, whose ability to make a living directly depends on their employer’s approach to safety.

There are also huge risks to companies themselves, which face steep legal and compliance costs as a result of workplace injuries.

In fact, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) conducts thousands of unannounced inspections annually, while penalties continue to go up every year.

All of this points to a heightened need for proactive management of workplace environmental, health, and safety (EHS) incidents. In this article, we explore the essential tools in quality management systems (QMS) for managing EHS incidents from start to finish, including:
• EHS incident tracking and reporting software
• Root cause analysis tools such as 5 Whys, 8D, and failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA)
• Impact assessments for more effective risk management
• Corrective action tools and processes

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