Improvement of the method of occupational risk assessment in the crushing workshop of ceramic production in Iran

Abstract

Purpose. The aim of this study is to improve the method of occupational risk assessment for workers in crushing workshops of the ceramic and mining industries. Occupational risk assessment is a key element of the occupational health and safety management system, especially in industries characterized by the use of heavy equipment and hazardous technological processes. Methods. The research is based on a comprehensive approach that includes a review of scientific literature on occupational risk assessment methods, identification of hazardous situations in a ceramic crushing workshop, and improvement of the FMEA-based risk assessment method currently used in the Iranian industry. Sixteen possible failure modes were identified for the crushing plant, covering technological operations such as crushing, screening, loading and unloading, maintenance, and manual operations. In addition to the traditional FMEA criteria - severity (S), occurrence (O), and detectability (D) - two additional parameters were introduced: prevention effectiveness (P), reflecting the potential of preventive measures to reduce risk, and cost ratio (C), characterizing the economic burden of implementing corrective measures. A modified risk priority number (RPN) calculation was proposed, combining technical, preventive, and economic aspects of occupational risk assessment. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, the results obtained using the classical and the improved FMEA methods were compared. Results. The comparative analysis showed that the introduction of prevention effectiveness and cost criteria significantly affects the prioritization of occupational risks. For a number of hazardous situations, the modified RPN values decreased, indicating that high mitigation costs and low effectiveness of preventive measures reduce the priority of these risks, despite high traditional S, O, D scores. At the same time, occupational risks associated with dust and noise exposure showed a significant increase in modified RPN values, highlighting their critical importance due to serious health consequences and high effectiveness of preventive measures. Conclusions. The proposed methodology combines technical, preventive, and economic criteria, allowing for a comprehensive and economically justified occupational risk assessment. The application of this method in the crushing workshop of the Iranian ceramic industry demonstrated its effectiveness in identifying priority hazards and optimizing safety management decisions.