Accidents, breakdowns and other workplace incidents disrupt work and are the most common cause of failure or disruption to production or work processes, resulting in financial losses. Companies strive to prevent them as far as possible.
See an overview of the most common accidents and breakdowns.
The most common accidents and breakdowns in the workplace
- workplace accidents, slips, trips, falls, machine entrapment, cave-ins, being pulled into a machine, crushing, knocks, suffocation, poisoning, being struck by moving machinery
- disease
- death
- equipment failure
- traffic accidents
- fires and explosions
- falling objects
- assault or violence in the workplace
- chemical spills
- security incidents, such as loss of keys
- security breaches
- cyber attack
- failure of a machine, device or equipment
- failure to follow a work procedure
- electrocution
Prevention of faults and accident prevention
A well-functioning company has a system in place to reduce the likelihood of their occurrence on two levels:
- Prevention (planned maintenance and repair)
- dealing with situations as they arise, i.e. reporting accidents, breakdowns and other process disruptions, and then investigating them and eliminating the causes (continuous improvement).