Implementation Proposal For The Assessment of Occupational Accident Costs in Terms of Quality Costs

Occupational accidents, whether they are work-related or not, are defined as unplanned and unforeseen incidents which cause one or more than one workers to get ill, injured or lose their lifes. The increase in occupational accidents in recent years, together with the decrease in productivity and production efficiency, has mooted direct and indirect costs for companies. Quality costs are the type of costs which arise due to the activities implemented in order to preclude possible flaws, to the planned quality tests,and to flaws that appear during the production or customer delivery processes. Quality costs are classified in British Standards 6143 as follows: (a) Prevention Costs (b) Appraisal Costs (c) Internal Failure Costs (d) External Failure Costs As regards quality costs, occupational accidents that may produce highly excessive costs can be prevented by executing a good number of prevention activities. With the analysis of workflow processes in the established or subsequently established engine park, quality costs of those processes can be measured and evaluated in terms of occupational accidents. Despite prevention costs and appraisal costs, occupational accidents may still continue to appear in companies owing to various reasons. Those accidents may cause cessation in the production flow, or effect defective products. All these costs combined may constitute a considerable amount of internal failure costs. A company, along with internal failure, may have to endure a good number of appraisal costs and indemnities owing to workers’ complaints. In this study the internal and external failure costs caused by a significant industrial accident which occurred during implementation will be appraised. Furthermore, costs of operating activities aimed at preventing this type of occupational accidents will be discussed and a number of proposals will be presented in respect to probable prevention costs.