Instructions

You were recently hired as an occupational safety and health consultant forGemstone Fabricators, a medium-sized manufacturing facility that makesstainless steel counters, containers, and carts for the food prep andrestaurant industries. Several years ago, Gemstone decided it wanted to becomean Occupational Safety and Health Adminstration (OSHA) Voluntary ProtectionProgram (VPP) site. It also wants to send the application to OSHA in theupcoming year. Further, there is a keen interest to align with the ANSI/AIHAZ10 standard.

In going through the application submission materials, you noticedsomething that threw up a red flag, however. Although there was anaccountability requirement specified in front-line workers’ performanceevaluation documentation for safety performance, there was no such requirementin the performance evaluation documentation for supervisors, managers, orexecutives. Your discussions with employees also suggest that, although theemployer wants the front-line workers to be heavily involved in the safetyeffort, they are not always sure exactly what they are supposed to be doing tohelp move the company’s safety programs forward.

Another issue that concerns you is that the effort to implement a safety andhealth management systems approach appears to be somewhat piecemeal. You arefinding it difficult to identify a clear Plan-Do-Check-Act approach tocontinuous improvement.

Please compose a two-page document for your client to include yourevaluation of these deficiencies along with an explanation of the significanceof these problems in relation to the safety and health management systemsapproach. Your goal is to help the employer understand why these issues need tobe attended to prior to submitting your application. In your response, be sureto do the following things:

• include an introduction that establishes the issues and providesnecessary background information,
• assess the importance of establishing safety accountability measuresfor managers, employees, and safety professionals,
• appraise the assignment of safety-related job tasks, and
• apply the Plan-Do-Check-Act framework to resolve a safety deficiency.

Your paper must be a minimum of two pages in length, and it should be inAPA format. You must use a minimum of one scholarly resource. Any informationfrom this source should be cited and referenced in accordance with APAguidelines.