Role of Total Quality Management in Setting Occupational Safety and Health Management System in Small and Medium Size Organizations

Abstract

This study was carried out in Khartoum state during (April 2012 to August 2013) to evaluate the role of total quality management in setting occupational safety and health management system in small and medium size Organizations (SMOs). Researcher observed how weakness of institutions of OSH and quality which is reflects in total cost and loss in human and financial resource. This study was tried to answer the following question: Is there any relationship between total quality management (TQM) & occupational safety &health (OSH)? Can work process improvement reduce occupational exposure? Is total quality environment a friend to workers? The statistical analysis (using chi square) shows that. There is a significant difference between total quality management TQM & occupational safety OSH (sig equal 0.000) which is less than (0.05). There is a significant difference between improving work processes and reduction of occupation exposure (sig equal 0.000) which is less than (0.05). There is a significant difference between total quality management environment and workplace (sig equal 0.000) which is less than (0.05).

From this study it concluded that: Total quality management (TQM) has direct influence on occupational safety and health when it explicitly focuses quality improvement effort on safety &health. Improving work processes through using processes improvement techniques well reduce occupational exposure. Total quality management leads to improvement in workplace environments And the study based on finding recommends (among others): Adapting and integrating TQM&OSH by SMOs would to increase the productivity and saves time and cost as it prevents duplicated effort and make OSH goals consistent with all the firms’ goal. Using TQM tools within OS&H to increase its performance, accident investigations (to find route causes) and setting control measure.