LMC Safety & Risk Management 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In lean risk management, what is the purpose of a FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis)?
- To schedule routine equipment maintenance
- To proactively identify potential failures and their impact before they occur (Correct answer)
- To calculate the financial cost of past failures
- To assign safety responsibilities to team members
Correct answer: To proactively identify potential failures and their impact before they occur
FMEA systematically evaluates potential failure modes in a process or product to prioritize risks and implement preventive actions before failures happen.
Question 2: Which lean concept directly supports the idea that workers closest to the process are best positioned to identify safety risks?
- Poka-yoke
- Respect for People (Correct answer)
- Takt time calculation
- Pull system design
Correct answer: Respect for People
The lean principle of 'Respect for People' recognizes frontline workers' expertise and empowers them to identify and report safety concerns in their own work areas.
Question 3: What is 'risk appetite' in organizational risk management?
- The total budget allocated for safety improvements
- The amount of risk an organization is willing to accept in pursuit of its objectives (Correct answer)
- The frequency with which risk assessments are conducted
- The number of acceptable incidents per year
Correct answer: The amount of risk an organization is willing to accept in pursuit of its objectives
Risk appetite defines the level and type of risk an organization is prepared to accept, tolerate, or pursue in achieving its strategic goals.
Question 4: A lean team notices that a safety checklist is frequently skipped because it takes too long. The lean response should be to:
- Enforce stricter penalties for skipping the checklist
- Eliminate the checklist entirely to improve flow
- Apply kaizen to redesign the checklist so it is faster without sacrificing safety (Correct answer)
- Transfer checklist responsibility to management only
Correct answer: Apply kaizen to redesign the checklist so it is faster without sacrificing safety
Kaizen (continuous improvement) should be applied to reduce the non-value-added time in safety procedures while maintaining their protective effectiveness.
Question 5: In lean management, 'muda' related to safety most commonly manifests as:
- Overproduction of safety reports that nobody reads (Correct answer)
- All forms of physical waste in the production area
- Delays caused by safety inspections
- Equipment downtime from preventive maintenance
Correct answer: Overproduction of safety reports that nobody reads
Producing excessive safety reports that are not used or acted upon is a form of muda (waste), specifically the waste of overproduction, within lean safety management.
Question 6: What is the significance of 'lagging indicators' in workplace safety performance measurement?
- They predict future safety incidents before they happen
- They measure outcomes of past events such as injury rates (Correct answer)
- They track real-time hazard identification activities
- They quantify employee safety training completion rates
Correct answer: They measure outcomes of past events such as injury rates
Lagging indicators measure past safety performance outcomes (e.g., injury frequency rates) and confirm whether safety programs have been effective after the fact.
Question 7: Which approach aligns most closely with lean's proactive stance on safety risk management?
- Reacting quickly and efficiently to accidents as they occur
- Increasing insurance coverage to offset accident costs
- Identifying and eliminating hazards before incidents happen (Correct answer)
- Documenting all incidents thoroughly for legal compliance
Correct answer: Identifying and eliminating hazards before incidents happen
Lean safety prioritizes proactive hazard identification and elimination to prevent incidents, rather than simply reacting after they occur.
LMC Safety & Risk Management 3
In lean risk management, what is the purpose of a FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis)?