How Do Maintenance Personnel Perceive Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Risks During Major Overhauls, Outages, Shutdowns or Turnarounds (MoOSTs)? An Examination of the Nigerian Cement Industry

Abstract

Abstract Asset management activities such as periodic overhauls are crucial for ensuring asset integrity and workplace safety. However, lessons learned from previous major industrial accidents across various high-risks industries have indicated that the perception of occupational safety and health (OSH) risks of maintenance personnel during major overhauls, outages, shutdowns and turnarounds (MoOSTs) are common denominators and precursors to several accidents. This is typically owing to several factors especially the fusion of all classes of routine maintenance tasks on enormous scales and the integration of a very diverse workforce (client, regulators, original equipment manufacturers, and various contracting firms) that possess very different safety cultures, which in turn compound overall risk profiles of job sites and the likelihood of accidents. Therefore, developing a good understanding of the risks perceptions and attitudes of MoOSTs workers towards can help improve overall OSH performance. Although several studies have investigated the subject of safety culture and climate in the context of projects especially engineering, procurement and construction (EPCs), however, studies and use cases on MoOSTs are significantly underrepresented, despite their impacts on costs, employment and wellbeing. This study therefore aims to advocate a safety culture that would boost OSH performance during MoOSTs through the development and deployment of safety climate questionnaire survey to MoOSTs workers of leading cement manufacturing operations in Nigeria. The study revealed “training and learning from incidents”, “commitment of senior management towards ensuring safety and its protocol deployment process”, and “effectiveness of incident reporting systems during MoOSTs” as the three main underlying safety climate factors.