Safety Resource Allocation Research Articles

A new health and environmental regulatory and risk scoring index

AbstractProducts or product lines (portfolio items) are often ranked and classified according to their market growth and profitability potentials. Such ranking does not typically address the potential for posing health and environmental risks, nor does it formally consider the current or future regulatory climate or the customer/consumer perception of the product. This article describes a product screening procedure—Health and Environmental Regulatory (HER) Index—that addresses all of the above issues in a qualitative to semiquantitative manner. For each of the eight products addressed during the development of this procedure, we reviewed three subsystems along the product life cycle—manufacturing, distribution, and the customer/consumer. We posed a series of questions and qualitatively scored each one based on relationships among portfolio items and overall corporate, industry, and regulatory benchmarks. Using these results, we developed a product score or index. The multidisciplinary project team provided expert input and a reality check on the results. We have found the HER Index to be a potentially important tool for product risk ranking and priority setting for environmental, health, and safety resource allocation and of significant use in Responsible Care product stewardship.

A system for the allocation of safety resources on a road network

This paper presents a complete allocation methodology of resources for safety improvements of a road network. In the first part of the paper, a set of models is estimated to identify so-called “black spots” in the road network. In the second part of the paper, a Linear Programming (L.P.) model is defined for the allocation of a total budget to those projects which ensure the most cost-effective results in reducing road accidents. The specific solution method for the allocation L.P. problem is defined, and its superiority to a cost-benefit analysis for budget allocation is shown through a real world example.