Why Jobsite Safety is Like Swiss Cheese
We talk a lot about safety rules and procedures on the jobsite, but have you ever wondered why we have so many layers of them? A powerful concept called the Swiss Cheese Model of Safety provides the answer. It’s one of the most popular and effective ways to understand how and why incidents happen.
Imagine our jobsite safety program is a stack of cheese slices. Each slice represents a different safety barrier or control, like:
- Safety Training: Ensuring everyone knows the right way to do things.
- Permit-to-Work Systems: Authorizing specific high-risk activities.
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Your hard hat, safety glasses, gloves, etc.
- Daily Site Inspections: Checking for hazards before work begins.
- Tool & Equipment Maintenance: Keeping our gear in top condition.
- Your Personal Vigilance: Being aware and focused on the task at hand.
In a perfect world, these slices would be solid and have no holes. But in reality, every barrier can have a few “holes” in it. These holes are little weaknesses or failures, like:
- A worker rushing and forgetting to check their harness.
- A piece of equipment that wasn’t properly maintained.
- A new hazard that was overlooked during an inspection.
- A moment of distraction while operating machinery.
- Complacency makes you think that because you’ve done this job many times without issue, this time will be no different.
Normally, the holes in each slice of cheese don’t line up. So, even if a hole appears in one layer (e.g., a brief lapse in attention), another layer (like proper machine guarding or mandatory PPE) catches it and prevents an incident.
An incident or accident happens when the holes in all the relevant layers of cheese line up. This is when a hazard manages to slip past every defense, leading to an injury or damage.
The key takeaway is that no single safety procedure or piece of equipment is foolproof on its own. It’s the combination of all these layers working together that keeps us safe. Your personal vigilance, adherence to procedures, and quick reporting of hazards are all vital pieces of our collective “cheese.”
Let’s all work together to make sure our “holes” never line up on the jobsite.