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You have been notified that one of your employees has been admitted to hospital with a suspected broken leg. The employee is an electrician who fell from a ladder while repairing light fittings. As the occupational health and safety expert in your organisation, describe to your Manager on how you will use the underlisted methods or models to investigate this incident:

Fault Tree Analysis
Ishikawa "Fishbone" Diagram
Five WHYs diagram

1 Answer

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Final answer:

To investigate an electrician's fall from a ladder, Fault Tree Analysis, Ishikawa "Fishbone" Diagram, and Five WHYs are used to identify the root cause and contributing factors, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the incident to prevent future accidents.

Step-by-step explanation:

As an occupational health and safety expert, investigating the incident involving an electrician's fall and suspected broken leg would involve various analytical methods. Firstly, using Fault Tree Analysis, I'd systematically identify root causes that could lead to such an accident, mapping out each potential fault event in tree form. This would help in visualizing the path of failures that terminated in the accident and identify contributing factors such as equipment failure, safety protocol breaches, or environmental conditions.

Secondly, the Ishikawa "Fishbone" Diagram is useful for categorizing potential causes of the electrician's accident into broader themes like manpower, methods, materials, machinery, and environment. Each 'bone' of the fish represents a possible category of factors that could have led to the fall, ensuring a comprehensive view of all potential contributing issues.

Lastly, the Five WHYs technique involves repeatedly asking 'why' to peel back the layers of symptoms leading to the root cause. This method helps to quickly identify the underlying cause of the fault, which may be a broken procedure or an oversight in safety training.

Together, these methods provide a robust framework for understanding the electrician's accident, ensuring thorough examination and preventing future incidents by addressing the root causes and contributing factors.

User Alex Deem
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