This work presents a sustainability assessment approach to evaluate technological innovations in ... more This work presents a sustainability assessment approach to evaluate technological innovations in secondary steel production making use of Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) technology. The assessment covers the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability by combining different tools (Life Cycle Assessment and Analytic Hierarchy Process), and also provides an integrated assessment of the overall sustainability. The approach, which can also be used to support decision-making, has been applied to a real case study of a steel plant located in Northern Italy. In the case study, environmental sustainability is positively impacted mainly by increased metal yield and reduced furnace energy consumption. The greatest social sustainability benefits are mainly related to improved ergonomic and safety conditions for workers (reduced demand for physical effort, manual handling and repetitiveness, and lower risk of accidents), as a consequence of the introduction of Industry 4.0 technologies. Regarding economic sustainability, a positive impact related to reduced cycle time, increased metal yield and quality yield, reduced maintenance and quality control costs was observed. The integrated assessment of the overall sustainability has proven to be a viable approach to manage trade-offs between the different dimensions of sustainability.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics
Purpose. In the steel industry, performing activities in confined spaces where potential oxygen (... more Purpose. In the steel industry, performing activities in confined spaces where potential oxygen (O2) displacement can occur may expose workers to fatal consequences. To the best of our knowledge, no quantitative exposure assessment of O2 deficiency in steel confined spaces is available in the literature. To overcome this gap, we perform Oxygen Deficiency Hazard (ODH) assessments in real confined spaces using two existing models to identify the most critical parameters responsible for ODH, and suggest controls for mitigating the asphyxiation risk. Methods. We applied a well-mixed model and a Near Field-Far Field approach to estimate the indoor O2 level in time during and following releases of simple asphyxiants. Models' inputs were mainly gathered thanks to audits and instrumental tests in three firms. Results. The most severe ODH exposures are posed in spaces with a restricted volume and where accidental releases of inert gases can occur. Such exposures can be controlled through early release detections and augmented reality systems. Conclusions. ODH assessments in confined spaces of steel firms allow the identification of the most critical parameters from an O2 depletion perspective, focusing on which data need careful measurement, and help to establish controls compatible with the operations conducted into these areas.
The experience gathered from normal industrial operations allows us to associate its degrading co... more The experience gathered from normal industrial operations allows us to associate its degrading conditions with the potential for an accident. Such association is the basis for the definition of the system risk and appropriate safety measures. If a skilled operator observes further degrading conditions, his/her mind quickly learns from this new experience, derives an updated risk level, and tunes the safety measures. Similarly, safety management techniques aim to construct a risk model while learning from past and new observations with the purpose to warn of an imminent accident. However, the model can be tested only in hindsight, after the occurrence (or the missed occurrence) of an accident. How can we generalise and model the risk analysis learning process? How can we optimise its configuration towards new observations? This study discusses these issues of meta-learning for safety management by considering the case study of a drive-off scenario involving an oil and gas drilling ri...
Safety managers, practitioners, and researchers can employ different models for estimating and as... more Safety managers, practitioners, and researchers can employ different models for estimating and assessing hazards, consequences, likelihoods, risks, and/or mitigation measures in the safety field. The selection of a specific model may depend on the uncertainty associated with its estimation and its impact on the safety-related decision-making process. The recognition of this issue as an example of Algorithm Selection Problem (ASP) allows investigating the applicability of meta-learning principles that are scarcely adopted in the risk and safety literature. Consequently, we propose a novel meta-learning inspired framework to proactively rank a set of candidate models for Dynamic Risk Management (DRM) based on desired uncertainty conditions. We denominate this framework ProMetaUS (Proactive Meta-learning and Uncertainty-based Selection for dynamic risk management). To achieve this purpose, our meta-learning system acquires knowledge that relates the characteristics extracted both direc...
Occupational safety is traditionally managed distinctly from process safety. The former puts the ... more Occupational safety is traditionally managed distinctly from process safety. The former puts the emphasis on high frequency and low consequence incidents, and refers to hazards that could provoke human consequences. In contrast, the latter focuses on releases of chemicals, energy, or hazardous materials, leading to low likelihood but high consequence accidents with severe negative effects to people, environment, assets, and/or business. However, neither personal safety nor process safety should be compromised, and their common priority should remain the elimination and mitigation of adverse consequences for workers. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of existing approaches for harmonising the assessments of personal and process safety risks, pointing out the main challenges to be addressed for developing a future enhanced framework. To achieve this aim, a systematic literature review in databases of scientific publications was carried out. The review returned 14 studies...
The complexity of health and safety management issues is increasing, as well as the related infor... more The complexity of health and safety management issues is increasing, as well as the related information flows. This motivates the current interest in occupational health and safety management software packages and the forecast of strong growth for their market. However, to the best of our knowledge, reliable and validated methods and tools to support the selection of the most suitable occupational health and safety management software are not available in the literature. For this reason, we propose a multicriteria method in order to help decision-makers select the best health and safety software package among a set of available alternatives, considering multiple potentially conflicting factors. The method is based on Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is widely used to support information systems selection. The elements, i.e. factors important for the selection, were identified and arranged into a hierarchic structure. The hierarchy consists of a Goal and three levels of elemen...
In the last two decades, Quality of Working Life (QWL) has become a core element of the European ... more In the last two decades, Quality of Working Life (QWL) has become a core element of the European social model and the European Employment Strategy. “More and better jobs” is a strategic goal promoted within Europe for emphasising the attention in QWL. However, there is a large debate in the literature on the definition of QWL, its dimensions, and consequently on the methods to use for its measurement. To the best of our knowledge, the systematic reviews currently available in the literature on QWL measurement in European organisations investigate only a particular industry and/or working population. Moreover, they do not focus specifically on composite indicators, although they appear promising in facilitating QWL understanding and comparisons for supporting decision-makers and policy makers. To overcome these gaps, we conducted a systematic review to identify composite indicators for measuring QWL in European organisations. The review returned 19 studies that are analysed based on ...
This work presents a sustainability assessment approach to evaluate technological innovations in ... more This work presents a sustainability assessment approach to evaluate technological innovations in secondary steel production making use of Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) technology. The assessment covers the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability by combining different tools (Life Cycle Assessment and Analytic Hierarchy Process), and also provides an integrated assessment of the overall sustainability. The approach, which can also be used to support decision-making, has been applied to a real case study of a steel plant located in Northern Italy. In the case study, environmental sustainability is positively impacted mainly by increased metal yield and reduced furnace energy consumption. The greatest social sustainability benefits are mainly related to improved ergonomic and safety conditions for workers (reduced demand for physical effort, manual handling and repetitiveness, and lower risk of accidents), as a consequence of the introduction of Industry 4.0 technologies. Regarding economic sustainability, a positive impact related to reduced cycle time, increased metal yield and quality yield, reduced maintenance and quality control costs was observed. The integrated assessment of the overall sustainability has proven to be a viable approach to manage trade-offs between the different dimensions of sustainability.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics
Purpose. In the steel industry, performing activities in confined spaces where potential oxygen (... more Purpose. In the steel industry, performing activities in confined spaces where potential oxygen (O2) displacement can occur may expose workers to fatal consequences. To the best of our knowledge, no quantitative exposure assessment of O2 deficiency in steel confined spaces is available in the literature. To overcome this gap, we perform Oxygen Deficiency Hazard (ODH) assessments in real confined spaces using two existing models to identify the most critical parameters responsible for ODH, and suggest controls for mitigating the asphyxiation risk. Methods. We applied a well-mixed model and a Near Field-Far Field approach to estimate the indoor O2 level in time during and following releases of simple asphyxiants. Models' inputs were mainly gathered thanks to audits and instrumental tests in three firms. Results. The most severe ODH exposures are posed in spaces with a restricted volume and where accidental releases of inert gases can occur. Such exposures can be controlled through early release detections and augmented reality systems. Conclusions. ODH assessments in confined spaces of steel firms allow the identification of the most critical parameters from an O2 depletion perspective, focusing on which data need careful measurement, and help to establish controls compatible with the operations conducted into these areas.
The experience gathered from normal industrial operations allows us to associate its degrading co... more The experience gathered from normal industrial operations allows us to associate its degrading conditions with the potential for an accident. Such association is the basis for the definition of the system risk and appropriate safety measures. If a skilled operator observes further degrading conditions, his/her mind quickly learns from this new experience, derives an updated risk level, and tunes the safety measures. Similarly, safety management techniques aim to construct a risk model while learning from past and new observations with the purpose to warn of an imminent accident. However, the model can be tested only in hindsight, after the occurrence (or the missed occurrence) of an accident. How can we generalise and model the risk analysis learning process? How can we optimise its configuration towards new observations? This study discusses these issues of meta-learning for safety management by considering the case study of a drive-off scenario involving an oil and gas drilling ri...
Safety managers, practitioners, and researchers can employ different models for estimating and as... more Safety managers, practitioners, and researchers can employ different models for estimating and assessing hazards, consequences, likelihoods, risks, and/or mitigation measures in the safety field. The selection of a specific model may depend on the uncertainty associated with its estimation and its impact on the safety-related decision-making process. The recognition of this issue as an example of Algorithm Selection Problem (ASP) allows investigating the applicability of meta-learning principles that are scarcely adopted in the risk and safety literature. Consequently, we propose a novel meta-learning inspired framework to proactively rank a set of candidate models for Dynamic Risk Management (DRM) based on desired uncertainty conditions. We denominate this framework ProMetaUS (Proactive Meta-learning and Uncertainty-based Selection for dynamic risk management). To achieve this purpose, our meta-learning system acquires knowledge that relates the characteristics extracted both direc...
Occupational safety is traditionally managed distinctly from process safety. The former puts the ... more Occupational safety is traditionally managed distinctly from process safety. The former puts the emphasis on high frequency and low consequence incidents, and refers to hazards that could provoke human consequences. In contrast, the latter focuses on releases of chemicals, energy, or hazardous materials, leading to low likelihood but high consequence accidents with severe negative effects to people, environment, assets, and/or business. However, neither personal safety nor process safety should be compromised, and their common priority should remain the elimination and mitigation of adverse consequences for workers. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of existing approaches for harmonising the assessments of personal and process safety risks, pointing out the main challenges to be addressed for developing a future enhanced framework. To achieve this aim, a systematic literature review in databases of scientific publications was carried out. The review returned 14 studies...
The complexity of health and safety management issues is increasing, as well as the related infor... more The complexity of health and safety management issues is increasing, as well as the related information flows. This motivates the current interest in occupational health and safety management software packages and the forecast of strong growth for their market. However, to the best of our knowledge, reliable and validated methods and tools to support the selection of the most suitable occupational health and safety management software are not available in the literature. For this reason, we propose a multicriteria method in order to help decision-makers select the best health and safety software package among a set of available alternatives, considering multiple potentially conflicting factors. The method is based on Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is widely used to support information systems selection. The elements, i.e. factors important for the selection, were identified and arranged into a hierarchic structure. The hierarchy consists of a Goal and three levels of elemen...
In the last two decades, Quality of Working Life (QWL) has become a core element of the European ... more In the last two decades, Quality of Working Life (QWL) has become a core element of the European social model and the European Employment Strategy. “More and better jobs” is a strategic goal promoted within Europe for emphasising the attention in QWL. However, there is a large debate in the literature on the definition of QWL, its dimensions, and consequently on the methods to use for its measurement. To the best of our knowledge, the systematic reviews currently available in the literature on QWL measurement in European organisations investigate only a particular industry and/or working population. Moreover, they do not focus specifically on composite indicators, although they appear promising in facilitating QWL understanding and comparisons for supporting decision-makers and policy makers. To overcome these gaps, we conducted a systematic review to identify composite indicators for measuring QWL in European organisations. The review returned 19 studies that are analysed based on ...
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Papers by Elena Stefana