In the world of industrial safety, we are not at a loss for the desire to try new things. Many consulting companies are waiting to sell us their shiny gadgets. One of these latest crazes is called “SIF”—Serious Injuries and Fatalities. The concept behind this model is based on the progress many have made in reducing their recordable injuries of lesser severity; however, the risk of a significant incident may still be present. Take OSHA data, for example; as a nation, we have seen a drastic drop in “OSHA recordable” injuries, but we have not seen the same drop in fatalities. So the thought process is that we need to IDENTIFY those risks that can lead to a serious injury or fatality (SIF) and analyze the controls/barriers/safeguards we have in place AND their real-time ability to PREVENT, PROTECTION, and/or MITIGATE these SIF events.
Most of us are already informally doing SIF. I like to start my clients out with their BIG THREE: