• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.1243-1255
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• 2014

This study is aimed at developing an index and indicator in the light of social factors by analyzing the basic materials on Korean working conditions survey to make it possible to grasp various working environment factors consequent on business type and to judge the industrial safety & health policy of the related area. For the purpose of developing an index, this study was conducted by benchmarking the OECD-suggested index development guidelines and overseas cases of index development. This study suggested indexes related to health by benchmarking OECD's press-state-response model. The press-state health-related indexes specified in Korean working condtions survey were found to consist of physical risk environment, working hours, business environment, and social environment, and its consequent 'state' items were comprised of mental health, physical health, absence from work due to health problems and work satisfaction as health-related items. As a result, it was found that the 'press-state index' for wage worker, regular employee, manager, clerks, expert & related personnel involved, and workers aged under 50 was relatively good; in contrast, the 'press-state index' for people aged over 50, owner-operator, daily job, skilled position in agriculture & fisheries, simple labor service, and apparatus & machines assembly worker was found to be relatively vulnerable.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.90-95
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• 2012

To prevent similar accidents with the basis of industrial accidents already occurred in industrial plants, it would be possible only after true causes are grasped. Unfortunately, however, most accident investigation carried out with the basis of legal regulation failed to grasp them so that similar accidents have been repeated without cease. This research aimed to find out differences between results from conventional accident investigation and those from human error analysis, and to draw out effective and practical counter-plans against industrial accidents occurred repeatedly in an autoglass manufacturing company. As for analysis, about 110 accident cases that occurred for last 7 years were collected, and by adopting the Comprehensive Human Error Analysis Technique developed by the previous researchers, not direct causes but basic fundamental causes that might induce workers to human errors were sought. In consequence, the result showed that facility factors or environmental factors such as improper layout, mistakes in engineering design, and malfunction of interlock system were authentic major accident causes as opposed to managerial factors such as personal carelessness or failure to wearing personal protective equipments, and/or improper work methods.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.294-297
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• 2012

Previous studies on the vast increase in suicide mortality in Southeast Asia have indicated that suicide rates increase in parallel with a rise in unemployment or during periods of economic recession. This paper examines the effects of economic recession on suicidal rates amongst agriculture, fisheries, and forestry workers in Korea. Monthly time-series gross domestic product (GDP) data were linked with suicidal rates gathered from the cause of death records between1993-2008. Data were analyzed using generalized additive models to analyze trends, while a polynomial lag model was used to assess the unconstrained time lag effects of changes in GDP on suicidal rate. We found that there were significant inverse correlations between changes in GDP and suicide for a time lag of one to four months after the occurrence of economic event. Furthermore, it was evident that the overall relative risks of suicide were high enough to bring about social concern.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.97-105
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• 2014

Background: Prolonged standing has been hypothesized as a vital contributor to discomfort and muscle fatigue in the workplace. The objective of this study was to develop a decision support system that could provide systematic analysis and solutions to minimize the discomfort and muscle fatigue associated with prolonged standing. Methods: The integration of object-oriented programming and a Model Oriented Simultaneous Engineering System were used to design the architecture of the decision support system. Results: Validation of the decision support system was carried out in two manufacturing companies. The validation process showed that the decision support system produced reliable results. Conclusion: The decision support system is a reliable advisory tool for providing analysis and solutions to problems related to the discomfort and muscle fatigue associated with prolonged standing. Further testing of the decision support system is suggested before it is used commercially.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.39-52
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• 2017

The scope of this study is the construction conformity assessment system according to the new paradigm of construction management To minimize the differences between domestic and international state, construction Conformity Assessment is subdivided into system certification and product certification. For the former, WASCON(Worldwide Assessment System of Construction Quality Maturity Stage) is applied. For the latter, AQUA(Advanced Quality Assessment System) was developed and adopted to model project for demonstration. Both systems are designed to enable quantified rating, integrated into PQCS(Project Quality Certification), which is an advanced project quality certification system. The construction work observing PQCS will gain quality score on its own quality certificate(Quality mark on construction itself or facilities is also available, if needed or preferred by customers). This Quality Rating System will inspire and encourage any related parties. PQCS score would let supplier/constructor recognize how much themselves are operating effectively and efficiently, offering them the opportunity of redeeming their weaknesses.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.107-117
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• 2023

Background: Thermophysiological comfort in a cold environment is mainly ensured by clothing. However, the thermal performance and protective abilities of textile fabrics may be sensitive to extreme environmental conditions. This article evaluated the thermal insulation properties of three technical textile assemblies and determined the influence of environmental parameters (temperature, humidity, and wind speed) on their insulation capacity. Methods: Thermal insulation capacity and air permeability of the assemblies were determined experimentally. A sweating-guarded hotplate apparatus, commonly called the "skin model," based on International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 11092 standard and simulating the heat transfer from the body surface to the environment through clothing material, was adopted for the thermal resistance measurements. Results: It was found that the assemblies lost about 85% of their thermal insulation with increasing wind speed from 0 to 16 km/h. Under certain conditions, values approaching 1 clo have been measured. On the other hand, the results showed that temperature variation in the range (-40℃, 30℃), as well as humidity ratio changes (5 g/kg, 20 g/kg), had a limited influence on the thermal insulation of the studied assemblies. Conclusion: The present study showed that the most important variable impacting the thermal performance and protective abilities of textile fabrics is the wind speed, a parameter not taken into account by ISO 11092.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.31-42
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• 2023

Background: This study analyzes the linear and non-linear effects of the hard and soft dimensions of job quality on the overall health of wage workers. It also examines the congruence or fit between the hard and soft job quality on the overall health of wage workers. Methods: This study measured thirty indicators that constitute job quality and reduced the indicators into twelve sub-dimensions of job quality using reflective factor analysis. In addition, this study derived two dimensions of job quality from the twelve subdimensions, namely the hard and soft job quality using formative factor analysis. This paper applied the response surface analysis to analyze the congruence effect between the two dimensions of job quality. Results: A logarithmic relationship was found between the dimension of hard job quality and the worker's overall health. This study also verified that the congruence effect between the two dimensions of job quality does not exist, and the combined effect of job quality is lower when the two dimensions of job quality are at the same level than the effect when either level of job quality is high or low. Conclusions: Although hard and soft job quality has independent positive effects on the overall health of wage workers, the two dimensions of job quality are not congruent or not in harmony with each other. This incongruence between hard and soft job quality, together with a higher impact of hard job quality, suggests that the role of soft job quality on overall health is relatively limited.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.131-135
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• 2006

The objective of the project is to model and study the geomagnetic field structure and its secular variation in space and in time due to sources in the dynamic fluid outer core. the Earth's spherical harmonic model of the main field and of the secular variation gives the intensity and geomagnetic structure at any location around the Earth, assuming an undistorted, steady state field that no external sources or localized earth anomalies. To consider the practical use of a ship's digital compass in Earth's magnetic field, Earth's spherical harmonic model is searched for the related practical methods and procedures as a basic study in this work.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.635-641
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• 2017

Safety service improvement and development of efficient maintenance strategies for corroded steel structures are undeniably essential. Therefore, understanding the influence of damage caused by corrosion on the remaining load-carrying capacities such as tensile strength is required. In this study, artificial neural network (ANN) approach is proposed in order to produce a simple, accurate, and inexpensive method developed by using tensile test results, material properties and finite element method (FEM) results to train the ANN model. Initially in reproducing corroded model process, FEM was used to obtain tensile strength of artificial corroded plates, for which surface is developed by a spatial autocorrelation model. By using the corroded surface data and material properties as input data, with tensile strength as the output data, the ANN model could be trained. The accuracy of the ANN result was then verified by using leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV). As a result, it was confirmed that the accuracy of the ANN approach and the final output equation was developed for predicting tensile strength without tensile test results and FEM in further work. Though previous studies have been conducted, the accuracy results are still lower than the proposed ANN approach. Hence, the proposed ANN model now enables us to have a simple, rapid, and inexpensive method to predict residual tensile strength more accurately due to corrosion in steel structures.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.221-230
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• 2017

Objective: The purpose of this study is to draw the accident prevention model using the signal detection theory, and to implement accident prevention program, based on a health promotion and support activities in a shipbuilding company. Background: Workers' health management is perceived important from the human resource management perspective, as well as from the personal perspective. Method: This study developed an accident prevention model by analyzing the correlation between 704 workers' health examination variables, and reviewed the verification of the model through a follow-up survey on the control variables and status of hazards targeting 650 workers for four years from 2007 to 2010. Also, a health promotion program was implemented targeting a production division to improve alcohol habits, smoking, musculoskeletal pain complaints and hearing control indices, which are the control variables of the model. Results: As a result of four years' implementation, the following effects were obtained: the days away from work fell 87.5%, and accident rate dropped 71.5% in 2010, respectively, compared to 2006, before the activity was implemented. Conclusion: This study shows that the accident prevention activities based on workers' health promotion activities are effective to prevent industrial accidents and injuries. Application: The research findings will serve as a practical guideline for establishing preventive measures in the shipbuilding company.