Adoption Level of Near-Miss Management Systems in the Industrial Sector; An Exploratory Survey

Near miss events are usually identified as adverse events that could have turned into incidents/injuries, but by chance resulted in a harmless situation. The importance of near-miss analysis lies in the roots of the events since they usually share the same causes of accidents occurring at the workplace. Therefore, they can represent a useful source of information to understand the causes of potential accidents/injuries for applying more effective preventive actions. Despite this, near-miss management systems (NMMSs) are still not so widespread in all industrial sectors, and they are mostly adopted in a few specific sectors, such as construction, mining, chemical, and nuclear industries. This study, carried out in collaboration with the Italian National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (INAIL) by involving a sample of Italian companies in the industrial sector, presents the preliminary results of a survey aiming to understand the current level of adoption of NMMSs. After an introductory section, the survey is composed by two sections: the first addresses companies already adopting NMMSs, while the second considers companies still not analysing near-miss events. The objective is to outline the state of adoption of NMMSs in several industrial sectors: after this analysis, the aim is to outline drivers and barriers identified by companies in adopting the systems as well as possible strategies to support their diffusion in the industrial sector.