"Safe machines make a major contribution to personnel safety on the workplace. Safety of machines is often guaranteed or enhanced by safety devices. The choice of a safety device involves multiple criteria decision making and a ranking of alternatives according to often contrasting performance measures. In this paper, a systematic methodology for selecting safety measures aimed at reducing mechanical hazards of industrial machinery is presented. The method at first includes a classification of mechanical hazards and applicable safety devices, then introduces an exhaustive list of 15 factors useful to judge the suitability of safety devices for comparison purposes. A comparison of relative importance between the rating criteria is then carried out in the framework of the Analytic Hierarchy Process decision making approach, based on expert opinion, allowing unambiguous prioritization of the above decision making factors. This allows a rapid ranking of alternatives and the selection of the most suitable device for a given machine that suits the mission requirements and the preferences of the decision maker. An application example is included to demonstrate the utilization of the method."

Support: Digital