Occupational Health and Safety Within the Scope of Risk Analysis with Fuzzy Proportional Risk Assessment Technique (Fuzzy Prat)

Abstract

The increase in industrialization necessitates risk analysis with a legal obligation all over the world. Therefore, risk analysis is very important for the safety culture of a company. Many qualitative and quantitative risk analysis methods contain subjective elements and uncertainty. In this study, risk analysis with the fuzzy proportional risk assessment technique (PRAT) is proposed for the first time to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional PRAT method. Three parameters, probability, frequency, and severity, are fuzzified by using appropriate membership functions. If-then rules and fuzzy logic operations are defined, and then, an inference is made to determine the riskiness. After defuzzification, the risk score is determined for each defined event. The results of conventional PRAT and fuzzy PRAT are compared in a case study carried out in a textile company that manufactures towels and bathrobes. Risk analysis based on fuzzy operations provides more precise measurements than the conventional risk analysis method employed by PRAT. Fuzzy PRAT provides more detailed risk analysis results, allows a direct interpretation of the risks with clusters of clear intervals, and produces a more realistic dataset than conventional PRAT. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.