Master's Students' Capstone Streamlines Safety Processes
Inspired by their newfound expertise, a team of Professional Master's in Occupational Safety and Health students designed an app to help small companies improve workplace safety
Safety is a regulatory requirement in the United States – and for good reason. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 15 workers die on U.S. job sites each day, and dozens more are injured.
When Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970, the numbers were even higher. Since then, an entire profession has emerged to create safer workplace conditions and procedures; however, most professionals with this expertise are employed by companies large enough to hire dedicated occupational safety and health (OSH) teams.
One reason for this is that many small- to mid-size businesses struggle to afford the associated expenses. Additionally, most don't think about the less-evident downstream benefits of safety management system (SMS) efforts, such as lower insurance rates and employees who put more care into their work because they know their employer values them.
To make OSH easier for smaller companies, one team of students in Georgia Tech’s Professional Master’s in Occupational Safety and Health (PMOSH) program devoted its capstone project to addressing this challenge.
Synthesizing two years of advanced learnings
Drawing from the new skills and insights they’d amassed during the two-year program, as well as their collective work experience, the five-student team set out to create a solution that would lower the training, resource and implementation barriers small- and mid-size businesses face.
The culminating assignment was an ambitious undertaking for 12 weeks, but the team was passionate about creating a solution that could address this industry challenge.
“Many safety professionals are expected to do more with less, so we wanted to design our capstone product in a way that anyone with this responsibility could use it. Overwhelmed safety managers, of course, but also those who don’t have a traditional safety background, like HR managers who wear a lot of hats,” explained team member John Charles Leaphart, environmental health and safety manager for The Hershey Company.
Bridging the knowledge gap
The five-student team hypothesized there was probably some overlap between two of the industry’s leading safety-management standards:
- Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), a federal initiative through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that offers three levels of compliance based on factors such as: hazard prevention and control, worksite analysis, management and worker involvement and cooperation, and rates of job-related illnesses and injuries.
- ISO 45001, a relatively new certification through the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), that not only aims to reduce occupational injuries and diseases that are physical in nature; it also helps protect employees’ mental health.
To test this theory, the team analyzed and compared roughly 226 requirements and sub-requirements of the two standards. The results were eye opening. Not only was there overlap; it was more substantial than they anticipated.
For instance, the team discovered that general industry companies with ISO 45001 certification are already 67.3% compliant with VPP standards. Even more surprising, general industry companies with VPP merit certification are already 99.1% compliant with 45001.
In addition to confirming the team’s hypothesis, insights like these influenced the direction – and framework – for the solution they proposed.
“Our teammates came from different industries and backgrounds, which really enriched our overall perspective and vision for the task."
Susana M. Rendon, senior global process safety engineer for Polyester Chain.
After discussing several options, they decided to create a checklist-type application that collects and analyzes an organization’s attributes and then uses that data to identify safety gaps.
Building a prototype
As the team began developing a preliminary model, they laid out the safety-management standards, aligned them with their data, and created a consolidated checklist. The goal was that when someone entered available information into the app, the user would be able to tell which safety requirements their business did, and did not, meet. What’s more, those results would be crystal clear to the app user thanks to a color-coded, total quantitative score.
The team named the prototype SCAMPI, an abbreviation for Simplified Certification and Multi-Program Investment.
Mitsubishi Power’s Savannah Machinery Works agreed to be their project sponsor. Elizabeth Johnson, corporate director of environmental health and safety for Mitsubishi Power Americas – and a 2020 PMOSH graduate – was their key contact.
At one point, Johnson helped the capstone team conduct internal testing and provided feedback on the accessibility, comprehensiveness, and overall quality of the prototype. Another time, she assessed the team’s checklist for existing alignment with ISO 45001 and potential alignment to VPP. The team then integrated that assessment information into the SCAMPI application to continue improving it.
A tool that levels the playing field
The result was a framework for a digital platform that could help any size company streamline – and therefore, maximize – compliance with common safety standards.
“Think of SCAMPI as a health test,” says Leaphart.
“It could help you identify where you’re prepared and where there are opportunities for improvement, which significantly reduces the barriers to creating a safe work environment.”
Making the concept real
Since graduating from the PMOSH program in 2021, SCAMPI team member Kristen Denney has pursued bringing the concept to market. With the blessing of capstone teammates Leapheart, Rendon, Chris Clanton and Max Isaacs, Denney used SCAMPI’s foundation to build out a modified version of the application that initially focuses on VPP compliance.
Called CLEAR Audit Management, she launched the software company in August 2024 with Clanton’s assistance.
“Being from the industry gives us a unique insight,” says Denney. “It enabled us to create a modern and efficient product that will truly help all professionals involved in the VPP process.”
Clanton agrees, adding that launching CLEAR Audit Management feels like both the true closing of a chapter and the start to a new one. “We’re finally able to say that we took the idea of SCAMPI and saw it through to what has become CLEAR. Now, we have exciting new pages to fill with what comes next.”
Learn more about how this PMOSH capstone project became a real-world digital business solution.
Credits
Written by: Patti Styles
Digital Producer: Kat Bell
Fostering Meaningful Connections in a Global Workplace
