What’s hidden under the slogan ‘Anzen Ichi Ban’ (Safety First) part 4 – Finger point and call (FP&C)

To be free from accident one must have a positive mental attitude towards safety, one's jobs, co-workers, the business and to oneself. Mental alertness of this sort could only be attained when absolute focus is given on the tasks that are being performed. Take a very simple task of filling a mug of hot coffee, although we might have done it thousands of times before, we might not realize that our bodily actions for pouring the coffee is being controlled by our mind. Just before this task is being carried out our minds will alert us the important facts like, the coffee is hot, the cup or mug should be on a stable base and remind us not to fill it until its rim. Thus, with all these mental alertness facts the risk of having hot coffee spilled on to our bodies or somebody else’s hands would be eliminated. It’s very natural for us to look and also hearing the sound of pouring hot coffee in a mug before deciding that the coffee has reached a safe height in the mug.
I came across a number of cases where injuries happened when the victims were not aware of the imminent dangers that were sort of ‘hidden’. It can be due to the fact that their minds didn’t realize that the situations were dangerous, like the hazards of moving fan belts of an engine of a car or an air hole (the size on the index finger) on the cover of a rotary feeder. In both cases, the victims cut off part of their index fingers because of being ‘curious’ and used their index fingers to assess the situations. I’m sure there are hundred or even thousands of cases similar in nature are happening every day whether at home or at work.
In Japan, one organization has perfected a method that would reduce the risk of accidents by making the mind to always be on the alert. The method is accepted by the general Japanese public as a responsible act and is now being adopted in almost all organizations and businesses in Japan. Many foreign visitors in Japan found that the Japanese Railways Corporation (JR) is very responsive when providing safety service to commuters. Safety announcements, like all commuters must be behind the yellow line are made on every train arrival, are very clear and a must to alerts commuters of the ‘hidden’ dangers on a moving object. Before the train doors are opened, a JR employee on platform duty will look to his right point his fingers while uttering the words ‘line clear’ and he would repeat the same routine when turning to his left. This act, which is translated as ‘finger point and call (FP&C)’, is not only very important to him and his company but also for the safety of the commuters. The JR is world famous of its good safety record and its employees are proud to show off this act.
The FP&C method is very common in Japanese factories and workshop nowadays. It is an accepted as positive behavior that could reduce the risk of accidents. This act will alert the mind on the presence of the dangers (known or unknown) through the main senses of the human body, like sight, feel, and hearing. When I finger point and call on a situation, such as the moving fan belts of a car engine to look for the source of an abnormal sound, I would say out “Fan belt is moving, ok”; through this act I’m actually alerting my mind by making use of the 3 senses routes to my brain. I’m using the speech part of the brain to say out the words which alerts my mind of the dangers; I’m hearing what is being said which also alerts my mind of the danger; I’m seeing the moving belt by pointing it with my index finger at the moving belt while saying the words also alerts my mind through my sight or vision of the danger. Hence, from these FP&C actions the mind gets informed through 3 routes, thus ensuring it to coordinate a careful judgment and movement of my body and hands when carrying out the work. So its no more a myth when we observed an airline pilot said ‘check’ at every step of his take off routine before taking the plane up in the air.
These simple acts of seeing, hearing, feeling and thinking are frequently not completely used for the benefit of reducing the risks of accidents thus resulting in injuries or fatalities. These acts were taken for granted by these victims; just like we take little notice on all the billboards along the road while driving to work because the impact of these advertisements is insignificance to our daily life. Often accidents with serious injuries happened when the victims didn’t adequately assess the potential hazards by using all these senses in combination to have a good assessment of the working conditions before acting. When analyzing such accidents, one might have the impression that the victims had acted carelessly; if only he would pause a while and gave a thought he might have all ten fingers on both hands rather than three on the right hand.