مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد شناسایی زمینه های همگرا و فن آوری های ایمنی صنعتی – الزویر 2018

ABSTRACT

As industrial systems expand and complex systems are developed, it is no longer effective to minimize hazards and risks for industrial safety using the technological solutions limited to a single industry. Thus, to resolve complicated problems, safety technology has been developed by promoting technology innovation and convergence. In this respect, this study aims at monitoring major safety fields and technologies through patent analysis to identify the trends in technology development that prevent the risks of various industrial systems. Patent information is effectively used for analyzing technology descriptions, which include the purpose and newness of technology. Using this patent information, we propose the major safety fields and related technology keywords using the following two techniques: (1) latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), which aims to extract the latent topics and main keywords contained in documents, and (2) network analysis, which is useful for monitoring change patterns and relations. Further, the convergence trajectories of safety technology are identified to provide insights about the technology trends in safety fields. The results are expected to enable safety managers and engineers to effectively find relevant technology trends for reducing hazardous factors.

Introduction

In recent years, as the size of industrial systems has expanded and advanced technology has been introduced in complex industrial systems, hazardous factors that cause major accidents, such as unstable conditions and behavior, have become complicated (Strauch, 2015). It is no longer effective to minimize these complex industrial risks for industrial safety using conventional approaches that focus on specific problems in an individual industry (Wahlström, 1992). It becomes important to focus on the common safety issues shared across multiple industries (Swuste et al., 2010). In this respect, safety management has been highlighted to reduce the degree of critical risks by achieving “technology convergence” in various industries including machinery, chemistry, manufacturing, and construction (Kokangul et al., 2017; Patriarca et al., 2017). Recently, technological solutions for safety management have been developed by addressing complex factors (Wahlström and Rollenhagen, 2014). As the size of industrial sites is larger and the systems have multifunctional and interactive processes, the risk factors are entangled with the locations, facilities, hazard materials, workers, and environment (Leveson et al., 2009; Reason, 1990; Reiman et al., 2015). For example, in the complex safety systems of smart factory or building information systems, managers have attempted to reduce the faults and accidents through information technology such as Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud network which is capable of sensing physical signals in real time and controlling the movement of facilities in advance. The system innovation through technology convergence is recognized as useful ways for industrial safety (McCray et al., 2010). During the past decade, the importance of technology innovation and convergence has been highlighted in various industries to achieve breakthroughs (Clauss, 2017; Dutta and Hora, 2017; Priem et al., 2017). In fact, many industries lead to emerging industry segments and offer opportunities through technology innovation and convergence (Geum et al., 2016; Song et al., 2017). On one hand, a few industries have focused on improving product development and removing loss due to inefficiency. On the other hand, rather than productivity, safety fields more focus on eliminating hazardous factors and preventing fatal accidents through technology innovation and convergence. By integrating various technological standards, risk management has been also improved simultaneously, such as the international standards of occupational health (OHSAS 18001), environment (ISO 14001), and quality (ISO 9001), in industrial systems (Lafuente and Abad, 2018; Li and Guldenmund, 2018; Oliveira et al., 2017).