e-HIRARC Tool for Brick Laboratory in Civil Engineering Department at TVET (Technical and Vocational Education Training) Campus

Malaysia Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) campuses in Malaysia are hands-on practices that are common to the student with accommodate many laboratories. From the fundamentals to the high-end laboratories, there might be possibilities for the lab supervisor, lecturers, and students to get involved in the accident. Previously, risk assessment in a laboratory was carried out manually, with an inexperienced person conducting and carrying out risk assessment without a good guide. As a result of the range of formats, consumption times, unstructured, and unorganized, risk assessment output only sometimes meets the desired quality. Safety management techniques with thorough risk assessment must be adopted in laboratories at the TVET campus. Due to that, this study’s main objective is to develop an e-HIRARC tool for the Brick Laboratory at the TVET campus. The specific objectives of this study are to establish an e-HIRARC tool customized for Brick Laboratory at the TVET campus and validate via case studies. This research performed an occupational safety and health assessment in the Occupational Safety and Health Management System (OSHMS) based on a method called Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment, and Risk Control (HIRARC). Beginning with the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) guided e-HIRARC framework, the content validity for items conducted involving safety experts. Both experts are satisfied with most of the items included in the developed e-HIRARC tool, with the Core Value Index (CVI) values being more significant than 0.8 as an acceptable value. From that, the e-HIRARC tool is developed using Visual Basic Application (VBA) in Microsoft Excel. The tool has been used as a case study by the brick lab in charge as end-users. It was found that the average System Usability Scale (SUS) score was 72.6, with acceptability ranges ranging from “Acceptable” to “High.” The “C” scale with a “Good” rating on the model adjectives. This outcome indicates that an e-HIRARC tool is acceptable to its users and meets or exceeds usability criteria. According to the strongest user sentiments, the tool was well-integrated, consistent, and easy to learn. The e-HIRARC tool can be used best in creating an effective OSHMS in the laboratory at all the TVET campuses.