Literature review on the incentives and solutions for the bypassing of guards and protective devices on machinery

Abstract Bypassing guards and protective devices on machinery can lead to serious and fatal accidents. The aim of this paper is to conduct a comprehensive review that sheds light on the definition of bypassing, related regulations and standards, workers’ incentives to bypass, and possible solutions to overcome this issue. The review generated 72 incentives to bypass guards and protective devices and 82 solutions. Some of the most frequent incentives included the necessity to remove safeguards in order to perform activities (e.g. adjustment, troubleshooting, maintenance, and installation), a lack of visibility, failures and a lack of reliability of the safeguards. This literature analysis suggests classifying the incentives into five categories: ergonomics, productivity, machine or safeguarding, behavior, and corporate climate. The solutions, which are related to the design, manufacturing, and usage phases, are classified into technical, organizational, and individual factors. These are all factors that influence the prevention of bypassing. The review shows that there is a lack of an integrated tool to prevent bypassing. This paper serves as a foundation to develop such a tool, as well as to provide useful insights into the incentives for bypassing, as well as preventive solutions that could be used as a guideline for researchers and OHS preventionists.