Determining best controls on occupational risks using the best-worst method in an Indonesian furniture company Available to Purchase

Work safety is an essential aspect that must be seriously paid attention to. However, this issue is often ignored in Indonesia due to many factors, especially its implementation in small and medium scale industries. Accordingly, a more structured and applicable risk assessment is strongly necessary. This study aims to introduce occupational risk assessment integrating the traditional approach and multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique. A case study in the medium-sized furniture manufacturer situated in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, is selected involving three decision-makers (DMs), who are: senior staff, head of the production section, and certified occupational health and safety (OHS) expert. The traditional risk assessment method is proposed to identify and analyze the risks, whilst the best-worst method (BWM) is developed to determine the best control strategies. The result indicates that there are five critical risks of 12 occupational risks that have been considered. Then, based on the controls’ optimal weights screened using the α-cut value, the control personal protective equipment (PE) is the best control to reduce all critical risks followed by administrative controls (AC) and engineering controls (EC). Meanwhile, the AC is effectively recommended to mitigate chemical risks. Meanwhile, the AC is effectively recommended to mitigate chemical risks. Despite the understandable decision-making process, further study is encouraged to consider the hazard risks such as biological and psychosocial risks to lead to broad discussion.