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The Task Inventory Priority Survey (or TIPS for short) is an analysis of the activities preformed by a worker during the normal day. All of these activities are rated on a three tier system. Each tier is an indicator as to the danger that this activity places to the individual performing the task or the facility the task is being done in. These activities are items such as, but not limited to, the use of a step ladder, the open and replacing of a ceiling tile, inputting data on a computer, checking a bearing on a fan, checking a bearing on a motor, checking a bearing on a pump, greasing those same bearings

The form is filled out as follows:

1. Write down, in the column called TASKS, every activity performed during a period of time. It may take several weeks to find all of the activities that you do. Take your time. Keep the sheet handy and at the end of each day, write down anything that you have done that day that is not on the sheet. You can also keep track of the number of times you have performed that activity each day. If you do it three times each day then write 3/1 in the FREQUENCY PERFORMED column. If it is only done once over the survey and the survey takes three weeks then it would be 17.33333/52 (52 divided by 3). Once a month would be 1/12.

2. Once you have made your list, now you have to decide how hazardous your activities are. At the top of the form is an explanation of the three hazard classifications. They are as follows:
   Class 3 Hazard:
   A condition or practice likely to cause permanent disability, loss of life or body part and/or extensive loss of structure, equipment or material. What does that mean? Let say you are working on a fan and the fan starts because it is not locked out properly. If you hand is in the machine when it starts, losing your hand would be a permanent disability. If that same fan starts and you have the fan blower locked in a static place, the motor attempting to turn that blower would bum out, damage the blower or snap a belt or drive shaft. These things would be an extensive loss of structure, equipment or material. Blowing up a boiler due to an improper start-up sequence would be a Class 3 damage.

   Class 2 Hazard:

   A condition or practice likely to cause serious injury or illness (temporary disability) and/or property damage that is disruptive but less severe than Class 3 hazards. Again, what does that mean? Let say you are working on a ladder. If the ladder is only a six foot, the distance you might fall would be enough to cause a broken bone or a concussion (temporary disability) as opposed to a fall from a fourteen foot ladder resulting in a major head injury, coma or even death. In the example of the boiler above, if all that the activity caused was for a pipe for start leaking then the damage would be a Class 2.

   Class 1 Hazard:

   A condition or practice likely to cause minor (non-disabling) injury and/or property damage that is not disruptive. Essentially, this is an activity that is something was to go wrong would cause a minor incident without much damage to the property (a wet carpet, a stained floor, the need for a part change but not causing the lose of the use of the equipment). Typing at a computer for 20 years may cause Carpel Tunnel Syndrome but your fingers aren't going to get amputated by the keyboard.

3. Now comes the calculation portion of the process. It is where you take the activities you perform and the danger that is involved and you figure out which one you are most at risk from in your work environment. The first thing you have do is make all the activities have the same ratio. It would work as follow:

   3/1	An activity done 3 times a day/ 365 days a year would be 3
   17.333/52	An activity done once every three weeks would be 0.0474885 (17.333/365)
   1/12	An activity done once a month would be 0.0328767 (12/365)
   1/13	An activity done once every three months would be 0.0109589 (4/365)

4. Then you multiply that by the Class of hazard.
   • Class 3 Hazard on an activity done once a month = 3(the class) X 0.0328767 (the frequency) = 0.0986
     
   • Class 2 Hazard on an activity done once every 13 weeks = 2(the class) X 0.0109589 (the frequency) = 0.0219
     
   • Class 2 Hazard on an activity done every three weeks = 2 (the class) X 0.0474885 (the frequency) = 0.6667

   As you can see the third activity has a higher degree of hazard factor and therefore is more dangerous than the other two. Even thought the first activity is a Class 3 hazard, it has a lower score than the other two because it is only done once a month. The results would be placed in the column called PRIORITY SCORE

5. Once all of the tasks have been catalogued and scored, then you can begin to prioritize them. The ones with the highest score would be placed first and the lowest score placed last. If two tasks have the same score, then the Class of Hazard would be the deciding factor. If they both have the same Hazard Class, then either one can go first. Those numbers go in the column called CTA PRIORITY. A CTA stands for a CRITICAL TASK ANALYSIS and will be covered on the instructions for that form.