Increasing Safety Expertise in Service Companies (TUOKIO)

In the TUOKIO project, expertise in safety design and responsibility was enhanced for businesses, supporting their ability to develop safe and responsible services for their customers. The project combined design and business expertise with a focus on safety and responsibility. The target group primarily included micro and small businesses offering recreational, well-being, program, and cultural services in Northern Ostrobothnia.

Concrete tools for the development of safety and responsibility for businesses were produced and refined in the project. Workshops and training sessions were designed and implemented according to the needs of the target group, bringing together the customers and businesses of the target group for collaborative development. The project actively emphasized the customer perspective of target businesses, developing safety and responsibility in a customer-oriented manner.

The project concluded in October 2023.

The main objective of the TUOKIO project was to increase the expertise of micro and small businesses in safety design, enabling them to develop existing or new safe and responsible services for their customers. Supporting this, the sub-objectives included defining areas of safety design expertise, acquiring up-to-date information on design tools, utilizing and applying existing and modified design thinking tools, identifying opportunities to make safety visible at different stages of service, and helping produce high-quality services from the perspective of responsibility, thereby strengthening the competitiveness of businesses. The project also aimed to disseminate safety design practices.

Project activities included analyzing training needs and benchmarking the latest research data, methods, and tools related to safety design. Workshops and thematic training sessions on safety and responsibility were conducted, as well as communication and project administration.

The project brought new expertise and knowledge to the business sector for developing their operations: businesses’ expertise in safety design increased, providing knowledge about the possibilities of applying safety design in the development of service-oriented businesses. Companies received new tools for daily use, allowing them to examine their services from the perspectives of responsibility and safety. Additionally, the project supported networking among businesses, peer learning, and collaboration between businesses and educational institutions.

The TUOKIO project was implemented by Oulu University of Applied Sciences from March 1, 2022, to October 31, 2023. The project was funded by the European Social Fund and the Centre for Economic Development, Transport, and the Environment of Northern Ostrobothnia.