The certification and implementation of occupational health and safety management systems have become a priority for many organizations. To investigate the status of implementing occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMSs), and to explore important performance indicators for OHSMSs' performance appraisal in the printed circuit board (PCB) industry in Taiwan, a survey was administered to eleven PCB manufacturers, all of which have been certified as compliant to the guidelines on OHSMS of the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001, and to twenty-six OHSAS specialists from the academe. The results of the survey indicated that the implementation of OHSAS 18001 in the PCB industries was motivated externally by customer requirement, and internally by corporate image and top management requirements. The most critical factor for the success of OHSAS implementation was top management's commitment and support while the main reason of its failure was poor collaboration among company personnel. For OHSMSs' performance evaluation, the frequency of unsafe conduct by employees, the level of top management's commitment, the completion rate of corrective and preventive measures, the frequency of subcontractor rule violations and the level of fire-fighting system are significant performance indicators for condition, management and operation aspects. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.