i) Eliminate the hazards: It is the most effective control to bring the risk at negligible level but in most of the cases it is impracticable and difficult to implement in existing system/process. It may be implemented during designing phase but still it may not be cost effective.
ii) Substitute the hazards: This risk control method is very effective and may be implemented in existing process and most effectively implemented during designing stage but is expensive. Substituting the highly hazardous substance/chemical with less or nonhazardous one having same functionality without adverse the plant process is good idea.
iii) Isolate the hazard: This risk control method is mostly used by all organizations and effective method for reducing the risk level by isolating the hazard. It provides the barrier between hazard and occupant or working peoples. Machine guarding is the best example of isolating the hazard.
iv) Use engineering controls: Engineering control helps to remove the hazard at the source thus controlling exposures to the peoples in the workplace. It provides the independent high level of protection to the occupants as it prevents the direct interactions with them.
v) Use administrative controls: It is less effective method of risk control and depends on human behaviour and organizational safety culture. It is adopted when there is no effective method suitable to reduce the hazard. It is time consuming and requires more effort to implement and sustain.
vi) Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): It is considered as last resort or last line of defense and should not be considered during risk management. But still it is important as it provide the barrier between hazard and workmen after failure of all above controls.
3) Safety assurance
As safety is sate or condition in which the risk is reduced to and maintained at or below acceptable level through continuous process of hazard identification and risk assessment, and subject to change with changes in work environment, safety assurance component of safety management system helps to evaluate the effectiveness of risk management. It helps to evaluate the effectiveness and relevancy of implemented controls over the hazards. It also supports to identify the new hazards due to changes in the work environment.
Safety assurance includes;
i. Safety performance monitoring and measurement
ii. Incident investigation
iii. The management of change
iv. Assurance of legal requirements
v. Inspection, monitoring, measurement, audits and effectiveness of corrective actions.
vi. Continual improvement
It is continuous practice to ensuring the controls over risk. It also helps to identify the problems/ defect proactively so that corrective measures can be taken to prevent non compliance or incidents.
4) Safety promotion
This component of safety management system is more related to create and improve the safety culture of an organization at all level. It includes
i. Training, education and competency
ii. Safety communication and awareness
iii. Participation & Consultation
i. Training, education and competency
If the workforce is competent for the tasks or work assigned to them, there is less risk to incident/accident. Competence is something related to individual qualification, skill and experience in particular subject or task. Training and education help to improve the skill of the individual. The organization must maintain the record and consider this factor during new recruitment. The identification of training need should be carried out annually on the basis of gap analysis. Line mangers/ supervisors must provide input to HR department by identifying the gap for training needs. Based on training need identification of the individual worker, HR or training department should organize the relevant training program to enhance the competency of workforce.
Safety management system training
Here are the two main factors that the organization may consider when developing health and safety training programs.
A. Safety and health mandatory trainings: Training on risk management, emergency and response plan, firefighting, HSE policy, general operational risks, permit to work, etc.
Below training programs should be considered as mandatory.
- HSE Induction
- Training on Firefighting and other emergency procedures.
- First-aid Training
- Accident and incident reporting procedures.
- Training on Personal protective equipment requirements.
- Introduction to the safe systems of work and permit systems.
- Introduction to the risk assessment system.
- Traffic safety and security systems
B. Technical training/ Skills development training:
- Training on operating / maintenance procedures
- Training on method statements,
- Occupational health and hygiene monitoring,
- Plant and machine operation related
- Incident investigation
- Training on HAZOP, etc
ii. Safety communication and awareness
The organization must establish and implement the appropriate means, methods / procedures for effective communication in order to make its staff / workers aware of health and safety.
Safety communication can take many forms and helps the organization develop and improve the positive safety culture. Here are the main modes of safety communication generally used in industries.
a) Oral safety communication
b) Written safety communication
c) Graphical or pictorial safety communication
There are many ways and forums to communicate health and safety information to workers and improve their level of awareness.
i) Safety and health induction must be interlocked with gate pass/ security pass process where general workplace hazards and company rules can be communicated. Awareness on company safety and health policy is mandatory for all staff and workers including visitors.
ii) Conduct daily safety toolbox talk before start of any work.
iii) safety Picture/poster/visual aid is the best way to communicate the desired message as there is no barriers of languages. Safety signage should be displayed at prominent locations to cautions or alert workmen.
iv) Email/ newsletter in local languages, display on notice board, etc
v) Conduct regular meeting to share the HSE information.
vi) Organize training with video aids.
vii) Arranged weekly/monthly motivational programs for rewarding with small token and communicate the desired messages on health and safety.
viii) Carry out routine inspections and advice safe work procedure on spot.
ix) Share incident/ accident case studies.
x) Develop safety handbook and distribute to staff and workers during safety induction, etc
The most important safety information to provide to workers is about the health and safety risks identified in their risk assessments and the essential precautionary and protective measures to control the risks. It must be specific to their work activities. Other important information to make the workmen fully aware on safety and health should be;
Awareness on safe evacuation procedure, company HSE policy and other rules, Operating / maintenance / inspection / HSE procedures and safe work practices, General hazards and risk in the workplace Ex. Information on H2S must be communicated to everyone in the oil and gas industries, the location of welfare facilities, safe movement around the workplace, worker consultation arrangements, general safety rules, welfare facilities, etc.
iii. Participation & Consultation
Employee participation and consultation is a very important aspect of the safety management system for developing a positive safety culture in the organization. It helps motivate workers through empowerment, that is, they will feel ownership of safety and health and thus contributes to improving their safety behavior. They will start participating in the safety initiative and the improvement program. Consulting workers on the decision-making process encourages their interest and ownership of health and safety.
ILO-C155, article 12 and ILO-R164, article 20 provide detailed guidance on worker participation and consultation. It has been observed that in some countries the employer is required to consult their workers on health and safety issues, so this is a legal obligation. In many countries, it is not legal requirements, still they have consult to their workers on below safety issues.
a) Any changes in the existing safety control measures which may affect the safety and health of the workers.
b) Employer must consult the workers while appointing safety practitioner.
c) When employer is developing the safety and health training plans, he must consult the workers.
d) Before introduction of new process or technology that may affect the safety and health of workers in workplace. etc.
Example of safety management system
The basic framework of safety management system is common in all types of industries. Hazardous industries must develop a robust safety management system by identifying all workplace hazard including hazards associated with their routine and nonroutine activities for sustainable business. Identification of all type of hazards i.e hazards associated with plant equipment, process, chemicals, activities, job factor and human factors provide the solid base for risk assessment and to develop the accident prevention programs.
To know more about type of hazards and safety, you may click here
To framework the robust safety management system, organizations must assess their safety and health requirements based on their associated hazards, type of neighboring industries, neighboring communities and all other stakeholder. Quantitative risk assessment (QRA) and environment impact assessment study (EIA) may be considered as input for developing any safety management system.
Here are some safety management system examples framed by different international agencies.
a) The International Labor Organization (ILO), United nations agency, provides the basic guideline on framework of safety management system in ILO-OSH 2001.
b) OHSAS-18001, Occupation health and safety management system introduced by British and Polish standard (from 1999 to 2018)
c) ISO-45001: occupational safety and health management system framed by international organization for standardization. It is more related to certification purpose.
d) OSHA, The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration also provide the framework and guidelines on safety management system
e) HS(G)65, provide the framework and guidelines on safety management system by British Health and Safety Executive.
All standards are providing the guideline on safety management system, adoption of standards is purely based on the type of industries or business and their location countries.
Safety management system in aviation industry
Federal aviation administration (FAA) provide the detail knowledge and awareness on aviation safety management system. The framework of aviation safety management system is similar to SMS explained in above part of this article.
As the hazard exposure to number of occupants (peoples/passenger in aircraft) is higher and consequences may be more significant, high level of safety management system with zero tolerance in compliance is required.
The major challenges in aviation safety management system is to manage the sudden changes in weather or extreme weather condition which is out of human control.
Human factor is very important in aviation safety management system to facilitate quick precise decision by pilot and traffic control operator in crisis scenarios.
The aviation industry has evolved over the years and maintaining the highest safety standards. Aviation safety management system helps to follow a continuous process of improvement in air safety.
To ensure continual improvement in aviation safety management system, below major factors must be assured effectively.
i. Incident/accidents investigation and accident causation theory
ii. Positive safety culture
iii) Human factors.
In the early years of aviation in the 1950s there were several numbers of aircraft accident happened frequently and investigating team believed that improvement in technology and focusing on technical reliability would be able to reduce the number of accidents. Thus, in earlier days, peoples were more focused on technical upgradation but after improvements in technology, accidents still continue to happened.
Then in the 1970s, the focus shifted to human factors and quality management, which had a stress on standardization and consistency, but even that it didn’t succeed to prevent the accidents although quality management did reduce the number of accidents.
In 1996 , the aviation industry looked at accident causation through the prism of James reasons theory that accidents are not the result of a single factor but a chain of events. Then the attention of the airline industry tern to focus on human factor and they understood that people can react to the same situation differently based on their thoughts, experiences and state of mind.
Here the basic concept emerge that the entire aviation organization is responsible for any accident or inversely the entire organization may contribute to stoppage of an accident.
In earlier days, another major factor in accident investigation approaches was they more emphasis for answers to “what happened”, “when did it happen” and “who is to blame”. But presently, investigation team is emphasizing on “how it happened” and “why it happened”. Thus, blame culture finished and more focused on ensuring that it should not happen again and aimed at improvement of aviation safety management system.
After implementation of safety management system, aviation industries able to manage the continual improvement of safety standards and processes has brought number of aircraft crashes down.
Safety management system software
Safety management system software in form of e-tool may be more useful in current situations as it provides the best industrial practices related to your type of industry. These software’s provide different module based practical assistance on safety performance monitoring and its trend and monitoring and measurement of return on safety investment.
Safety management system software may help for measuring, monitoring and communicating the information on
a) Management of change
b) Risk assessment, gas dispersion modeling, etc
c) Environment impact assessment
d) Crises management and mass communication
e) Incident reporting and investigation
f) Audit management
f) legal compliances
g) Workplace inspection and reporting of unsafe conditions
h) industrial hygiene survey.
i) Health monitoring of workers/ staff and maintaining master data
j) Safety communications and safety alert,
k) Workers stress monitoring and record keeping, etc
Below is the list of safety management software available in market
i) Ensure compliance – Pharmacovigilance audits: it provides the software services for audit management in Pharma industries.
ii) Crises Control software: This software is for crises communication and helps organizations to notify the emergency call in fastest way.
iii) incy.io: This software helps organization to manage its incident reporting and investigation system. It also assist for follow-up actions and handle root cause analysis.
iv) Safety Management Software by ASK: It is a multi-featured software help management to manage all aspect of safety management system requirements by managing real-time EHS records and compliances on fingertips.
v) QUENTIC safety management software: It help management to maintain the documentation and assess the risks, determine safeguards, reduce the potential for accidents and hazards to health. It is suitable for any small, medium or large industries and built according to OHSAS 18001 and new ISO 45001.
vi) EHS management software: It help to manage all aspect of safety management system including risk assessment, incident reporting and investigation.
Safety management system template
Here you can find different safety management templates which we are continuously updating, all these templates are free, you can download and use for your organization
i) Incident investigation checklist
ii) Incident investigation report template
iii) Near-miss report
iv) Portable power tool inspection
v) Job safety analysis format
vi) HSE induction format
Role of Safety specialist in Safety Management
System
It is legal requirement in almost all countries
that organizations (considering the number of employees/workers) must have
access to appropriate competent people to give them health and safety advice.
These safety specialists or "safety practitioners" may work within
the organization or may be brought in from outside as consultant. They are
responsible for giving correct advice to the organization so that the
organization can comply its legal obligations and achieve its policy objective
& targets.
Their roles and responsibilities are:
- Providing advice and guidance in implementation of
SMS & health and safety standards.
- Promoting a positive health and safety culture.
- Advising management on accident prevention,
accident reporting and investigations.
- Developing and implementing policy.
- Directing the development of adequate risk
assessments.
- Identifying training needs.
- Monitoring health and safety performance.
Other than above, He must guide management to
maintain below health and safety records
- PPEs issue register.
- Record of statutory training and
skill development.
- Record of workers competency.
- Record of workers health and safety
violation and disciplinary actions.
- Record of workers medical fitness
and periodic medical check.
- Record of Hazard and risk
assessment and communication to workers, etc
Safety Specialist/ practitioners competency
Safety practitioners must be qualified and experienced
in health and safety. Below framework of their competency is suggested.
very informative
ReplyDeletenice one
ReplyDeleteThis is a very informative and well explained article. The history of the safety management system made for an interesting read. How many of us are aware of the facts behind the implementation of SMS? I, for one, had no idea about these things. It is nice to learn something new every day! My brother lives in the US now, but earlier he worked for one of the top Ups battery dealers in Chennai .
ReplyDeleteThanks for a compliment
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