SAFETY AUDIT NEW METHOD - 2

Some of the specific auditing checklists are presented below.

ELECTRICAL  EQUIPMENT  SAFETY

On a 1(not safe) to 5 (excellent) scale please assess the main questions, helped by the auxiliary ones (which could be answered with yes/no)

No	Main Question	Auxiliary Question	Your Assessment
1	Safety of Electrical Equipment		1 2 3 4 5
1.1		Are all electrical drawings available and updated ?	Yes No
1.2		Is there a preventive maintenance system in use for regular inspections/testing of all electrical equipment ?	Yes No
1.3		Does this include verification of the electrical installation by a competent authority, e.g. including approved sub-contractors ?	Yes No
1.4		Are safe working practices established for carrying out work on electrical equipment ?	Yes No
1.5		Are the employees working with electricity certified ?	Yes No
1.6		Do these practices include the use of total isolation and locking off electrical components in order to carry out inspection/testing/ maintenance work ?	Yes No
1.7		Are all electrical compounds, HV &LT switch rooms kept locked ?	Yes No
1.8		Is admission to electrical compounds/switch rooms strictly restricted to authorised personnel ?	Yes No
1.9		Are employees advised of the risks associated with electrical equipment ?	Yes No
1.10		Are instructions posted concerning first aid measures in case of electrical accidents ?	Yes No
1.11		Are instructions posted providing information in case of fire in electrical installations ?	Yes No
1.12		Are approved fire extinguishers available for use with electrical equipment ?	Yes No
1.13		Are emergency circuit breakers clearly marked ?	Yes No
1.14		Is the emergency power supply in proper standby condition ?	Yes No
1.15		Is emergency equipment energy source tested regularly, e.g. diesel generator sprinkler systems ?	Yes No
1.16		Are all alarm/trip systems on electrical installations and equipment checked regularly ?	Yes No
1.17		Are all components clearly identified with type and service ?	Yes No
1.18		Is all electrical equipment adequately protected and enclosures secured to prevent accidental contact with live conductors ?	Yes No
1.19		Are all electrical consumers (motors/heaters) equipped with lockable isolation switches ?	Yes No
1.20		Are all motors provided with emergency stop buttons adjacent to the motor ?	Yes No

SAFETY AUDIT NEW METHOD -1

INTRODUCTION

Why a new methodology ? |Because there are a lot of situations in which you want to assess the safety of a specific location without wanting to invest actually very much. Minimal resources should not mean by any circumstances the neglect of safety.

PROPOSED OBJECTIVES

The objective of the safety audit is to evaluate the effectiveness of the company’s safety effort  and make recommendations which lead to a reduction in accidents and minimisation of loss potential. Safety audits are an important part of a company’s control system and these checks ensure that deteriorating standards are detected. Examination of the defects exposed in this review results in hazardous conditions and potential accidents being avoided.

Regular audits should be based on the premise that resources should be made available to identify and eliminate hazards before accidents occur, rather than use the resource of manpower and materials only after injuries and damage to equipment have resulted in human suffering, significant monetary loss which, in certain circumstances, affect the profitability severely.Mistaken belief that management and sites are operating satisfactorily within the requirements of appropriate legislation/regulations and standards/codes of practice is eradicated, and the direct contact with individual workers has as its aim the resultant change in attitude and commitment to the use of safe working practices, which continual involvement and education generate. The safety audits will monitor all activities performed on site, and in particular:

• The basic safety policy and organisation of the company.

• Management commitment and example on safety matters.

• Administration and safety activity.

• Accident reporting and investigation.

• Opportunity of injury – and record of every injury.

• Safety committees.

• Working rules and practices for each company location, including visitors and contractors.

• Compliance with statutory regulations and company standards.

• Behaviour and unsafe acts of personnel and their relationship to compliance with safety rules.

• Activity related certification of employees.

• First Aid certified employees.

• Training needs and activities.

• Hazards review of process equipment for either new or existing facilities.

• Operating procedures.

• Safety work permits.

• Emergency procedures.

METHODOLOGY

The audit system uses as a basis a three sided pyramid shown in the next figure.

Figure 1 The safety audit structure

Facet 1: is represented by Operational Safety Audit

Facet 2: is represented by Management Safety Audit

Facet 3: is represented by Safety Indicators Audit which are also the output of the system.

The checklist is composed by:

-main items, questions or statements- which should be assessed on a 1(not good) to 5 (excellent) scale with the help of

-auxiliary items- which are questions to be answered with yes and no.

If all the auxiliary questions are responded with yes the main question could be assessed at 5.

A evaluation on the 1...5 scale which is below or equal to 3 should be considered as a weak point ,all the evaluations above 3 are giving strong points.

All the weak points should be mitigated.

An average value would be computed for the three facets of the pyramid. The average value of those averages gives the safety value of the audited enterprise, workplace, etc. This safety value could be a very serious warning- for values below 3- as there is no  proper safety inside such unit.

The results should be concentrated in the following tables.

OPERATIONAL SAFETY AUDIT

No	Weak Point Name	Weak Point assessment value at Date:	Proposed measures to improve the Weak Point	Responsible	Weak Point re-assessment value at Date:

MANAGEMENT SAFETY AUDIT

No	Weak Point Name	Weak Point assessment value at Date:	Proposed measures to improve the Weak Point	Responsible	Weak Point re-assessment value at Date:

SAFETY INDICATORS AUDIT

No	Weak Point Name	Weak Point assessment value at Date:	Proposed measures to improve the Weak Point	Responsible	Weak Point re-assessment value at Date:

A systemic approach regarding the improvement of the safety culture- 1

The systemic approach is based on the man-machine system which includes:

-The human operator- which is the main beneficiary of an improved safety culture;

-The task(s) that the human operator is performing- tasks that are designed being focused on safety culture;

-the machine(s)-which are the instruments for task performing; the written instructions for these machines are also safety culture oriented; instead being just a text they are edited being individualized for each human operator understanding level;

-The (work) environment- which is the key for an optimal safety culture development;

Figure 1 presents schematically this system

Figure 1 The man machine system

The systemic approach is respected also in the development of safety culture, like in Figure 2.

Figure 2 Safety culture development phases

There are three main phases, followed by a check-in phase:

-The seed phase- when the instruments and methodologies of safety culture are developed or collected. All the essential instruments and methods must be caught in writing, so that a document regarding safety culture exists. Such documents are mainly safety best practice procedures but could be also other procedures implementing various activities. For example, training is not necessarily safety connected- but a continuous risk assessment-training procedure is a must for every healthy safety culture; the seed phase could be also mapped on the safety trophic chain on the first level of the chain- that of individual safety. The human operator is trained individually first.

-The prototype phase- when the seeds are implemented in one or several workplaces- for all the components of the man-machine system; in this phase the main safety culture components are tested against the real workplace and also against the human operators. An alpha feedback is recorded from the human operator and-by the safety practician- from the man-machine system in his integrity. For example, at a workplace the human feedback was OK but tasks were constantly not designed in the spirit of safety culture- the analysis showing that the task designers were taking safety as granted.

If the safety culture implementation is not passing the societal approval test it must be re-designed from the beginning. The failure of the societal test means that even if the safety culture was designed with the best intentions in mind- the impact upon the employees is none or minimal- so it is not usable in a specific environment. It is the manager job to decide if he changes the environment or re-designs the safety culture in order to fit the human dimension. 

-The product phase.