The Policy as a Very Important Part of the Safety of Any Company - Essay Example

My company’s name is White Wine Distillers. It is abbreviated W.W.D. for quicker attraction to customers .It is under wine and alcohol production industries. It is located in a major industrial area in a big city .The company is concerned with production of wines and alcoholic beverages to cater for the needs of the rising number of customers in the city. This company was established in the year 1960 and it was initially owned by a South African tycoon before transferring the ownership to Twin brothers who own the company up to date. The company has been making an annual sale of 100,000 US Dollars. The company is currently having a total of one hundred and fifty employees. It is headed by a manager and it has the following departments; production, sales and marketing, human resource, occupational safety and sales promotion department. The company faces stiff competition, but it has maintained 50% market share for many years. This competitive advantage has made the company to maintain a lead above its rivals and by extension; plans are underway to diversify the company by introduction of nonalcoholic drinks into to the market. The company has been vigorously advertising its products through billboards, radios and televisions as well as giving sales promotion to its customers. It is a progressive company with a very great future. The company intends to extend its market through export of its products in its next strategic plan. Health and Safety System Using POPMAR Framework for White Wine Distillers  To produce a health and safety system for my company White Wine Distillers, am required to adhere to the lines recommended by the HSE requirement as indicated in HSG65 by making use of the elements of POPMAR .The purpose of the system is to give guidance to the organization and to facilitate HSE inspectors assess the on goings of the health management and most important the safety of the employees during working hours.  To produce a health and safety system for the company, there is a requirement to adhere to the lines recommended by the HSE document HSG65. A health and safety management contains an organizational structure, procedures, planning activities, maintenance, evaluation, reviewing and achieving. In an effort to making this possible, the following elements of POPMAR must be considered. A policy is a legal statement that indicates that an organization has the will and mandate to protect its staff by being highly committed to improving the standards of Health and Safety. The policy is believed to have an effect that has a practical impact to the staff. So, it should always be up to date bearing a valid signature from the manager. The policy is supposed to be treated as independent so that it does not cause conflict of interest with other organization policies (Jefford & Swain, 2006, p. 53). It should set clear guidelines for risk assessments, risk control and health. Organization involves an act of assigning duties in an effort to know who does what and who works where this is promoted by deciding the specific role for each employee. These duties include assessment of risks, completion of risks, investigation of accidents and compliance monitoring. It also encompasses securing of a healthy culture that is positive so as to achieve control, cooperation, communication and competence to meet health safety (Salis, 2011, p. 29). Control is an act of monitoring performance to ensure that the Health Safety standards established are assessed. The senior managers lead by example through attending trainings and participating fully in asking health safety related questions. Managers accept their duties by making a c lose follow up to ensure that mistakes are amended to avoid future mistakes and employees made to know where they went wrong. Planning involves determination of future cause of action whereby the manager must know what to do ,who is to do, where it is to be done and who is to do it .It involves laying down strategies to prioritize all actions because it can proof difficult to do things at once. In this case managers are involved with a team of well trained staff to avoid the fear of unknown .In order to effect planning, both short term and long term plans must be integrated .The health safety risks that are urgent are catered for first. Likewise purchasing policies must put into consideration the need to buy items which require urgent use to cater for safety. Finally, implementation should be effective to avoid impediment and incomplete review of risk assessments Measuring Performance involves active monitoring of proceedings to ensure work is perfected. It also involves ensuring that procedures, policies and risk assessment are compiled practically. The measurement is based on two forms of measurements which are both qualitative and quantities. Qualitative is subjective while quantitative is measurable. These inspections should be done early in time to reach a justifiable conclusion so as to know whether the risk has been reduced to a desirable level. Where mistakes are noted, a quick correction should be made to avoid the risk becoming bigger. In case of injuries, near misses or property damage, quick assessments should be carried out and the right remedy prioritized. Where necessary, changes can be made immediately to avoid a repeat of the same mistakes. Auditing is normally undertaken by an external agent who is not part of the organization. A qualified and experienced person should be invited who is independent of the section of subject. He should ensure that the health safety management is achieving the right objectives and the policy is up to date and its dictates obeyed. In reviewing, the organization ought to learn from its past experience how to improve performance and respond to change. It should be done at all levels so that it can include a collective analysis which includes judgments total data collected after a given period of time to be in a position to identify trends and causes of any risk encountered. Communication It involves keeping in touch at all time to the relevant parties .It is effected through free and fair communication from manager to the staff. The manager is to make sure that information accessed by the staff is free of distortion. Effective communication also entails giving relevant information on result of risks involved assessments and policies. RIDDOUR Assessment Form According to Sallis (2011) RIDDOR stands for Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations. It is a legal obligation for all the employees in an organization to report all work related incidents. These may take the form of work place deaths, injuries, 7-day injuries, diseases and all the dangerous occurrences. This is supposed to help the health and Safety executives carry out effective research that will prevent these incidents and accidents from occurring (EAAS, 2003). Report An Injury or Dangerous Occurrence This form must be filled by an employer or other responsible person Part A: About You 1. What is your name? 2. What is your job title? Bottling Section Supervisor 3. What is your telephone number? 4. What is the name of your organization? White Wine Distillers 5. What is its address and postal code 6. What type of work does the organization do? Production of Wines and Alcohol Part B: about the accident 1. On what date did the incident happen? 2. At what time did the incident happen? (please use the 24 hrs. system e.g. 0020hrs) 3. Did the incident happen at the above address? Yes (go to question 4) No (where did the incident happen) 4. In which department or where on the premises? Part C About the injured If you are reporting a dangerous occurrence, go to part F. if more than one person was injured in the same incident, please attach the details asked for in part C and D for each injured person. 1. What is their full name? Samuel Johnson 2. What is their home address and postcode? 3. What is their home phone number? 4. How old are they? 40 years 5. Are they (please tick appropriately) ×Male Female 6. What is their job title? Bottler 7. Was the injured person ×One of the employees On training scheme On work experience Employed by someone else (give details of the employer) Part D: About the injury 1. What was the injury? Cut by a broken piece of bottle 2. What part of the body was injured? Hand 3. Was the injury A fatality ×A major injury or a condition ×A condition that caused more than 3 days loss to work 4. Did the injured person Become unconscious Need resuscitation ×Remain in hospital for more than 24 hours Part E: About The Kind Of Accident Please tick the box that best describes what happened ×Contact with moving object or material being machined ×Hit by moving , flying or falling object Hit by a moving vehicle Hit by something fixed or stationery Injured while handling, lifting or carrying Slipped and fell on the same level Fell from a height Trapped by something falling Drowned or asphyxiated Exposed to a harmful substance Contact with electricity or electrical object Injured by an animal Physically assaulted by a person Another kind of accident (describe) Part F: Dangerous Occurrences Enter the number of dangerous occurrences you are reporting (the numbers are given in the regulations and the notes which accompany this form) Part G: Describing What Happened (Give as much detail as possible). For instance: The name of any substance involved The name and type of any machine involved The event that led to the incident The part played by any people If it was a personal injury, give the details of what the person was doing Describe any action that has since been taken to prevent similar incident. Use a separate piece of paper if you need to. It was in the corking section and the corking machine missed the alignment with the bottle top hitting it on the side. The bottle broke into pieces and the impact caused a direct elevation to the hand of Mr. Johnson. Some of the pieces of the bottle chips remained engorged in the flesh on the hands of the victim. There are a lot of improvements that have been made to make sure the same incident does not occur. The accident was caused by a lag in the conveyor belt putting the bottles in position. To this effect, all the conveyor belts and support bases to make sure that there are no future lags. So far there are therefore no similar accidents that occur in the company since the happening of the incident involving Mr. Johnson Part H: Your signature For Official Use Client Number Location Number Event Number Source of RIDDOR document: Employee Accident Management Software, 2003 Avoiding Similar Accidents Happening in Future The first step would be to fix up the problems .For instance, in the bottling section , cases of broken pieces of glass used for making bottles could pose a risk to employees. These broken glasses can injure employees. So the company would provide protective clothing like laboratory coats, goggles, closed pair of shoes and gloves. This would also involve restricting some people access to some areas like the production section where accidents are highly likely to occur. This would also involve sensitizing employees on proper handling of objects likely to cause accidents (Whittingham, 2008, p. 282). The second step would involve writing down procedures .Some accidents occur following ignorance, negligence, curiosity and familiarity. In an effort to avoid this, the company would ensure that all procedures pertaining to operations carried out in the premises during working hours are clearly defined and trained supervisors allocated to each working station to ensure an accident free working environment (Mathis & Jackson, 2010, p. 485). All findings should be recorded to serve as a reference in case of a repeat of an uncalled for hazard .The Company would also make it a policy that all experiments both old and new should never be carried out without use of manual as a guide. The third step would be to identify all hazards are .Work out how these hazards may arise .For instance; some hazards may arise during transportation of bottles, capping or filling. Other causes of risks could be industrial chemicals that may spill on an employee and trip hazards. So having identified these risks, it would be possible to arrive at a lasting solution (Whittingham, 2008, p. 283). Some of the solutions would include use of trolleys when transporting glass objects. On the other hand, trip hazards could be avoided by use of flooring material that will offer comfort to the personnel that is a material that is not slippery to minimize falls. An Outline of the Event in Your Own Words The Chernobyl nuclear plant accident happened in 1986 in Ukraine. An accident that caused mass destruction due emission of nuclear materials to the atmosphere was experienced. In this accident, the effects of the activities that took place and the emissions caused more damage than the instant explosion itself. On that day, the operators at the plant started conducting some experiments that were deemed unauthorized. In a deliberate move, they circumvented the systems that were supposed to sensitively take care of the safety of the plant. This was aimed at learning more about the systems and how the slight changes would alternate the general operation of the plant. During this experiment, one of the reactors overheated and the water coolant that it contains splashed into a strong steam. This stem generated hydrogen which reacted with the moderator made of graphite. This caused two major explosions and a big fire due to the fact that the chemical characteristic of hydrogen is that of burning with a pop sound. The fire caused the core to undergo a partial meltdown. The lid of the reactor, which is made up of 1000 tones materials was blown up and apart by the explosion. The open reactor caused tones of nuclear materials to be blown up into the atmosphere putting all the people to a distance of 1000 square miles at risk of the effects. 50 tones of the fuel for the reactor was thrown into the atmosphere as well as the around 10% of the graphite material. 31 people, mostly those who were trying to put out the fire succumbed to death as a result of exposure to the radioactive material as well as the effects of the fire itself. More than 200 other people who were directly involved in creation of a safe place by fighting the spread of the radioactive materials succumbed as well or were seriously affected by long term illnesses. The Immediate Causes The immediate causes of the accident have been a source of controversy to an extent that there were theories that were brought forward to explain the reality. However, the immediate causes are related with the procedures that were being carried out at the plant just before the accident occurred. There are five key procedures that were carried and possibly gears towards an explanation of the cause of the accident. The first immediate cause is the operating the reactor at an operating reactivity surplus that is very low. The reactor is known to have a positive void co-efficient that is very large. Therefore, a slight mistake in the steam flow would be very disastrous if not handled clearly well. The void was not immediately compensated by other control factors and this made the reaction to continue. Given the fast pace at which it reacts, there was little the operators could do to control the spread of the fires and the explosions. The second cause was the conduction of the tests below the power given by the pre-determined conditions. The reactor power was supposed to be reduced so that there is a safe haven for the experiment that was supposed to be done. However, there was a lapse in the timing of the time for reducing the power and this caused a rapid drop in the power creating a high negative fault in the efficient flow of the power. The operators reduced the power at a very fast pace and this caused a big shock in the reaction operations. Another cause resulted from the switching off of the core cooling system. This was supposed to supply low temperatures to the reactor. The switching off was done therefore causing an abrupt heating up of the reactor hence the explosion. Moreover, there was connection of all the circulation pumps to the reactors which caused a simultaneous mix of all the components that could be avoided at the moment. The Underlying Causes As stated in the immediate causes, the effects of the accident went a long way in the creation of high level effects even to the citizens as far as neighboring country Belarus. Therefore, the underlying causes of the accident are related to the precautions that were not taken before the accident occurred. For instance, there is said to be an ethical dilemma between the operating personalities and the management of that section. Such sensitive and fragile areas are supposed to be operated on the basis of mutual consent without coercion. The experiment to verify the ability of adding more technological inputs to the development of the machine before the normal routine maintenance exercise was not said to be an issue of common cooperation. The second problem was the design features of the reactor plant. There was no containment building in or around the plant. The effects that were caused by the accident went a long way in destroying a very large part of the Chernobyl area and a wall would have prevented the flow. Secondly, the design as an underlying cause is sufficient enough to bring the whole plant down. There was a big flaw in the design of the control rods at the reactor. In common nuclear plants, the control rods are inserted into the reactor so that the rate of reaction is slowed down. However, in this case, there was a combination of materials that were used to make the control rods so that in case there is any slight leakage or problem, there would be a high sense of reactivity that would be fatal as this was. It is not an issue that happens once but there is a period of time that the accident takes to happen based on the compactness of the materials used to make the rods. The accident was therefore triggered by a design failure which affected several parts of the reactor. Elements of POPMAR not implemented There are elements of POPMAR that were not followed which led to the accident occurring at the plant. Policy is a very important part of the safety of any company. In this case, there must have been bending of the rules so that a situation of convenience is created. When there was a realization that time had passed and the operators had not started the reduction of the current to the reactor and its gadgets. It should be the policy of the company and the management to try and regenerate other strategies of doing the same thing instead of bending the rules to create a fast paced result. Reviewing is a component of POPMAR that was not implemented. In view of the Hiroshima bombing by America, the effects were so severe that such an event happening again was supposed to be avoided at all costs. Therefore, laxity in regenerating the effects of the Hiroshima bombing and exposing much more radioactive materials to the environment was an issue of lack of review. Organization to contain any matter arising as a result of any eventuality in handling the nuclear matter was also an issue of concern. This is seen by more deaths occurring to lack of effective clothing that would be used to create protection against the radioactive rays. This caused more deaths than those that died during the real explosion and eventual exposure. Recommendations All workers should wear the right protective clothing when working .People working in a wine company is highly exposed to danger of broken glass and hence greater chance of sustaining injuries. Thus they should be more vigilant about wearing the right protective clothing which includes closed pair of shoes, laboratory coats or any other protective garment when working. Safety should therefore never be taken to chance so one should always go to work with the right dress code not to take anything to chance. Always, the workers should insist on refresher training and learn to be alert and listen actively as well as participate fully during drills. So the management should put in place emergency drills to make sure that their employees are well prepared in case of an accident. Employees should not have a negative perception of such a drill and tend to take it for granted as this would cost them immensely at times of health risk. So there should be measures to ensure that every employee is made to attend without fail so as to get every bit of the training offered. Thirdly, it is recommended that employees should follow the rules as their guide when performing experiments (Hahn, 2006, p. 76). This implies that there should be signs and rules that should be followed in order to avoid possible accidents .The signs and posters should be posted at a strategic position to make sure that every person sees them to ensure their legibility. These signs also serve as a warnings and they act as a reminder of any danger that may happen anytime .This means that with these rules in mind one will always be on the lookout and he or she will be in a position to report an accident immediately if it happens. References CCPS. ( 2010). Guidelines for Implementing Process Safety Management Systems. London: John Wiley & Sons. EAAS. (2003, 12 30). RIDDOR form F2508. Retrieved 04 07, 2013, from Employee Accident Assessment Software: http://www.onsafelines.com/riddor-reporting-guidelines-f2508.html#.UWD7iqKnr6s Hahn, B. A. ( 2006). Analyzing the Critical Elements of Behavioral Safety and Their Impact on Process Implementation. Washington: ProQuest. Jefford, J., & Swain, A. (2006). The Encyclopedia of Nails. New York: Cengage Learning EMEA. Mathis, R. L., & Jackson, J. H. ( 2010). Human Resource Management. washington: Cengage Learning. Salis, C. D. (2011). Using Risk Graphs for Sil Assessment. London: IChemE. Whittingham, R. B. (2008). Preventing Corporate Accidents: An Ethical Approach . New York: Routledge. Read More