₦airaland Forum

Controlling “Hazard/At-risk behaviour & Near-miss” Leads to Zero Major Incidents

With growing digitalization across all the domains, we would certainly want to have a digital platform for managing our EHS activities as well. For one of the most important aspect of safety is to manage and reduce incidents and near misses. Now, having a digital system for the same can be one of the most robust and full proof way of managing the incident. Wait..!,

A digital System? Yes, but the one that helps you find out the root cause!

Our Accident and Near-Miss management system serves the purpose. It provides systematic approach for managing incidents, lays a flexible and standardized approach for incident management practices with emphasis on common principles, a consistent approach to operational structures and an integrated approach to resource management.

Record injuries, illness, near misses, hazards and environmental release all within one single system.

Give your employees the ability to record and report incidents anytime, anywhere using the mobile app.
Generate report (OSHA forms 300, 300A) to help streamline compliance
Implement Corrective-Preventive Actions
Perform in-depth risk and root cause analysis
You can assign and track corrective action from your desktop or mobile device
Configuring and escalating email and SMS notification to ensure deadlines are met and task is completed on time
Tools like Fish bone analysis and why why analysis to find out root cause
Deep diving dashboard, rich in providing useful KPIs

Mobile App for Incident and Near Miss-Management
Mobility is the buzz. And we know, with tools like Mobile App, a lot of the problems can be solved within no time. For any industry, actual work happens in the field, the near-misses are being observed and identified on the field but unfortunately there was no way to report them and hence they are ignored with no corrective actions being taken to avert them.

The solution is here and ASK EHS helps serve the purpose. A mobile App that will provide a platform for performing Accident/Incident and Near-Miss Management.

Key functional features of the near-miss app and web application

Report near-miss, hazard, at-risk behavior or any near-miss observations
An approval workflow of the logged near-miss
View reported near-miss
Identification of the action Item
Tracking of the action Item and its status
Assign corrective and preventive actions against the near-miss logged
Implementation of corrective and preventive actions
Implementation, review of the corrective and preventive actions
Close near-miss
Detail analysis and KPI dashboard
Push notifications and intelligent KPIs

Identify, Analyze and take control measures for a job to be done safely

[b]Job safety analysis (JSA) [/b]helps Identifying danger of specific tasks in order to reduce risk of incident or injury to worker. Other terms used to describe this procedure are Job hazard analysis (JHA), Task Risk Assessment (TRA) and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (HIRA).

The process of JSA is lengthy and takes time as it requires the identification of the control measures and it also requires a procedure to be followed for approvals of the jobs to be carried out. With manual/paper procedures, filling up manual forms accurately, remains a challenge. Along with it, the approval procedures and real-time information of the job also remains opaque.

Preparing JSA, its implementation and communication are on-field activities that need proactive management. Organizations face issues while they need to manage 1000+ JSAs, reference similar jobs done in past, ease of sharing knowledge, approvals and pre-approved JSA for routine job on same equipment. Software tool can make this operation more efficient, collaborative and easy.

ASK-EHS offers a software system for Job Safety Analysis management. The system is developed for the various digital platform including mobile phones and tablets.

ASK-EHS’ digitized JSA tool helps you provide
JSA Preparation
JSA Unique Identifier
Activity / Job Description
Identify Hazards
Risk Assessment
Control Measures
Post Risk Assessment
Submit for approval
Configurable Risk Matrix
Approved JSA can be printed and circulated to the working party
JSA register is maintained
Search engine - to search the JSA based on various criteria and content matching
Hazard and Control Measure Library

Related Software

Incident Accident and Near-Miss Management
Report Accident/Incident, near-miss.
On-field reporting along with live picture attachments.
Identification of the action Item.
Assign corrective and preventive actions.
Root cause analysis Tools (Viz. Fishbone and Why Why Details)
Detail analysis and KPI dashboard.
Management Information Reports.

Safety Audit Management
Plan and conduct Audits
Configurable Audit checklist
Assign Non-compliances from the field
Detail Audit reports with Compliance Percentage
Perform Audit using your Mobile Devices

Safety Observations
Log unsafe act, unsafe conditions
Attach pictures and files
View safety observations and history of the same
Push notifications on your Observation Mobile App
Track & Update CAPA status
Noncompliance dashboards for Observation

Track and manage your corrective and preventive actions for continuous improvement

With growing digitalization across all the domains, we would certainly want to have a digital platform for managing our EHS activities as well. For one of the most important aspect of safety is to manage and reduce incidents and near-misses. Now, having a digital system for the same can be one of the most robust and full proof way of managing the incident.

A digital System? Yes, but the one that helps you find out the root cause!

Integration of CAPA in the safety culture helps in implementation and compliance of Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) regulations to an extent and procedures.

The best way and the most accurate way to implement CAPA system into any Safety Ecosystem is to do it digitally. That means, in today’s date, having a software system that has an inbuilt robust CAPA or task management workflow integration. We are in absolute awe to give you a glimpse of our CAPA system.


The ASK-EHS CAPA Management Software
Helps Implement corrective and preventive actions
Create and assign an independent CAPA task to peers
A dashboard that helps highlight Active or Open CAPAs
A complete life cycle of CAPA until it’s closed
Configure reviewer for critical CAPA
Track the owners of the task and setup the reminder scheduler with Escalation Matrix
Auto reminders about the open Action items
CAPA register
CAPA reports (open, close, Active, In-Progress etc.)
Track and Update CAPA status on using Mobile App
Yes, a mobile App that is very handy for

See the CAPA assigned to me
Get alert on mobile for CAPA assigned to me
Update your CAPA status
Upload pictures and comments with progress status
Get and give CAPA approvals from field.
Related Software
Incident Accident and Near-Miss Management
Report Accident/Incident, near-miss.
On-field reporting along with live picture attachments.
Identification of the action Item.
Assign corrective and preventive actions.
Root cause analysis Tools (Viz. Fishbone and Why Why Details)
Detail analysis and KPI dashboard.
Management Information Reports.

Safety Audit Management
Plan and conduct Audits
Configurable Audit checklist
Assign Non-compliances from the field
Detail Audit reports with Compliance Percentage
Perform Audit using your Mobile Devices

Safety Observations
Log unsafe act, unsafe conditions
Attach pictures and files
View safety observations and history of the same
Push notifications on your Observation Mobile App
Track & Update CAPA status
Noncompliance dashboards for Observation

Permit to work software is an end-to-end solution that can sync operational, maintenance, scheduled and unscheduled works in organizations. It is an accurate compliance tool – distributed via digital means – to increase operational efficiency, productivity and address maintenance and works’ domain.

Permit Lifecycle and tracking
Proves to be a purposeful and convenient tool to establish control, co-ordination and communication - facilitates correct work sequences among established parties – with a single window view – enhanced by detailed area maps for visibility.

Processes:

Life Cycle of a Permit To Work

Permit requirement arises (identification)
Request, raise and issue work permits (add certificates & risk assessments)
Authorize and Prepare work site
Undertake and execute site preparation protocols
Permit issued, work commences and monitored
Associated meetings – tool-box talks, shift re-validation etc.
Close permit and archive

Gain Control & Flexibility with Permit To Work Software


ASK-EHS' PTW software is a platform that provides "out-of-box" features, commensurate with industry best practices. It can be however, be configured and/or customized to suit client's business preferences. Clients can configure hierarchical fields, labels, checklists and risk matrices. On the other hand, we customize permit workflows and forms which are unique to each organization. Another salient feature is the Permit to Work software can be integrated with existing ERP systems like SAP, Oracle or any other such systems. Besides this, it also can integrate with existing Active Directories along with single sign-on (SSO) and email clients.

In-Depth Area Mapping with[b] Permit To Work Software
[/b]
The permit to work software allows a bird’s eye view of all the permitted work being carried out or commencing upcoming permits across all sites/plants/facilities. You can determine any potential work conflicts/overlaps and make appropriate and accurate decisions. When Permit to work software is used along with the SIMOPS identifier tool, it can reduce back & forth communications and manual checks.

Live indicator of work location during permit requests
Color codes to differentiate permit types.
Track various stages of permit.
Permit information pop-ups
Auto Refresh
Visual Identification of nearby work activities

Employee Health at Work Place

The most important asset for an organization are their employees. A healthy team results in a healthy and productive work environment. With industrial workforce, there is a lot of on-field and physical work involved. Occupational Health should be religiously promoted and maintained within the highest degree of physical and mental wellbeing of workers. It should help maintain good health for an adaptation of work to people, and people to their jobs.

ASK-EHS holds the belief in the highest regard to have a good Occupational Health procedures and practices. A regular medical checkup of the workers is a key to success. Also, a provision of an OPD center which could maintain all the records and history of the workers’ health, their health reports and the treatment they are undergoing.

ASK-EHS offers a software to have a uniform platform for Occupational Health data management of employees, contractors and vendors.

Maintain Employee Medical and Health Information
Record Employee Injuries/ illness details with treatment prescription given by doctor/paramedic
Updates employee wise history for visits to clinic, description about illness and treatment given
Analyze illness/injury records by producing reports on different criteria such as:
Internal Medical health checkup
External Medical health checkup
History of Employees health fitness records
OPD visits history
Injuries on the parameters like jury type, Location, Body part, Activity, Time etc.

Routine Medical Checkup Record keeping
Maintain record of employee routine medical check-up
Set reminder for medical check-up
Employee complete history of routine medical check-up
Reminder for employee routine checkup based on age
Statistical and Analytical reports like
List of employees whose health condition are not in-line with the limits (e.g. list of employees with high blood-pressure, list of overweight employees etc.)
Health Index of all employees
Trend of Health Index Transitioning between years

Related Software
Incident Accident and Near-Miss Management
Report Accident/Incident, near-miss.
On-field reporting along with live picture attachments.
Identification of the action Item.
Assign corrective and preventive actions.
Root cause analysis Tools (Viz. Fishbone and Why Why Details)
Detail analysis and KPI dashboard.
Management Information Reports.

Safety Audit Management
Plan and conduct Audits
Configurable Audit checklist
Assign Non-compliances from the field
Detail Audit reports with Compliance Percentage
Perform Audit using your Mobile Devices

Safety Observations
Log unsafe act, unsafe conditions
Attach pictures and files
View safety observations and history of the same
Push notifications on your Observation Mobile App
Track & Update CAPA status
Noncompliance dashboards for Observation

Don’t miss to log your observations – Make it now from field using your Mobile Phone

Safety observation is a very fruitful activity that helps find unsafe acts and unsafe conditions at the work site. Also observing and reporting of best practices followed by employees makes a difference to building safety culture across organization.

By not reporting safety observations immediately, one risks forgetting they occurred or that they were observed. Safety observation software can help prevent these actions from slipping through and give your safety program a chance to make a positive difference.

ASK EHS Safety observation tool offers

Record, Track and Close Safety Observations
Log unsafe act, unsafe conditions
Log best practices (safe act and safe conditions)
Attach pictures from field
Identify risk and escalate it to management, if required
Categorize your Observations
Assignment of corrective and preventive actions based on observation and its tracking
Email notification for the assigned task
Advance Search engine
Auto generated period Trend generation and analytics
Reflection of observation data in your monthly lead and lag indicators

Log Safety Observations using Mobile App
For a quick and easy access of the technology, it is a great value add to have a Mobile App for on field users who can log their observations within no time. Also, while at field, the uses can also track and update their Non-compliance status of the task assigned to time. The mobile app works in online and offline mode so that the issue of network connectivity is no longer an impediment.

Using Mobile App, you can
Report Safety Observation
Attach pictures and files
View safety observations and history of the same
Push notifications
Track & Update CAPA status

Related Software
Incident Accident and Near-Miss Management
Report Accident/Incident, near-miss.
On-field reporting along with live picture attachments.
Identification of the action Item.
Assign corrective and preventive actions.
Root cause analysis Tools (Viz. Fishbone and Why Why Details)
Detail analysis and KPI dashboard.
Management Information Reports.
Safety Audit Management
Plan and conduct Audits
Configurable Audit checklist
Assign Non-compliances from the field
Detail Audit reports with Compliance Percentage
Perform Audit using your Mobile Devices
Occupational Health
Employee Illness/Injury Track and history
Routine Medical Checkup Record keeping
Regular checkup of Interactive Health Index
Maintain OPD details of the employee visits
Employee medical portfolio - Medical history
Reminder for employee routine checkup based on age

Managing safety at a wind farm or a solar energy plant remains challenging. And this is because workers do not have access to the required digital tools, and there is a lack of communication due to remote locations and limited use of technology. Additionally, maintenance work at these plants comes with many risks. If the maintenance is not planned and streamlined, it can lead to irreversible mishaps.

So how does the renewable sector deal with the challenges of permit-to-work processes? Of course, it follows all the procedures according to the defined rules, but is that enough? Isn’t there more to permit to work process than just following the system?

Well, in this article, we aim to cover everything the renewable sector requires for a successful permit-to-work system. Right from having ePTW software to ensuring all safety protocols are met, we shall throw light on everything needed.

The Challenges
We know that Permit to Work (PTW) systems are designed to help manage high-risk activities by ensuring appropriate safety measures before work begins.

In the renewable energy sector, several challenges are associated with implementing and maintaining an effective PTW system; let us briefly study them.

Complexity of work
Renewable energy projects often involve complex and high-risk work, such as working at heights, in confined spaces, or with hazardous materials. This can make it challenging to identify all potential hazards associated with a particular task and ensure that all necessary safety measures are in place.

Changing weather conditions
Weather conditions like wind, rain, and sun heavily influence the renewable energy sector. These conditions can change rapidly and unpredictably, making planning and executing work activities difficult. Additionally, the weather conditions can get extreme, making it challenging to work on-site.

Remote locations
Many renewable energy projects are located in remote or offshore locations, which can present logistical challenges when it comes to managing permits, coordinating work activities, communicating, and responding to emergencies.

Regulatory compliance
The renewable energy sector is subject to a wide range of regulations and standards related to safety, environmental protection, and other factors. Ensuring compliance with these regulations can be complex and time-consuming, particularly for companies operating in multiple jurisdictions.

The renewable energy sector presents unique challenges for implementing an effective PTW system. However, there are solutions that can prioritize safety to mitigate risks and ensure that the PTW processes are carried out safely while adhering to all regulations.

The Solutions
Thanks to technology and safety professionals, every safety challenge has a unique solution. So it is proven that challenges in the safety aspect can be easily solved with the right approach and set of comprehensive solutions.

Similarly, here are the solutions that can help address the challenges of Permit to Work (PTW) systems in the renewable energy sector.

Risk Assessments
Conducting thorough and regular risk assessments can help identify and manage hazards associated with renewable energy activities. This can help ensure all necessary safety measures are in place before work begins.

Safety Training

Providing comprehensive safety training for workers can help ensure that they understand the hazards associated with their work and are equipped with the skills and knowledge to work safely. This can include training on emergency response, hazard identification, and safe work practices.

Real-Time Monitoring
Utilizing real-time monitoring systems can help identify changing weather conditions, potential safety hazards, and other risks in real time, allowing for prompt action to be taken. This monitoring can greatly help while allotting PTW permits.

Communication and Collaboration
Effective communication and collaboration between workers, contractors, and management are critical for ensuring that everyone is aware of potential hazards and that all necessary safety measures are in place. And especially in the PTW process, seamless communication is the key to its successful implementation.

ePTW Software
Adopting ePTW software can help improve safety, efficiency, and accuracy in PTW systems. This includes proper procedures for tracking permits, automating hazard identification and risk assessments, and providing real-time data and analytics for decision-making.

So let us dive deeper into what ePTW software is and its benefits.

The ePTW Software For Renewable Energy Sector
An ePTW software is an end-to-end solution that can sync operational, maintenance, scheduled, and unscheduled works in organizations. It is a compliance tool distributed digitally to increase operational efficiency and address maintenance works.

The types of work permits include;

Work at height
Hot work
Cold work
Excavation
Arc Flash
Critical load lifting
And more
Now the renewable energy sector needs to deal with all the above and more types of work permits. And if the PTW system has loopholes or miscommunication, it can lead to delays and hazards.

Here is how the ePTW software takes care of the entire process.

The Life Cycle of a Permit To Work comprises of:

Permit requirement arises (Identification)
Request, raise, and issue work permits (add certificates & risk assessments)
Authorize and Prepare the worksite
Undertake and execute site preparation protocols
Permit issued, work commences, and monitored
Associated meetings – toolbox talks, shift re-validation, etc.
Close permit and archive
Let us closely look at the above steps with the example of a wind farm ePTW process.

Before any work can begin at the wind farm, the scope of work is clearly defined, including the location of the work, the duration of the work, and the equipment or materials needed. These details are filled in the digital system.
The software performs a thorough hazard identification and risk assessment process to identify all potential hazards associated with the work. This includes hazards related to working at height, electrical hazards, environmental hazards, and others.
Once the hazards have been identified and the risks assessed, the software generates a permit application. The permit application outlines the scope of work, the hazards identified, and the safety measures that will be implemented to mitigate those hazards.
The software notifies and alerts everyone concerned by sending a permit application. The permit application is sent to all the related authorities and the concerned employees. Then it is reviewed and approved by the relevant parties, including the permit issuer and the wind farm operator.
The software notifies once the permit has been approved and alerts the person or team responsible for the work.
The work can begin once the permit has been issued. The permit holder is responsible for ensuring all safety measures are in place, and the work is carried out safely. The software regularly intimates the progress of the work to all concerned people and notifies them of any hurdles or delays.
Once the work is complete, the permit must be closed out. This includes a final check to ensure that all hazards have been mitigated, all equipment has been removed, and the work area has been left in a safe and clean condition. The software issues a checklist of all the above processes, and only once the index is green and the authorities have initiated a closure the work is termed as completed, and the permit is closed.

Therefore we can notice that by incorporating the ePTW process, the wind farm operator can ensure that all work is carried out safely and complies with relevant safety regulations and standards. To get a deeper understanding, please go through one of our CTF Nordex Acciona case studies.

And There’s More…
ASK EHS’s ePTW software allows a bird’s eye view of all the permitted work being carried out or commencing upcoming permits across all sites/plants/facilities along with the above incredible features.

You can determine potential work conflicts/overlaps and make appropriate and accurate decisions. In fact, when Permit to Work software is used along with the SIMOPS identifier tool, it can reduce back & forth communications and manual checks.

It also provides the following;

Live indicator of work location during permit requests
Color codes to differentiate permit types.
Track various stages of permit.
Permit information pop-ups
Auto Refresh
Visual Identification of nearby work activities
Implementing an effective ePTW system is a holistic approach that focuses on risk assessments, safety training, real-time monitoring, communication, collaboration, and advanced technologies and automation.

By prioritizing safety and investing in appropriate systems and processes, you can help protect your workers and the environment in the most efficient way possible!

Renewable energy companies are at the forefront of the global transition towards cleaner and more sustainable energy sources. With the world’s increasing demand for energy, renewable energy companies play a crucial role in meeting this demand while reducing carbon emissions and protecting the environment.

Therefore the renewable sector needs to take measures and ensure it stays aligned with its goals.

However, renewable energy companies need to embrace digitization to succeed in this competitive and rapidly-evolving industry.

According to a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), digitalization could boost the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix by up to 30% by 2030. The report states that digitalization can improve renewable energy systems’ efficiency, reliability, and flexibility, making them more competitive with conventional energy sources.
A survey by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) found that 88% of wind energy companies believe digitalization is critical to the future success of their business. The survey highlights the potential of digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and the Internet of Things, to improve wind farm performance, reduce operational costs, and enhance asset management.
The above numbers prove that the power of digitization can enable renewable energy companies to enhance their operations, streamline processes, and stay aligned with their business goals.

Ways Digitization Can Benefit Renewable Energy Companies
If you survey renewable energy sectors distinctly, right from wind energy to hydro energy, every industry has innumerable benefits from digitalization. Some sectors are implementing digitalization, whereas others are in the process of adoption, but no matter where each one is in the digitalization process, they claim to have seen the benefits.

Let us have a glimpse of what these benefits are.

Enhanced efficiency and productivity
Digitization can significantly enhance the efficiency and productivity of renewable energy companies. With digital tools and platforms, companies can automate processes, optimize energy production, and reduce operational costs. For instance, digital solutions can help companies monitor and control their energy systems in real-time, identify areas of inefficiency, and implement corrective measures promptly.

This can significantly lead to savings of time and resources while averting incidents and accidents.

Improved data collection and analysis
Renewable energy companies generate vast amounts of data through their production and distribution processes. Digitization can help these companies collect, analyze, and leverage this data to make informed decisions and optimize their operations. With digital tools, companies can gather data on energy production, consumption, and storage and use advanced analytics to gain insights into energy usage patterns and consumer behavior.

These analytics can help the renewable sector plan ahead of time and reduce its carbon footprint while increasing the quality and quantity of energy production.

Enhanced customer engagement
Digitization can also enhance customer engagement for renewable energy companies. Digital solutions can enable companies to provide personalized services, communicate with customers in real time, and provide value-added services. For instance, companies can use digital platforms to offer energy efficiency advice, provide online billing, and deliver renewable energy certificates.

When a customer receives regular information about the energy they have consumed, used, and, most importantly, saved, it emphasizes the use of renewable energy.

Improved supply chain management
Digitization can also improve supply chain management for renewable energy companies. With digital tools, companies can monitor their supply chains in real-time, identify potential bottlenecks, and implement corrective measures promptly. Additionally, digital platforms can help companies track the origin of renewable energy sources, ensuring they are sustainably sourced.

Supply chain management is crucial for the renewable energy sector. As the sites are situated in remote areas, the supply chain management needs to be paid special attention to. Digitalization helps in the live-tracking of logistics and ensures the entire process is steady and seamless.

Better risk management
Renewable energy companies face several risks, including natural disasters, equipment failure, and cyber threats. Digitization can help these companies mitigate these risks by enabling them to monitor and detect potential dangers in real-time. With digital solutions, companies can implement predictive maintenance strategies, monitor equipment health, and implement disaster recovery plans promptly.

One example of risk management in the renewable energy sector is using predictive maintenance strategies for wind turbines. Wind turbines are complex machines exposed to harsh environmental conditions and can suffer from mechanical failures, resulting in costly downtime and repairs.

To mitigate these risks, renewable energy companies use digital tools to monitor the health of wind turbines and detect potential issues before they occur. This approach, known as predictive maintenance, involves using sensors and advanced analytics to monitor the performance of wind turbines and identify potential problems.

To Sum It All Up
Digitization has enormous potential for renewable energy companies. By embracing digital tools and platforms, these companies can enhance their efficiency, productivity, and customer engagement, improve supply chain management, and better manage risks.

When we asked certain people involved in the renewables sector energy whether digitalization is a win or lose for the renewable energy sector, this is what we got to know!

Digitalization in the renewable sector is a definite win.

Digitalization enables renewable energy companies to optimize their energy production, reduce operational costs, and provide personalized services to their customers. It also helps companies mitigate risks, such as natural disasters, equipment failure, and cyber threats, and improve the reliability and safety of their renewable energy systems.

Furthermore, digitalization can play a significant role in accelerating the transition to a low-carbon energy system. By enabling renewable energy systems to integrate better with the power grid, digitalization can improve the stability and reliability of renewable energy sources, reducing the need for backup power from conventional sources.

As the renewable energy industry continues to grow, companies that embrace digitization will have a competitive advantage, enabling them to achieve their business goals while contributing to a cleaner, greener, and more sustainable world.

Manage Resources Eliminate Human Errors and Increase Information Availability

Safe workplace is right of every worker. Workers associated with machines (from its servicing to repairing to maintenance) are directly associated with risks and hazards. Failure to control hazards during these activities can be fatal. Maximum industrial accidents are caused by the unexpected energization or startup of equipment or machines or by the uncontrolled release of energy. Our serious efforts by controlling unauthorized or accidental use of energy can be very beneficial preventing serious injuries to unnecessary deaths. Many of these accidents can be prevented by proper implementation of LOCKOUT/TAGOUT system.

Lockout Tagout (LOTO) Software helps in implementing procedures and manages resources in effective way, eliminating the human error with increased information availability for each equipment and isolation points. This software can be seamlessly integrated with Permit to Work system.

Features
Master records
LOTO Software allows maintaining master records of unit, area, equipment, isolation points and authorized personnel(s)
Allows cross referencing between required records (e.g. Equipment - Isolation Point)
Procedure document generation/attachment for each type of isolation point - attachment option of startup and shutdown procedures for equipment & isolation points with actual photographs/drawings


Tag Printing
While issuing the lock and gadget, Software allows Tag to be printed according to template with following details;

Template of Tag based on Isolation Point Type
Isolation Point Number
Unique Tag Number
Date of Applying
Isolation Officer's Name & Contact Number
Certificate Issuing Authority Name & Contact Number
Reference of number of Permits issued on same Equipment/Isolation Point(s)
Software identifies number of permits requires access to same isolation points
Multiple agency will have transparent information about the isolated status of any equipment and thus avoid redundant isolations / de-isolations


Electronic Log book shows Issued or Active Lockouts and Tagouts
Software incorporates electronic log book which shows issued or active lockouts and tagouts. Data gets archived when the lockout and tagout is completed or removed

Inventory of Locks and Gadgets
Issue & receive of locks & gadget while isolation & de-isolation
Records faulty locks & gadgets
Current Stock of locks and gadgets

Driving safety at a construction site remains a prominent safety issue. Even years of experience can sometimes not withhold driving errors & workplace incidents.

To ensure a safe & accident-free site, particularly pertaining to the vehicles & moving equipment used for construction, there are Government rules & regulations that work as the fundamental guidelines. They contain the dos and don’ts for driving at a construction site that exist to ensure the driver’s safety, as well as the safety of others on the road, or in this case, the site.

Let us begin by understanding what exactly are the challenges, especially pertaining to driving at the construction site.

Challenges of Driving at Construction Site
Safety is paramount. Whether trucks carry materials to and fro from the construction site or work internally at the site. Both these fleets have a significant no. of challenges that they come across while driving on-site, which could lead to serious near misses or accidents.

Let’s just quickly understand what points could end up being quite the risk, when driving:-

Employing temporary or contract-based drivers without proper training.
Skipping toolbox talks with the drivers, failing to make them aware of the challenges on the site as well as the imminent weather changes.
Improper tracking of the driver’s training sessions.
Drivers not following the fundamental safety guidelines.
Not checking if the driver is physically & mentally fit to drive the vehicle/equipment that day.
These are, on the surface, driving challenges faced on the construction site. The drivers face daily challenges as the site work progresses. So how does one ensure foolproof safety?

Well, here are some tips that may help reduce accidents, incidents, and injuries particularly due to driving. If implemented correctly, these defensive actions will ensure driving in the safest way possible.

Tips for Driving Safety at Construction Site
Wearing someone’s shoes and knowing the current situation is far more different than simply guiding them. This means that it is absolutely vital that the driver precisely knows their vehicle that they are going to be driving. Post that, the training and guidance should be used to refresh what the driver already knows, to inform them about the construction site & the type of terrain, the weather conditions, so on & so forth.

Correct Wrong Driving Habits Immediately
The safety authorities must immediately address bad driving habits. This may be noticed physically or in their digital systems. For example, if one of the drivers does not follow the barricade or fencing system or exceeds the decided speed limit to try to reach faster, they should be immediately corrected. These immediate actions help create awareness.

Designated Entry and Exit Points
Giving dedicated entry and exit points for vehicles or mobile equipment. The entry-exit points should be mapped in such a way that it is wide enough for easy entry/exits, convenient loading & unloading of materials is possible and they should be far from everyday pedestrians’ in and out gates . This may seem minor, but it makes a huge difference. The drivers can drive without the fear of injuring workers, and also, these entry points can satisfactorily evaluate and check the credentials of the drivers or inspect the vehicles etc. if required.

Make the Use of Spotter Compulsory and Definite
A spotter is best described as a qualified expert whose responsibility it is to ensure a job is done in the safest manner possible to avoid injury, warning others of any unsafe approaches to a job or project. A spotter ensures double safety of the construction vehicles. They should wear highly visible clothes and maintain a position wherein the driver can see their signs clearly. Spotters can view the blind spots, ensure safe loading and unloading, and effectively communicate with the driver.

Provide Defensive Driving Training/Toolbox talk Regularly
Despite the driver having the required licence, defensive driving training must be provided. It is like brushing up on the laws & guidelines, in-case they have forgotten any. Organising daily toolbox talks can help for refreshing this information or bringing to light a few key points, before commencing the work.

Some inclusions of the essential training are:-

Fundamentals of defensive driving
Unloading/loading plan management
Delivery knowledge about the type of products (especially liquids)
Maintenance of vehicles
Emergency response plan
Importance of following road and driving rules
The list can be configured according to the work of the driver. But it should be updated and reminded regularly.

Why Does It Require Attention?
Driver’s focus, behaviour, skills, and safety are the prime components for positive and safe working at a construction site. The safety manager must foresee that the drivers have the required skills, knowledge, tools, and training to be efficient at their job. Perform surprise checks to know the current status of the vehicle and the driver.

Proper defensive driving training ensures;

Accurate safety driving and well-maintained equipment.
Zero or minimum potential injuries, incidents, and accidents.
A valuable investment for the business and its employees.
We are not unaware of the various challenges that already preside over a construction site. The constant risk of incidents/accidents/near misses can be daunting. It becomes two-folds when it comes to the gigantic vehicles & mobile equipment moving around the uneven terrain of the construction site. These few tips, from the many, could help to a certain extent.

Currently, metro rail transit projects are growing rapidly in India. Almost every state have a metro project or very soon to start. When we think about safety, its new field and have unique challenges where lots of safety research, analysis and risk management to be established.

Throughout the metro construction process, the highest priority on the safety of workers and the community are the main challenges. A Project Construction Safety Compliance Program shall be developed to take a proactive approach in promoting safe behaviors near construction sites and increasing construction safety awareness for workers, public and stakeholders in the areas along the alignment.

Metro construction zones are very dangerous, so remember to always stay safe when you’re around them. Here are ten simple safety rules to help you stay safe:

Restrict yourself from going near the construction zone, whenever possible. Debris and heavy machines can be hazardous.
Avoid playing, running, riding or walking near the construction zone or around construction equipment’s, dirt piles and work areas.
Always prefer walking on the designated walkways or sidewalks. Keep your eyes for sidewalk closure signs and remain alert to posted notices on the temporary walkways.
Using cell phones, other hand held devices, video games and headphones in construction zones can be really dangerous. Avoid distraction, stay alert to your surroundings, this reduces the likelihood of an incident.
Stay alert, stop, look and listen carefully for construction vehicles like dump trucks, bulldozers etc. as dust can impede your vision. Always be prepared for sudden wide turns and stops.
Be careful, make an eye contact with drivers and construction vehicles while crossing and cross only at intersections.
Lower your speed, follow sign boards that tell you where to walk.
Be aware of falling objects in construction area, even if they are not directly overhead, wind can blow them towards you.
Respect the construction signs and any instructions provided by people working on the project.
Stay outside construction fences, chain link fences and orange cones.
Looking at the volume, intricacies, variety of EHS issues and hazards; safety training becomes an important aspect which cannot be ignored. Meticulous planning; brisk execution, supervision and control; strict compliance of EHS measures satisfying the legal and regulatory requirements; adoption of preventative and proactive measures of world class levels; inculcation and sustenance of positive and progressive work culture are the main requirements for HSE compliance by the metro projects.

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Construction industry, often termed as ‘high-risk’, has a significant impact on the health and safety of the workers. Though it is common to see a construction worker work at heights with equipment and building materials, these scenarios are plagued by potentially dangerous situations and poor working conditions. They are exposed to hazards that are difficult to quantify. Different job sites have different procedures and conditions – identifying the source(s) that poses challenges to Occupational Health and safety(OHS) of the workforce remains critical.

2017 ILO statistics quote that in India, 48,000 people died due to occupational accidents and the construction sector contributed to 24.20% of the fatalities. Apart from fatalities, there are workers who suffer from work-related health hazard and suffer non-fatal injuries. The scale and severity should be enough for the stakeholders to ensure the safety and health of their workforce.

To promote and maintain safety in the workplace, knowledge about the primary causes of accidents help assess the level of safety.

Occupational Health and safety -Construction Industry

Primary hazards in a Construction Industry

Health and safety is a multi-step process which includes the workers at the site, nearby people, supervisors, managers etc. Effective management of activities and competent site supervision are essence in maintaining healthy and safe conditions. In construction activities especially, greater the risk, greater the degree of hazard control and supervision is required.

Before the work starts, competent EHS personnel should:

Identify and devise risks and their management strategy
Ensure training – site specific and job-specific
See that the workforce has access to PPEs and know how to use them
Observe, inspect and report that agreed safe work methods are implemented, site-wide
Upon arrival at the site, employees, contractors and visitors should receive information about the site hazards and steps taken to control those risks. Also, briefing them about the hazards, PPEs, welfare facilities and site rules can ensure that the work in progress is smooth and efficient.

Much of the construction works include scaffolds, and collective fall prevention becomes a necessity. They must be equipped with guardrails, toe boards and brick guards. Personal prevention such as podium steps, can be used to prevent falls while working at height. If the weather seems inappropriate, emergency and rescue procedures should be well-defined in advance to avoid adverse effect on workers. All working platforms must be checked for safe conditions and should be inspected for slip and trip hazards.

Other preventive measures that make safe conditions certain are:

Regular inspections of the site and the machineries to detect hazards in the first place
Selection of the right PPE (respirators, helmets) to avoid inhalation of asbestos, dust and fibre with provision for appropriate trainings.
Avoid repetitive motions and use long-handled tools to reduce the need of bending down.
Make sure that workers are protected from wet concrete (provide PPE and proper washing facilities)
Ensure safe dismantling procedures are in place
Site traffic (for vehicles or moving equipment) should be planned and managed to avoid fatalities onsite
Forklifts should be used carefully in material handling
Confirm site wide PTW implementation
Pneumatic silencers should be used to reduce noise; electrical hazards (faulty wiring) must be checked and firefighting equipment should be in place
Incorporating health and safety checks can keep a tab on the worker progress and well-being. Risk assessments, health and safety trainings, corrective and preventive measures all should be the part of the checklist of a construction company.

The mission of contributing to safe working conditions, participating in the detection of risk and danger is a matter for all; so employees must also communicate hazardous conditions when they encounter. It is good to be proactive instead of reactive in terms of health.

Pressure cylinders are cylinders having contents of various chemical composition under pressure in liquid or gaseous state. Pressure cylinders possess huge potential energy, which can lead to disasters on enormous scale, for both the lives and properties, if not managed with appropriate safety measures during transportation, unloading, storage, handling and use.

When handled improperly or abusively, compressed gas cylinders can be exceedingly dangerous. Due to its pressure and/or contents, compressed gas cylinder safety is essential as it can pose a number of risks.

There is a chance of being simultaneously exposed to mechanical and chemical risks depending on the specific gas.

Oxygen cylinder safety regulations rules need to be taken seriously since damaged or missing cylinder valves can turn cylinders into flying munitions.

If safety procedures are not done, regulators could turn into bullets that rip through employees.

Oxygen cylinder safety precautions
Take the following precautions to prevent accidents, fire incidents and explosions that may be caused by improper handling of compressed gas cylinders during storage and also while taking them out for usage.

ALWAYS
Statutory rules should be strictly followed while storing full and empty cylinders.
Store cylinders upright with valve protection caps and valve outlet seals in place.
Secure cylinders when in transit, storage, or use.
Store cylinders in specific areas designated for that purpose.
Separate full and empty cylinders.
Store cylinders in a well-ventilated, away from combustible materials, dry, cool and secure area protected from the weather.
Always maintain a minimum of 20 feet distance between flammable gas cylinder and oxygen cylinder or the storage area should be separated, at a minimum, by a fire wall five feet high with a fire rating of 0.5 hours.
Ensure that there is adequate separation from combustibles as specified by national regulations.
Keep check on the atmosphere in areas where gases may vent and collect.
FIFO (first-in, first-out) inventory system should be used to prevent full containers from being stored for long periods of time.
Store only the amount of compressed gas required for the specific application.
Prohibit use of naked flames and smoking etc., in storage spaces, whether indoor or outdoor, shall be prohibited.
All doors or gates giving direct access to the cylinder storage shall open outwards.
Cylinders should be stored away from emergency exits and heavily travelled areas.
Protect cylinders from damp or wet ground.
Cylinder storage should be provided with adequate but restricted access.
Cylinders should be inspected visually on a routine basis, or weekly to a avoid any indication of leakage or other problems.
NEVER
Permit storage temperature to exceed 52°C (125°F).
Store oxygen cylinder, full or empty in the same vicinity as inflammable gases.
Store cylinders on upper floors or below ground level.
Allow smoking or open flames in oxidizer or flammable gas storage areas.
Store grease and oily materials around oxygen; nor should oil or grease be applied to fittings.
Expose cylinders to corrosive materials such as ice melting compounds.
The above mentioned guidelines are given for those personnel/ agency who are engaged in storing pressure gas cylinder or their bank. However, the typical work situations /conditions prevailing at the work places must be given specific and technical considerations, to ensure safety.

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In case, any query – Write us:info@ask-ehs.com or Contact +91 261 27 249 94.

Manual material handling (MMH) means manually moving or handling things by lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling, carrying, holding or restraining. MMH is also the most common cause of occupational fatigue, low back pain and lower back injuries.

Potential Manual Material Handling Hazards for Workers
Workers frequently cite the weight and bulkiness of objects that they lift as major contributing factors to their injuries. In 1999, for example, more than 4,20,000 workplace accidents resulted in back injuries. Bending, followed by twisting and turning, were the more commonly cited movements that caused back injuries. Other hazards include falling objects, improperly stacked materials and various types of equipment. You should make your employees aware of potential injuries that can occur when manually moving materials including the following:-

Strains and sprains from lifting loads improperly or from carrying loads that are either too large or too heavy;
Fractures and bruises caused by being struck by materials or by being caught in pinch points, and
Cuts and bruises caused by falling materials that have been improperly stored or by incorrectly cutting ties or other securing devices
Precautions to Be Taken During MMH:
When moving materials manually, workers should attach handles or holders to loads. In addition, workers should always wear appropriate personal protective equipment and use proper lifting techniques to prevent injury from oversize loads. Workers should seek help during the following:-

When a load is so bulky that employees cannot properly grasp or lift it;
When employees cannot see around or over a load or;
When employees cannot safely handle a load.
Using the following personal protective equipment prevents needless injuries when manually moving materials:-

Hand and forearm protection such as gloves for loads with sharp or rough edges
Eye protection
Steel toed safety shoes or boots
Metal fiber or plastic metatarsal guards to protect the in-step area from impact or compression
Stop & Think
Assess where, how long, how complicated can manual handling be.

Steps for Manual Lifting
Keep feet apart to give a balanced and stable base for lifting
Bend the knees so that the hands are as near to the waist as possible
Keep the back straight, chin tucked-in, lean over the load if necessary [Shoulders in same direction as hips]
Try to keep the arms within the boundary formed of the legs
Carry out lifting smoothly without jerk
Then adjust if precise positioning is necessary
Give a command to gain group efforts in synchronized ways
Additional Safety Practices in Manual Handling
Restrict the load to 55 Kg (as per Indian Statute)
Trial lift before actual lifting
Ascertain, intended path of movement is clear
The above mentioned procedure shall help the people to safely handle the material manually. Proper manual material handling training should always be considered to avoid manual material handling hazards and thereby safe work performance.

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Environment, health and safety are binding principles for any industrial discipline that dictate the safe and green guidelines to execute and implement operations within them. The increasing need and demand of EHS based skills and its functional expertise within the recent years has turned into an outstanding marketable skillset.

This means that not only have the opportunities increased in this domain but it has been due to a prospering economy which recognizes the need of safety and environmentally compliant operations.

Apart from the safety engineering and diploma courses which make for the standard route undertaken by the safety community professionals, there are many eminent certification programs and EHS courses which can help them upskill and make their strengths more relevant to emerging challenges in EHS.

Here’s a list of 5 valuable certifications which can deliver the necessary boost to your EHS career:
1) NEBOSH
National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health(NEBOSH) provides the general certificate course in OSH in as many as 120 different countries with over fifty thousand candidates undertaking the course, annually.

With international as well as regulatory recognition from esteemed professional bodies, this general certificate in OSH covers the principal methodology as proposed under the “Plan-Do-Check-Act” and of safety related to fire, chemicals, electrical as well as workplace, musculoskeletal, transport, work equipment hazards and risk control.

The next aspect is practical application of the learnt modules via H&S assessment of a workplace and submission of its report to the management.

2) IOSH
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) offers courses in managing and working safely for their audiences and either of these two courses are undertaken by as many as 179,000 people from all across the world.

Both the certificate programs are open to professionals, safety managers and supervisors who wish to understand and gather useful OSH insights which are applied in modern day industries and organizations.

Based on a closed assessment and project work report the candidates are assessed and granted the IOSH managing or working safely certificate.

3) OSHA affiliated certificate programs
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is the federal body in the U.S which looks after and governs OSH. These certificate programs are strictly compliant to the defined standards within U.S, however due to the overarching application of OHS principles and the spread of multinationals across the world now, these certificates have grown in importance through application.

These diverse certificate programs cover topics from basic to advanced level courses in OHS and EHS aspects, based on different sectors. The main mode of distribution is through the stipulated number of contact hours that the candidate has to attend and complete.

4) IRCA (OHS, Lead Auditor training)
International Register of Certificated Auditors (IRCA) is the original body which was established in 1919 and subsequently over the course of time has come to be known as the Chartered Quality Institute due to the granting of royal charter.

This certification course is for the personnel who go onto audit organizations for the OH&S management systems under the OHSAS 18001 certification. It is recommended to have a basic OHS background which in turn would enable them to grasp the subject matter.

This is a 5 day course which would help the participants to effectively audit OHS systems by developing an understanding of the best practices and effective auditing skills.

5) IEMA/EMS
International Environment Management and Assessment is the largest body of environmental practitioners in the U.K. The key driver for this body is to provide organizations with a way to manage their systems in accordance with the best environment and sustainability practices.

To become an environment systems management auditor, a closed written exam is followed by continuous assessment. Again, a basic background in OHS would be necessary, however, this certificate enables the candidate to develop a skill based ability to audit for environment management systems.

To summarize the importance of these certificates, they can not only enable you to diversify your skills and add another level of professional certification to your credentials. And, EHS courses can also provide a traction to careers which are struggling to base themselves firmly which can be due to several reasons.

Professional certifications are a gateway to opportunities that can leverage your niche skills, however, before undertaking any such certifications, verify and establish the credentials of the partner organization that are providing these certifications and their methods, carefully. OH&S management

To minimize accidents, incidents at workplace, selection of Contractor becomes an important tool for managing contractor safety. It is a process to identify an appropriate and suitable contractor who is compatible as well as conversant with client’s safety management system. The process of selection of right contractor should include evaluation of safety performance of the contractor, worker’s compensation, their recorded injury rates, periodic safety programs being conducted and the competency level of contractor’s personnel.

The process for selection of contractors examines contractor’s demonstrated ability to work safely, how effectively the contractor’s safety program is being implemented and how safety competency assessment is being carried out to comply with the safety management need at workplace. Selection of contractors calls for thorough and effective review of contract safety specifications at time of bid meeting and pre-award meetings. To prove their competence, contractors must undertake multiple pre-qualification processes depending on client preferences for safety management.

To get certified, qualified and in order to obtain competent personnel from the contractor, process of pre-qualification of contractor is a best practice that the client should opt.

Pre-qualification of contractor helps to create a pool of contractors that have the desired quality, capacity and ability to perform work on projects of a particular size and complexity. This also weeds out contractors with a history of litigation, claims and performance related failures. For any project work, a contractor is required to bid informal contracts for which safety pre-qualification is required.

Technical Criteria for pre-qualification of a contractor on the basis of Safety Competency:
Contractor should have experience in providing services for a minimum of 3 years in respective field.
Details of company information with organization structure, list of manpower with the CVs of key personnel, plant and machinery list mentioning year of manufacturing, support agencies, other facilities and resources.
Details of completion of similar type of projects within last three years indicating their brief scope of work, value of work, contractual duration, actual completion of project, client’s name, contact details of that client, safety appreciation or compliance certification or inspection of plant and machineries, HSE statistics, LTI graph etc.
Details of typical project planning and execution methodology.
Details of past track record of similar works executed with list of work orders, P.O copies or LOI copies and client completion certificates.
Details of current commitments – List of all the jobs under execution with the value of the job and percentage completion with particular emphasis on project of similar magnitude carried out.
Details of experience of working in similar kind of project.
Details of HSE policy, safety manual, safety plan and implementation procedures in-line with internationally accepted practices along with the statistics for last four years.
Details of quality assurance and quality control practices currently in place for the execution of similar work.
Details of contractor’s financial performance documents (audited balance sheets with profit and loss statements) and audit reports for last 3 preceding years.
Details of company’s registration, PAN card, service tax and GST.
Details of documents in support of Health, Safety, Environment and Quality [HSEQ] performance.
Details of insurance of employee policy, medical evaluation including drug testing policy.
Details of managing and monitoring sub-contractor performance.
Details of safety and security evaluation policy.
Copies of ISO 9001, 14001, OHSAS 18001 or any other accreditation and certification as applicable.
Financial Criteria for pre-qualification of contractor:
Turnover in each of the financial year.
Positive net worth of financial year.
Liquidity ratio in each of financial year.
The pre-bid and pre-award of contract meetings are to take place between client and contractor representative for selection of a contractor.

Contractor representative should understand the financial implications to meet expectations of the client to comply with safety management.
Contractor representative should understand technical impact while execution of contract including managing safety.
Client and contractor representatives should have clear understanding on safety competency and effectiveness of implementation of the safety program during execution of work.
Periodic monitoring of the safety performance of contractors.
To assist in meeting value for money and quality assurance objectives, agencies are to submit a performance report.
Contract information.
Contractor to comply pre-qualification questioner process.
The advantage and effectiveness of process of pre-qualification and selection of contractor is the key and a proper tool to achieve contractor safety management.
It reduces variability during contract execution.
It improves project completion target effectiveness in terms of cost, quality and project schedule.
It makes it possible to achieve alignment with contractor before execution work starts.
Contractor provides knowledgeable, skilled and experienced manpower with sufficient resources to comply with safety management.
Contractor review for statutory and regulatory requirement in advance.
Contractor discuss job-specific safety plants.
Contractor evaluate effectiveness of orientation or trade specific training periodically.
Contractor reviews plans and job safety analysis before start of work.
Contractor conduct field audits, documenting the audit’s findings and demands corrective action from concerned executive personnel.
Contractor always communicates safety improvement progress.
Contractor does monitoring, introduces the changes required and changes metrics as per the requirement.
Contractor investigates safety incidents, injuries and near-misses for improving safety management.
Such detailed criteria can serve as a guide map for selection of contractors that are able to plan, implement and develop the envisioned project in accordance with the specific requirements laid down by the organization.

In terms of expertise and capability, the automobile landscape has evolved and technologies such as 3D glasses, haptic sensors and AR heads up displays have entered the vocabulary of traditional suppliers. Such ambitious enhancements, by and large, are reshaping the traditional work environments. The automotive industry was one of the first to develop global supply chains, and those supply chains have only continued to become more complicated. Moreover, the safety challenges that underlie these trends are not going away but instead, require confrontation.

In an automotive industry, the factory floors are busy and bustling places of manufacturing robots and equipment. They contain moving machineries and thousands of workers, and both work in collaboration. It’s a challenge to maintain this complex supply chain and so, health and safety of employees tops the agenda.

With rapidly changing consumer attitudes toward greater connectivity, mobility, and autonomous vehicles, volatile regulatory environments, increasing consumer demands for improved product safety, unrelenting cost pressures, and international competition, the Safety automobile industry is facing a potentially disruptive decade.

The way automotive businesses conduct business is also changing as a result of stakeholder demands for manufacturing eco-friendly products, operating with a smaller environmental impact, and reducing worker risks from chemicals, moving parts, and ergonomics.

EHS leaders are developing solutions for training, such as eLearning courses that explain H&S systems in detail.

One that enhance supply chain alignment, strengthen public trust by proving their capacity to meet regulatory standards, and offer transparency into their corporate sustainability processes in order to help manage these issues and stay competitive.

Employees and workers in an automotive industry encounter a variety of hazards on a daily basis. Primary ones are:
Manual handling: Worker actions of bending, reaching, stretching, pulling, lifting, working in cramped positions and repetitive motions. If a worker bends over an engine bay, he/she may hold a fixed posture for a long period of time. Using excessive force with hand tools can also cause injuries.
Being hit by or trapped between objects: During grinding, working under vehicles and cleaning parts, particles emitted may affect the eyes and other body parts. Doors, bonnets and other parts, tools and equipment may slip or move while performing work.
Slips, trips and falls: Slips may occur on oily floors and when one works with slippery parts of vehicles. Also there are chances of tripping over tools and equipment.
Exposure to noise, vibrations, fire and other hazardous conditions:
Noise and vibrations can result in deafening of ears. Workers are also exposed to hazardous substances and chemicals- petrol, solvents, degreasers, paints and other cleaning products.


The car manufacturing company, Toyota, has approached health and safety with a strategy known as K-HYP (Kaizen- How’s Your Process). At every facility, teams meet every morning and discuss safety, wellness, quality, efficiency and other metrics and as they pass around clipboards, they welcome any safety issue, injury or improvements in the process. Also trainings help them build a group-wide culture of health and safety from the grassroots-up. In the center of each plant, they have a cell dedicated to safety training, called as ‘safety dojo’. It is lined with PPE, instructions, charts and training gear and gives opportunity to work with the systems first-hand, before letting lose on the production floor.

Such ideas expand the reach of EHS to all levels of organizations. Industries, at a primary level, can carry out control measures to control hazards:

Employees are well-trained in lifting activities and manual handling.
Usage of mechanical load shifting devices (cranes, material hoists, hand trucks and forklifts) can avoid awkward loads.
Workshops should encourage use of PPE and grinders and similar machineries should have guarding of machinery guidelines.
Rotation of workers through a variety of tasks ensure that workers do not perform repetitive tasks for a longer periods.
Undertake risk-assessments and pre-operational inspections.
Permit-to-work to ensure that work is done safely and efficiently.
Be sure that splash guards in place and written risk assessments are conducted to identify hazardous substances and control the risks
Develop, implement and maintain a service regime.
Lockout-Tag out procedures are carried diligently.
Care should be taken that the noise levels do not extend the National standard exposure (beyond 85 dB) and audiometric tests are undertaken as and when required.
Fire evacuation drills are conducted annually/six monthly.
There is a system that confirms that workers have means of communicating while they work alone and in an event of emergency.
Safety should be taught from day one, even before employees have a chance to get to grips with the actual manufacturing process. It should be ingrained in the minds of every worker who works in the industry. That being said, safety is not a one-time experience, but an ongoing process that promises the health and well-being of an individual.

We don’t need to stress about the importance of sending your employees back home safely – you wouldn’t be here with us if you didn’t care. And we definitely are aware that you want your organization to be a place of function, not incidents and fatalities. But when it comes to adopting new systems for your organizations, we are aware that you might be apprehensive about the actual applicable results. With technologies changing rapidly and EHS professionals embracing the revolution, almost everyone in the industrial arena seems to leave their manual systems behind in the hopes of mitigating risks, incident prevention and improved safety culture.

That being said, when one needs to apply new technologies to their operations, people keep facing barriers in the technology adoption.

We know that you’ve heard about it – and are definitely interested in taking your safety programs to the digital age. For some, it becomes a precarious path to take – making decisions, allocating resources etc. as there seem to be more additional paths to be undertaken.

EY states that as the EHS profession has slowly embraced and adopted digital technologies, recurrent systemic people or technology-related gaps in the solutions implemented further result in poorly solved problems.

Let those be from the automation of the processes, through the proliferation of on-field sensors and evolution towards on-field predictive analytics – we are aware that workers and organizations are now standing to experience a step change in the EHS performance, if appropriate opportunities are grasped. Majority of organizations are reconciling how to translate technological changes into improved performance using EHS management software.

Moving past the paper forms, inefficient processes and manually updated Excel spreadsheets is definitely a challenge – no question about that!

To deploy software in the EHS department, considerations that help and evaluate EHS programs are meant to be tangible, practical, implementable and most importantly, sustainable. What we need is to quantify the benefits of digital initiatives to safe and healthy workplaces, as comprehensive integration can remain elusive in most of the cases.

implement ehs software

Have a deep know-how about your bottlenecks

Making a list definitely helps. Do you wish to leave your employees frustrated or disappointed in your automation processes that fail to yield appropriate inefficiencies? Your employees can be bombarded with solutions overloads and undoubtedly be overwhelmed by ‘digital paralysis’. In simple words, in absence of advanced appropriate mapping, navigation, coordination and integration seems painful.

Reach out to your safety heads, managers, even site supervisors and talk to them – understand whether anyone has to complete a form, safety audit or do an observation or any process or form.

Ask them their timings – how long can it take? How tough are the things to do and what can be their frustration points. List down their feedback – they are the spine of the safety plans and their views definitely matter.

Distinguish between functional and non-functional requirements

Simply put, functional requirements define what precisely a software must do and how the system must respond to inputs. Functional requirements define the software’s goals, meaning that the software will not work if these requirements are not met.

Requirements, both functional and non-functional, are crafted by business analysts. It falls upon their shoulders to communicate with clients, figure out their needs and wants, and translate them into specifications.

For functional, “Any Requirement Which Specifies What the System Should Do.” will describe to you a particular behaviour or function of the system when certain conditions are met. Some of the functions that can be included are –

- Business Rules
- Transaction corrections, adjustments and cancellations
- Administrative functions
- Authentication
- Authorization levels
- Audit Tracking
- External Interfaces
- Reporting Requirements
- Legal or Regulatory Requirements

Identify your functional requirements to describe particular behaviour of functions of the systems to meet certain conditions. Find out your ability to contain tea or coffee without leaking (gig).

Non-functional requirements

When there are requirements that are not impacted or do not meet the basic functionalities, they affect the user experience and define a systems behaviour, features, with their general characteristics. The main focus remains on user expectations as they are product properties.

If you have non-functional requirements for the software such as –

Emails should be sent with a latency of no greater than 1 hour.
Each request should be processed within 15 seconds.
User interface should be responsive for desktop/laptop browsers and Mobile device browser
They are not to be trifled with, as the buyer of the systems is not necessarily the user of the systems.

Calculation of ROI (tangible / intangible)

The time that your staff spends learning about the system, or the IT teams spend in installing and maintaining the same becomes the time each individual could have spent somewhere else which one can expect a period of diminished productivity while the staff adjusts.

Finally, there’s also the potential that your new system will lack some of the functionality your current system has. To create an honest and fair assessment, factor this disparity into your investment’s cost. When one needs to make solid calculations, one should compare the merits of potential purchases – that ultimately shall present the best and solid arguments to the stakeholders and decision makers and choose the best route forward in your company.

When humans reach out into your ongoing training processes (in the ongoing process of implementation), you will definitely feel relieved that they will help you get through the bumps and bruises along your software journey.

Coming up: Part 2 of this series

In the next part, you shall know more about the roles of various teams in implementation and their importance in software implementation.

ASK-EHS Safety Software solutions
Discover the peerless functional approach in-blend with intuitive digital engines for compliance and performance

Embrace digital resilience ASK-EHS safety software deliver keystone safety, health and environment digital solutions The most adept, flexible and trusted mobile-ready platforms with seamless integration

ABOUT ASK-EHS Software
ASK-EHS is among the world’s most trusted safety, health and environment software solution providers. Thousands of active users spread over more than 4 continents in diverse industrial workplaces – rely on our digital EHS platforms. Our end-to-end customization for tailored solution delivery, experts within national and international regulatory framework and integrated EHS business services have more than 400+ clients on the planet.

The global service delivery in core and diverse industrial domains have allowed the solution delivered to address three key areas: adaptability, better user rate for acceptance and proactive compliance management.

Ideal EHS software should seamlessly blend into your organization’s processes by adding additional modules, creating custom workflows and processes, and seamlessly automating repetitive tasks. It can potentially meet every unique challenge posed by your safety processes and data requirements.

Our EHS Software can be configured and/or customized to suit client's business preferences. Clients can configure user hierarchy, checklists and risk matrices. On the other hand, workflows and forms can be customized considering that they are unique to each organization. Another salient feature of the software is that it can be integrated with existing ERP systems like SAP or any other such system. Besides this, it also can integrate with existing Active Directories/Azure AD for single sign-on (SSO) and emails.

EHS Digitalization Landscape with ASK-EHS Safety Software

“For safety is not a gadget but a state of mind.” – Eleanor Everet

To remain safe is the personal responsibility of everyone, though employers are responsible for the health and safety management of their organization, employees also play a significant role in keeping the work environment thriving and secure.

According to the National Safety Council, every 7 seconds a worker is injured on the job. That means 510 people are injured an hour, 12,600 a day, 88,500 a week, and a shocking 4,600,000 workers are injured every year. The International Labour Organization (ILO) warns that there may be under-reporting of fatal occupational injuries.

Tips to Help Create an Effective Safety Culture

Developing and retaining a thriving safety culture is an evolving process that requires dedication from the entire workforce of an organization. The overall effort will deliver outcomes that include an optimistic outlook regarding safety and a reduced number of incidents and accidents.

The following are few guidelines to help your organization start building a stable safety culture:



Here are 10 Safety Tips for Continuous Improvement of Your Safety Culture:



All of the above Safety Do’s should be shared with all employees, workers, and visitors in the form of safety instruction pocket cards so that it can prompt people about the safety rules of the company. It can also help to implement the HSE policy of the company stringently. Most of the organizations prepare such safety instruction cards and hand over to people during their HSE induction.Emergency contact numbers and what to do in an emergency are also printed on the back of the safety instruction cards, which really helps them evacuate safely to the assembly point.

HSE induction for new employees and visitors and regular training on safety topics for the workforce can reduce work errors and help to avert redundant incidents. The company must implement robust health and safety policy and the commitment of management must be visible in the workplace.

Always know how your safety policies and programs are doing and what has to be done to make further improvements.

Training on Ergonomics can be a ‘win-win’ opportunity to improve productivity and quality while increasing employee safety and morale. Ergonomics takes into consideration of Behaviour (such as non-work activities, breaks, stretch, position, postures, etc.), Environment (such as process/ task, furniture, tools, equipment, engineering, etc.) and Person (such as knowledge, weight, physical abilities, medical conditions, fitness etc.). Correctly selected and practiced ergonomic behaviors result in avoiding unnecessary fatigue, maintaining correct posture and safe work culture for people.

ASK-EHS as your Safety Partner
ASK-EHS offers certified & industry-experienced trainers who consistently help each & every EHS industry with their safety training needs.



We, at ASK-EHS, have conducted 7000+ Training programs successfully; 8.5 Lac Safety professionals have been trained in several Safety Training programs & 500+ Corporations served with Safety Training Programs.

Get in touch with us to know more.

The prestart up safety review (PSSR) provides a final check of new and modified equipment to confirm that all appropriate elements of process safety have been addressed satisfactorily and the facility is safe to operate before introduction of hazardous chemicals to the process. The pre-start-up Safety Review is carried out by a multidiscipline team familiar with the operating, mechanical, technical, design and safety requirements of the facility and for a modified facility when a modification is significant enough to require a changes. PSSR is also called operational readiness review having intention of ensuring that the facility is safe for employees and that equipment installed will operate according to design specifications.

Pre-Start-up Safety Review (PSSR) is an essential element of the Process Safety Management (PSM) program mandated by the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). A PSRM checklist and a field checklist can be used to ensure completeness of the review. The findings of the team are documented, and recommendations are acted on before hazardous chemicals are introduced to the process PSSR needs to be customized to specific process and facility to which it applies. The PSSR process is to confirm all appropriate elements of process safety management have been addressed adequately and that the facility is safe for Start-up. This includes validating that all the action items from other design and construction processes are complete.

A PSSR is required per U.S. OSHA PSM / EPA RMP compliance when any change modifies the PSI, including but not limited to:

Information pertaining to the technology of the process (i.e., a new control or safety system)
Information pertaining to the equipment in the process (i.e., new valves or valve operation; a new reactor or process vessel)
Information pertaining to the hazards of the regulated substances used or produced
Case Study
In March 2005, the BP Texas City refinery suffered a major disaster that killed 15 and injured more than 170 others, as per the detailed report issued by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB). BP had not properly conducted safety critical checks. The CSB investigators found deficiencies which should have been identified and corrected by application of PSSR, each of which contributed to the extent of the disaster, some of which were:

an inoperative pressure control valve
a defective high-level alarm
an uncalibrated sight-glass level transmitter as well as portable trailers with non-essential personnel located too close to the process.
Properly performed PSSR would have prevented this type of an incident. Guaranteeing a thorough PSSR requires both qualified employees and experienced safety-minded management. The PSSR also should get reviewed and approved prior to processes being allowed to be initiated.

Effectively conducted PSSRs can thwart incidents and the consequential harm to personnel, equipment damage, and loss of production and revenues. According to OSHA, the ultimate responsibility lies with plant or facility management to ensure that a PSSR is properly conducted before a covered process is started.

​Methodology to conduct PSSR:

Compile the process safety information
Process hazard analysis
Resolve or implement all recommendations from the process hazard analysis prior to start up
Check all documents ensuring safety, operating, maintenance and emergency action and response procedures are written, implemented and are adequate
Refer to Standards or codes, manufacturers’ instructions, and other applicable regulations
Ensure that construction and equipment is in accordance with the design specifications
Ensure that training for each employee, involved in handling hazardous chemicals, has been completed
Arrange for additional training in other areas such as maintenance, emergency action and response or hazard communication
Ensure that documents related to process safety information, process hazard analysis and material handling policies are made available to facility employees
Ensure that the start-up of a plant equipment is conducted in accordance with applicable industry standards, manufacturers’ recommendations and/ or plant procedures
PSSR Form Checklist & Managerial Sign Off
The PSSR Checklist used will hinge on the scope of the site’s processes and hazards.

It should be the responsibility of the manager, who will sign off the PSSR, that the plant is ready to start andalso decide whether the short-form or long-form is the most suitable checklist to use. The manager will take into account the complication of the plant, the nature or types of the hazards, and the knowledge and expertise of the carefully chosen PSSR team to take a call on the type of approach to be used.

The PSSR team will finalize the checklist for the manager who will finally ascertain if the equipment is ready for Start-up. In doing so, the PSSR team will list all the measures they consider essential to be completed before the Start-up and those which can be concluded afterwards.

The manager will then take into account the findings of the pre-Start-up team and decide if the plant is ready for the Start-up.

Site Inspection and PSSR Audit

Recently Trainers cum Senior Consultants (in Audit & Training) of ASK-EHS, went for site Inspection and PSSR audit of a private industry involved in Mining and agglomeration of hard coal. The requirement of the industry was to start the operation at the earliest. ASK-EHS Trainers guided the client’s Operation & Maintenance team to comply with the rules & standards in accordance with the Factory Act, Fire Act, Electricity Act, THE COAL MINES PROVIDENT FUND AND MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS ACT 1948 (MISSC), etc.

site inspection -askehs

ASK-EHS Experts team guided the private industry for the safe Start-up after 6 years of being in Operation.

PSSR AUDIT

The Workflow Process for PSSR has been developed and shared with the safety team of the client.



workflow processBenefits of PSSR

A PSSR system provides numerous advantages to an organization by incorporating the work of all the various disciplines involved in a team activity, in terms of greater profitability, safety and other enhancements.

Reduction in Restarts and Start-up delays
Reduce Risk
Reduce Start-up/ Shutdown Incidents
Reduce Production Losses
Realize Production Goals
Improve Efficiency
PSSR is generally expedited by a number of checklists that are completed by several areas of expertise. This includes safety, environmental, occupational health, engineering, operation, maintenance, electrical, instrumentation and other regulations. The Team from ASK-EHS, prepared the checklists, ensured required personnel were aware of the hazards and properly trained before a start-up, and quickly accessed and approved PSSR checklist items to resolve actions and findings.

ASK-EHS provides a variety of EHS audit services to clients to help them verify that their activities and operations are in compliance with local regulatory requirements, internal corporate policies and that procedures are proper and pertinent to EHS management standards.

Get in touch with us to know more.

crane loading ask-ehs
Oil & Gas drilling entails a series of activities that require many different equipment, machinery, methodologies and technologies. Along with these come a slew of hazards that could lead to catastrophic incidents. The first step is to recognize these hazards as relevant and then look closely at some of the control measures needed to mitigate them.

In this post we throw light on one part of the many hazards prevalent in this sector, namely – Struck by / Caught in / Caught between* hazards (As per OSHA – source)

According to OSHA, a very high percentage of injuries in the oil & gas extraction sector are a result of struck by / caught in / caught between hazards. The source of most of these hazards includes moving vehicles (both heavy & construction related), equipment, falling material and high-pressure lines. OSHA clearly outlines these hazards and has generously provided a comprehensive document that guides organizations through the recognition of these hazards and their control measures. In particular, we take a look at Crane, Derrick and Hoist safety hazards

A) Crane operating and safety: One clear safety measure for safe crane operating, is the need for inspection and maintenance that are strictly consistent. Most of these inspections and maintenance procedures / processes are well documented. Pre inspection techniques, items to be inspected, use of equipment, LOTOTO etc. are key essentials behind successful and safe crane & hoist operations.

B) Derricks: Another key component of safe operations are the utilization of derricks. This again poses major risks during construction and operational phases. Working at height, especially during inclement weather could lead to disastrous consequences and major harm or injury.

C) Hoist: The hoist is again a key component to the entire operations. As mentioned previously in this blog, regular inspection and maintenance are absolutely crucial to safe operations.

Hazards associated with these operations (especially struck by / caught in / caught between) include;

Transporting, loading and unloading hazards
Overloading of crane
Handling heavy loads (e.g. lifting of granite, marble and/or stone slabs)
loading askehs



Documents are essential to preserve and protect the workforces from these as well as many other such hazards when working in the Oil & Gas sector. But are these documents good enough to ensure safety at work? More needs to be done and one extremely effective way of transferring information and / or training to work forces is through the clever use of 3D animation movies.

oil & gas industry hazards

Once clear advantage with animation movies is that one is able to showcase hazards quite effectively. In fact, intricate aspects of inspections & maintenance procedures and steps can be actually translated into animated movie clips that could be used to assess the exact readings required for an effective result. Similarly, accurate models of cranes, derricks and hoists can be recreated using 3D animation and further utilized as a simulation aid to training. These measures could go a long way in getting high safety performance and ultimately enhance productivity.

Do you think 3D models and animated movie shots help in training work forces? If so, how? We welcome your thoughts in the comments section.

safety platforms
‘Where do you start with a health, safety and environment strategy?’ The question might seem perplexed to all the health and safety professionals – and as safety practitioners go on to create and learn theories, adequate knowledge and the technical things needed to do the jobs, they steadily comprehend with the essentials.

If we look out for safety at an industrial workplace, some conditions they see in general are –

Everybody is wearing a safety helmet at all times
Supervisors show sincere interest in employees’ safety and act immediately if a problem arises
Employees are well-informed about the exit routes at a work site
There are clear instructions how to report different observations to supervisors
Employees are familiar with company safety policies
But in reality, these are far-fetched goals.

And they need to be abided by, in reality. Their visibility therefore becomes vital.

With the safety laws getting stringent day by day, businesses should become more and more responsible for managing their organizations’ safety and compliance to prevent hazards while abiding by their legal and statutory compliances. They further demand investing more and more into safety and compliance practices and platforms. Plus, generates a serious need for efficient digital systems, software’s, and mobile apps to help businesses ensure safety in every aspect of business.

safety platforms

Selecting the best safety and compliance software for your business might seem prodigious at first, considering the time, efforts, and investments required for finding, installing or shifting from one software to another, hiring specialists, or conducting training programs.

Investing some time in chalking out and understanding business’ safety and compliance requirements based on your business types along with the industries that they belong to, the processes get considerably easy.

To choose the best ones for your industry, it becomes necessary to seek out for the following –

Worker inductions with training logs
A good safety compliance platform enables to manage and track inductions of employees, equipment, and training for various purposes. Dynamic forms and checklists for all your safety and operational training needs. Being able to create and share inductions, training documents, policies, and checklists with your new employees helps you automate and simplify the process of onboarding.

It helps to keep logs and track of the same and tells you who your most compliant employees are.

JSAs and Incident Management
Digital safety and compliance platform enables you to report, investigate, track, and maintain a visual scorecard of incidents, hazards, and near misses in real-time remotely.

One can report the incident so that the concerned authorities can investigate them and find out causes and ways to prevent them in the future. JSA (Job Safety Analysis) is a crucial mechanism for protecting workers, customers and business from adverse exposure.

Interactive Dashboards
Safety and compliance platform dashboards when give insights to the company’s safety and compliance status, enable to seek overall safety score, along with the number of incidents being investigated.

Status of checklists, when assigned to employees are visible on dashboards – gives an update to the employees especially for the tasks needed to be completed in the day and time for the same.

Pre-starts and Service Checks
A good safety and compliance platform allows you to create and share pre-start and service checklists for users and equipment across your organization.

Using software for conducting regular checks makes it easier for you as it is completely paperless and you can store the history without worrying about losing the papers or registers.

Digital File Storage
With central cloud-based file storage systems and strict access controls, sharing of documents across employees in the companies give access to data required for the scope of their jobs.

Having a large amount of data at your fingertips helps them in making smarter business decisions where evaluation of compliances and business planning is based on the status of assets and equipment long with the skills of the workforce. One can rely on these digital safety systems in circumstances when evidence and proof is demanded.

When thinking about digital, one needs to understand the nature and role of different categories, as they help organizations build their safety culture, and develop causalities and leading indicators to predict risks in the working environment.

ASK-EHS

The long-term goals and objectives of an organization enables its employees to have stability and a progressive career outlook. To ensure productivity, quality and safety in an organization, employees need to align themselves with the culture of their organization. The expertise and skills of existing employees enhances a company’s culture. Talented employees are an asset for any organization. It is well known that retention of employees is more important than recruitment of employees.

Loyalty of the candidate is one of the most desirable attributes which helps an employer to retain employees. Manpower solution provider companies are required to explore such candidates and employers to understand the mind-set of candidates to recruit and retain the best and competent talented personnel.

Now-a-days workshops are being conducted to understand the culture of a client to assess the candidates with requisite background on their attitude towards safety management system. During the selection process, it must be observed that the candidate being recruited has fresh perspectives, new mind set and relevant experience to accelerate the growth of self and of the Organization. Such candidates are an asset to an organization as they bring new ideas, advanced technology and methods backed with techno commercial knowledge and information. For safety management system, selection criteria for the right candidate for the right job is a systematic recruitment process.

Since the globalization and mass migration of manpower, individual choice for the safety management system and for the organization is one of the greatest assets. Organizations need to plan their manpower requirement anticipating potential change and uncertainty. They need to develop a flexible and resilient workforce strategy for their businesses. For HSE, specialization in health and safety and knowledge of requisite standards is most important factor. To maintain a balanced workforce as per the need of global standards, diversity in skill-set, mindset, gender, and work experience at different levels are to be considered.

Retention of Employees

The top leadership of organizations are aiming towards sustainability and giving importance to safety management system. The position of manager and team leader for safety management is very high and cannot be undermined; hence recruitment process must be focused specifially on specialization in this field along with relevant experience. A recruitment consultant needs to have trained experts to deal with managerial level professionals.

Selection process of the right candidate at entry-level position requires preparation by recruiter to find the right candidate for safety management. Candidates need to undergo formal training for basic soft skills, relevant technical skills and interviewing skills to help them fit in a particular job profile. For mid-level employees, the selection process has limited challenges because they have gained skills and experience over the years.

Organizations face the challenge for permanent and a contingent of manpower with talent and competency in their respective fields of work. Manpower outsource company has innovative recruitment solutions to meet the rapidly changing talent and competency requirement at workplace. There are short-term assignments, long term assignments and permanent placement of manpower. Candidate having required qualification, knowledge, experience and talent can match the right position.

In today’s competitive business environment, employers prefer contract manpower with required specialization for special projects, existing unit expansion work and planned shutdown. There is a trend to recruit contract employees for short term or long term. As per the present trend, contract placement has become a career option for many safety professionals as well. Hence, the companies have to offer customized solution to their clients based on the required skill-sets, duration, and extent of scope of work. Clients can rely on manpower providers for their requirement of skilled employees which is a win-win for all the stakeholders and focus on their core business.

ASK-EHS have complete solutions for your professional resourcing. With more then 14 years of worldwide safety experience and 1100+ Worksites protected by ASK-EHS’s safety personnel. 26000 EHS personnel have been deployed by us. We provide customized solutions for project requirement.

Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) work is not only about conducting work in office – most of the times, field work is essential. For EHS professionals, keeping up with dual obligations seem tiresome and equally challenging.

How are they going to keep up?

As health and safety professionals, though they might have a vast range of health and safety programs that spans across multiple divisions, locations and work functions across hundreds, if not thousands, of employees, to deploy most effective health and safety programs, tailoring the requirements to the situation and needs of each employee enables everyone to shrink the global requirements in a “just in time” and “just as needed” scenarios.

Through the spate of developments in engineering and technology, organizations and industries seem largely mechanized and automated, with their enabling of mass production and manufacturing on a super scale.

Most of these organizations and industries experience that environment health and safety based demands and necessities can become challenging in nature, if active monitoring, review and follow-up initiatives are not in place.

Modern day organizations spread all over the world have to function in accordance with the stipulated regulations and laws made by their governments. They also have to fulfil compliance based criteria, in order to display that they are safe to function. This twin criteria of regulations and compliances can take different shapes and forms based on the sphere of activity pertaining to the organization combined the relevant laws of the land.

The often used method of maintaining, applying for approval, procuring no-objection certificates or similar approvals has been used for recordkeeping of such activities via documents and tabulated sheets.

The challenge with such methods is that an active vigilance and monitoring of set goals, is difficult to be maintained. Neither can the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment,_health_and_safety]EHS[/url] team within an organization, actively update the renewal of licenses or permissions sought from the relevant authorities to allow the organization to function smoothly. For setting up functional EHS compliance, proactive systems would be required that can be on top of the regulations, legislations and compliances that need to maintained.

A software approach for register of regulations can deliver the functional EHS compliance that organizations are aiming for, as it can:

Keep a track of organizational measures and technical provisions that are required for sustained compliant operations
Track and maintain status on licenses, permissions and legislations that are required for as part of operations and are renewed, periodically
Send alerts and notifications against any renewals of a particular license through clever “self-moderated” ‘Rule Engines’

Using software for ‘register of regulations’ can, not only introduce quicker response times to the erstwhile lagging paper records and manual checking but also allow for faster deployment to mitigate non-conformities and maintain compliance.

It also allows the EHS team and corporate teams to consistently monitor and act upon the state of compliance in real-time that can become a great enabler for organizations spread over multiple sites. The impact of stipulated compliances and regulations is that it becomes a binding way to ensure that the state of operations in its entirety, even the additions made to processes and facilities later are held accountable at all times.

Therefore having a digitalized approach through software to maintain register of regulations makes so much sense instead of relying on paper based recordkeeping. Furthermore, the inherent quality of software, if it can be customized as per the need of the user, can fit the bill nicely.

With EHS departments often having overarching EHS policies to govern corporation’s approach to EHS and sustainability generally, EHS compliance becomes effectively essential as it has appropriately become the fabric of many companies approach to sustainability, along with corporate responsibilities.

Undoubtedly, EHS is dynamic. With abundance of regulatory developments coming out each year, EHS professionals need to stay up-to-date on the changes that more or less, affect their job duties, with their company’s EHS performance. EHS becomes important, because there is a global awareness of the need to reduce the corporate environmental footprint, a sensitivity to workers’ rights and an emphasis on healthful work environments.

Scaffolding happens to be one of the biggest contributors of accidents – fatal, serious and ordinary in nature throughout the world, but mostly in the construction industry. This is due to unplanned and haphazard work methodology, untrained manpower, inadequate and inefficient supervision, and overall management failure.

Monitoring Safety

Every year, thousands of serious accidents take place in the hazardous working environment of the scaffolder, of which 50 to 60 are fatal. With the proper Training of Monitoring and Inspection, every Industry can prevent these accidents.

At ASK-EHS, we have identified key areas that need to be addressed in order to develop a safe scaffolding execution system. We have emerged as one of the most prominent scaffolding companies/ contractors within the industry at the National and International level catering to Construction, Operation, Marine, Building & Services Sectors. Having determined these areas, we have developed a comprehensive range of services that assist corporations on an end-to-end basis and serve them at every stage of the project life cycle.

Objective of Scaffolding Training

Scaffolding Training aims to provide the participants both theoretical and practical knowledge to enable them to erect, inspect, use and dismantle scaffolds, using standard scaffolding guidelines.

Learning Outcomes of the Scaffolding Training

Importance of Scaffolds & their use
Understand roles & responsibilities engaged with the Scaffold activity
Identify the various kind of Scaffolding components & their technical data in line with International/ National standards
Apprehend Engineering of Scaffold & its principles
Recognize different types of Scaffolds & their applicability
Understand the Scaffolding material estimation & calculation
Understand & identify different classes of loads & calculation
Understand & apply correct techniques & sequence of erection, alteration, modification, dismantling and material storage.
Carry out inspection of a Scaffold & certify its stability.
Recognize & carry out Hazard identification, risk assessment & controls
Understand EHS requirements in Scaffolding Management & distinguish safe & unsafe Scaffolding practices
Decent knowledge of safe erection and dismantling of Scaffolding is needed to undergo Scaffolding Inspector Training.

3-days Intensive Online Training program on Scaffolding Inspector Training was recently conducted for the staff of a leading independent power company in India, with a successful track record of identifying, developing and operating power generation assets across the thermal and renewable power sectors, to enhance their knowledge related to the Scaffolding by our in-house EHS Trainer, Mr. Arun Senthil Raj.G (Sr. EHS Trainer & Auditor).


Trainer’s Opinion
The basic knowledge of the Scaffolding process, components, types, erecting & dismantling, and safety in Scaffolding had been discussed elaborately. The participants were actively involved in interactions, group activities & assessments. They came to know about the national & international standards/ guidelines related to scaffolding through our presentation which is prepared in line with national & international standards.

ASK- EHS’s unique methodology of training deliveries such as lectures, presentations, videos, animations, group discussions, case studies and experience sharing helped the participants immensely to understand the process of Scaffolding, conceptually, in a simplified manner. Also, live streaming of scaffolding materials & other work-at-height equipments like retractable fall arrestors, lanyards, safety harnesses & rescue items were presented to the participants for better understanding.

Participants were encouraged to ask their queries on scaffolding components, types, material estimation & safe working procedures which made the whole training program interactive. Also, the trainer resolved their queries reasonably related to Scaffolding. Group exercises such as Scaffolding material estimation, preparation of HIRAC (Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Control) managed to catch the attention of the participants which further helped them to better understand the concept.

Module-wise questions were prepared & assessments were conducted after completion of each module.

Pre and post assessment method for the training program was conducted to measure the training effectiveness.

Contents discussed during the Training


Overall, the Training Program was well appreciated by the participants as well as by the management thus establishing the fact that the implementation of the learning outcomes from this training will be visible in their activities & work process.

ASK-EHS specializes in offering effective Scaffolding Training, consisting of In-house and On-field training accompanied by pre-assessment and post-assessment of attendees. Recently we completed 13 years as a most trusted and successful Scaffolding Certified Training Institution.

COVID Safety Implementation Support
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 requires employers to comply with safety and health standards and regulations promulgated by OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration, USA) or by a state with an OSHA-approved state plan. COVID-19 planning guidance (developed by OSHA) is based on traditional infection prevention and industrial hygiene practices. It focuses on the need for employers to implement engineering, administrative, and work practice controls and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as well as considerations for doing so.

COVID Safety Implementation Support

Covid-19 Safety Plan
Construction sites operating during the Corona virus Covid-19 pandemic need to ensure they are protecting their workforce and minimizing the risk of spread of infection.

ASK-EHS has introduced consistent measures at one of the Client sites (as per their requirement) based on the guidelines of the Government on Preparedness, Prevention, and Response for a pandemic. The Project site must always comply with the latest Government advice on Corona virus.

The health and safety requirements of any construction activity must also not be compromised at this time. If an activity cannot be undertaken safely due to a lack of suitably qualified personnel being available or lack of preparedness and prevention, it should not take place.

COVID Safety Implementation Support

ASK-EHS had deployed over 27,000 highly qualified EHS Professionals in Health, Safety, Environment, Fire, Scaffolding, Rigging, Security, Administration, Project Management, and Safety Management Consulting Services (SMCS).

Contract Workers: –

Replacement of labor: All subcontractors are required to seek permission prior to bringing any new labor into a shared labor camp, including a clear statement on precautions taken to prevent the inadvertent introduction of CoVID-19 into the existing labor pool. The resident Construction Manager (appointed by ASK-EHS) shall approve all such requests.

Labor camp management procedures should include the following at a bare minimum:

COVID Safety Implementation Support

Routine activity

Work

Covid-19 Work Resumption Plan
(After Lockdown)

Purpose

The purpose of this Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is to describe the procedure to follow for resuming work after lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Introduction

This SOP is prepared to resume the work at Client Project after the lockdown period due to the COVID-19 outbreak. By following this SOP, the chain of corona spread can be eliminated, and work can be done safely. All precautionary measures are to be ensured at the Client Project site so that employees/contract workers feel safe and secure at the workplace.

Scope

This SOP applies to the Client Project site

Covid-19 Work Resumption Plan

Preparedness prior to resumption

Area Disinfection

All areas in the premises, including the following, shall be disinfected properly using user- friendly disinfectant mediums:

Entrance Gate of Site – Security Porta Cabins
Vehicle Entry Gate – Security Porta Cabins
Site Office, Meeting rooms, Induction room
Open areas available (material stacking outside the stores)
Equipment and Construction Vehicles (Bar bending machines, Excavators, Dumpers)
Washrooms, Toilets, Sinks, etc.
Procedures shall be established for disinfection method, type of medium, periodicity, and log registers.

covid19 work

Appropriate PPE(Personal Protective Equipment) like Face covers, Masks, Goggles, Gloves, Coats / Aprons, Shoes, and also disinfecting gadgets like a sprayer, brush, etc. shall be made available.

Display board regarding the procedure of disinfection shall be displayed at entrances/prominent places.

On resumption of work

Security procedures at entry gates

Compulsory screening of all persons irrespective of cadre/status entering through a gate with a thermal scanner.
Stoppage of any person found having fever and cough, with breathing problem, and inform the concerned department/contractor. The person shall be taken to the nearest quarantine facility immediately and later to a government hospital as early as possible.
No new workers (without valid pass) shall be allowed inside.
Any new vehicle shall not be allowed without valid permission.
Any parcel/courier person should be stopped at the gate. The parcel shall be collected from the gate by the concerned person.
temperature check

Sanitization during entry

All people who are entering the premises shall be sanitized with whole-body sanitizers.
Hand sanitizers shall be kept ready at the entrances and people after entry shall sanitize their hands before proceeding to their work spots.
askehs training

Personal Protective Equipment

All Employees/Contract workers/Visitors/Trainees/Others whom so ever entering the Client Project premises shall be permitted only upon wearing masks.

The COVID-19 Response Manager and the Lead Worker Representative (appointed by ASK-EHS at the client site) shall, having regard to the nature and extent of the hazards in the place of work, agree to the frequency or schedule of inspections. It is expected that during all the return to work phases, inspections will be conducted on a daily basis.

ISO 45003: A driving force for the effective management of psychological health & safety within the workplace

Data from International Labour Organization (ILO) indicates that:
o There are over 2.78 million deaths globally per year as a result of occupational accidents
o Over 374 million work-related non-fatal injuries/illnesses occur per year, leading to extended absence from work
o The economic burden of current OH&S (Occupational Health and Safety) performance is estimated to be 3.94% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
ISO 45003 is the first global standard giving practical guidance on managing psychological health within the workplace. It provides guidance on the management of psychosocial risk within the occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system to enable organizations to prevent work-related injury and ill health of their workers and other interested parties and to promote well-being and engagement.
It is applicable to organizations of all sizes and in all sectors for the development, implementation, maintenance, and continual improvement of safe and healthy workplaces.
It includes -
 Information on how to recognize the psychosocial hazards that can affect workers, such as those that arise from Working-from-home
 Offers examples of effective, often simple, actions that can be taken to manage these and improve employees wellbeing
ISO 45003 is written to help organizations using an occupational health and safety management system based on ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety standard and also be useful for organizations that have not implemented an OHS(Occupational Health and Safety) management system yet. Organizations can start using the standard now to help safeguard and assist workers from mental ill-health surfacing within the workplace.
The Focus is on work-related stress: the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope.
Well-being at work is defined as an individual’s ability to work productively and creatively, to engage in strong and positive relationships, fulfillment of personal and social goals, contribution to the community, and a sense of purpose.
WHO (World Health Organization) defines mental health as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her potential, can address the normal stresses of life, work productively and fruitfully, and contribute to her or his community.



Worker well-being is an integrative concept that characterizes the quality of life concerning an individual's health and work-related environmental, organizational, and psychosocial factors.
ISO 45003 provides guidance on:
•How to identify the conditions, circumstances, and workplace demands that have the potential to hinder the psychological health and well-being of workers
•How to identify primary risk factors and assess them to determine the changes required to improve the working environment and
•How to identify and control work-related hazards and manage psychosocial risk within an OH&S management system


Psychological health
What is psychological (mental) health?
Our mental health influences how we think and feel about ourselves and others and how we comprehend events.

What is stress?
It’s our body’s natural defense to keep us safe. All sorts of things can happen to our body, having a physical, emotional, and mental impact.



Why do organizations struggle to manage psychological health?
1. Organizations don’t understand the issues
2. Organizations don’t know what actions to take
3. Organizations need to understand how to manage

ISO 45003 recognizes that psychological health and safety are not always fully addressed within OH&S management.

ISO 45003 structure

Importance of ISO 45003
Workplace well-being - fulfillment of physical, mental, social, and cognitive needs and expectations associated with their work
Promoting well-being by managing Psychosocial Risk

Why ISO 45003 is good for your Organization?
Besides helping you to build and promote a positive working environment, a framework for managing psychological health and safety can help to improve your organizational resilience and enhance performance and productivity.



Our Training Program will provide guidance with respect to managing psychosocial risk within Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) management system to enable organizations to prevent work-related injury and ill health of their workers and other interested parties, and to promote well-being and engagement (in line with ISO 45003).

provide you support in managing Psychological Health at your workplace and sensitize the employees for their well-being as they work from home during the pandemic or work at sites and from the office as well.

Business case for engaging and impactful safety e-learning programs:

E-learning programs have gained much needed impetus in the pandemic period. Corporations are now completely enrolled into the benefits and advantages of having remote learning / e-learning programs in their repositories for meeting their training targets. Remote safety training and e-learning programs are not far behind either.

Safety e-learning programs have in fact, taken precedence, simply because they are indispensable. The pandemic gave enough worries to safety teams, however, e-learning programs became their saviors for the day. Primarily, EHS teams utilized these e-learning programs for refresher training, new employee inductions & primers to actual on-the-job training, knowledge sharing & creating safety awareness among stakeholders and more. The effectiveness of these training programs was realized and available for everyone to witness.

Once the proverbial dam burst, EHS teams opened up to many number of possibilities for continual training of workforces. The results that were being accomplished were also satisfactory. However, the effectiveness of many of these safety e-learning programs was questionable. Primarily, e-learning programs were nothing more than pre-recorded videos of training instructors providing safety training bundled along with prevalent slide based presentations.

Experiential and blended learning came about as an essential evolution to these e-learning programs. Companies (ASK-EHS included) have started to enhance the engagement levels of these programs by using interactive and gaming elements to their e-learning programs. It is pretty much well known now that actual work site videos, 2D / 3D animation, actual (life-like) models & characters and existing work landscapes can potentially & significantly enhance the engagement levels of any training program.

A) Recreating ‘life-like’ 3D models of characters, buildings, machinery, site landscapes etc., help human brains in retaining information better. So much so that they are able to recall inferences, instinctively.

Safety e-learning

B) Motion graphics and animation using specific 3D models developed for showing correct (read accurate) sequences help recreate the actual SOPs or production work flows





C) True to life incidents used hypothetically, help in creating an impactful understanding of the gravity and critical nature of the activity

Safety e-learning

Besides enhancing the interactivity, such animation clips have proven to be great assets for people who need to be trained despite their educational challenges. They could be inadequately educated but are highly skilled in the activity that they are going to do (as well as experienced). However, with changing times and safety attitudes of organizations, they are also required to make changes to their work habits. While training them is the only way to ensure optimum results, the pandemic threw the safety training plans and targets out of the window. Hence, e-learning containing such animation clips act as a great refresher for each of these cadre of work forces as well.

The quality of pre and post assessments may also determine the kind of results that we can expect from these e-learning programs. Carefully thought out learning paths and engaging content are a must have for safe[url][/url]ty e-learning programs as well.

How much of an impact do you think 2D & 3D animation movie clips make in an e-learning program? Write your views in the comments section.

We are living in a world where a person’s attention span starts coming down with each passing year and as a brand, one wishes to communicate effectively to the audiences – in industries, there certainly needs to be done something for this. Nonetheless, by implementing animation, ideas can be easily and effectively communicated without losing the spirit of the message.

In most of the cities, the public transportation systems remain inadequate. To upgrade the same, the Indian government has provided the services for metro in some of the major cities of the country – they are being planned in a phased manner in various cities as they reduce the soaring problems of traffic congestions.

Indian cities are investing in high-quality mass rapid transit systems (Metro rail is a form of mass transit public transport system employing trains) to address the growing mobility requirements. With 13 functional Metro rail networks (Mumbai, Jaipur, Noida, Chennai, Kochi, Lucknow, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi, Gurgaon, Ahmedabad, Nagpur), 6 metro systems due to launch by 2024 and 12 metro system in the planning stage, 30 metro systems in proposed stage, Metro systems are expected to play a significant role in shaping the urban development in the country.

As of January 2021, India has 760.62 kilometers (472.63 miles) of operational metro lines and 540 stations.

Metro projects-transportation

Challenges in the Procurement and Implementation of Mass Rapid Transit Projects –

The main challenges involved in the metro rail projects at the pre-development stage during the development stage and the operations stage can be categorized as political Challenges, construction Challenges, market and revenue challenges, financial Challenges, Legal challenges, and Operating Challenges.

Metro project challenges

Hazards Identification and Risk Assessment in Metro Railway Line Construction Projects

Hazard identification and risk assessment is an efficient approach to protect the health and minimize hazards to life, properties and the environment.

The steps of Hazard identification and risk assessment are –

Metro project

Risk management in the construction project management context is a comprehensive and systematic way of identifying, analyzing and responding to risks to achieve the project objectives. To manage the risk effectively and efficiently, the contractor must understand risk responsibilities, risk event conditions, risk preference, and risk management capabilities.

The major construction work having potential hazards for workers in this construction site include Excavation, Underground piping, fabrication, and erection, concreting, Rigging, Structural steel erection, Scaffolding erection and dismantling, Gas Cutting, Welding, Confined Space entry, Radiography works, Cable Tray Cable duct installation, Paving, Fixed and hinged leg replacement, Painting work at height, etc.

Metro construction

On 15 November 2008, a fatal tunnel collapse occurred one year after construction of Hangzhou metro line, resulting in loss of 12 lives. I am sure no one can able to forget that over 100 workers have died during the construction of the metro railway in the Indian capital, Delhi. The frequent accidents at metro sites have given rise to fears that safety standards are being compromised in the rush to build new lines.

To avoid heavy casualties and property losses caused by safety violations, appropriate Safety Training remains the most crucial aspect to achieve this objective that maintains a tight grip on safety & eliminates the Operating and Construction Risks.

Safety Animation Movie is a great tool to introduce safety training to all those who are involved in a Metro Project Work.

Animated videos stand crucial and their prominence

Presents a true-to-life situation that learners face every day.
Imparts consistent information in every session.
Can hold the audiences’ attention by portraying emotional touches to generate an emotional response.
Addresses multi-lingual needs to cover audiences of various regions & nationalities.
Easy to grasp and register even for non-literate/local workforce because of Audio-Visual presentation.
Ideal for demonstrating processes that are impossible to observe in reality.
Metro Rail Projects requires an integrated approach from the design stage itself. Further, the insights gained from homogeneous projects from other countries on various aspects related to construction, operation, and environmental management can also be suitably used for any project to ensure that they are environmentally sustainable as well as socially justifiable.

ASK-EHS Safety Animation movies takes care of all these aspects to assist any Metro projects from the Initial phase itself.