Environmental Studies
A Safety Management System is an essential component of any productive firm. A corporation’s SMS, often known as its “safety program,” is a documented scheme that includes a documented institutional framework, safety standards, protocols, and responsibility for all personnel within the firm. This approach should be designed with full participation and approval from the topmost degree of administration of the corporation to the least degree of administration (Manuele, 2014). For this project, I was assigned with auditing the SMS of the company where I operate, Optiven Limited. This assessment will analyze the aspects of the present SMS and evaluate whether or not the existing SMS strategy fits the ANSI/AIHA Z10 criteria. The ANSI/AIHA Z10 guideline aids in the establishment of occupational safety and health administration structures to enhance workers’ safety, decrease occupational hazards and provide healthier work environments. It is one of the most excellent complete systems-based regulations for enhancing occupational safety and health efficiency, and it offers a framework that any business may tailor to their specific requirements (ASSP, 2020). After each component is evaluated using the rating system, ideas for improvements for every component in which Optiven’s SMS does not grade top class will be explored. Shortfalls and weaknesses in Optiven’s SMS system will be identified by analyzing the SMS to segments of the Z10 specification. Defective areas can then be reviewed and revised, and modified to create a superior SMS framework for the corporation. Each aspect of this assessment will be examined one at a time.
Occupational Health and Safety Management System 3.1.1
Each year, safety updates are distributed to all workers, and there is an annual assessment that includes all departmental leaders to aid with the area’s coverage and credit ratings for the upcoming year. All occupational health and safety measures stem from the divisional structure. Every day, the on-duty platoon head sends a daily briefing to my team. These briefings cover any impending or ongoing safety concerns that may affect the workforce. Each unit supervisor is accountable for safeguarding their allocated employees and has an allocated duty within the general program. I would grade the SMS program as Moderate in this segment: Scattered disagreements must be handled, while good patterns and significant components must be in place. To earn a world-class ranking, there would necessitate to be a safety briefing nearly every day, not only on specific schedules with specific individuals. Because every member has been instructed and understands their responsibilities within the institution, the briefing should be essential for every officer’s program.
Occupational Health and Safety Policy 3.1.2
Optiven’s policy and evaluation systems, in particular, are World Class: Occupational health and safety effectiveness. Every departmental policy is evaluated yearly and has the leader’s approval and authorization. Every worker is urged to participate in the yearly evaluation and to report any suggested adjustments. The policies include a list of all relevant national and governmental policies and regulations.
Responsibility and Authority 3.1.3
At the moment, all of Optiven’s policies explicitly identify the duties and obligations of every departmental member, from the supervisor to the newbie worker. The head of the unit is in charge of everything. The senior supervisor is then assigned power to the assistants, who in turn give authority to the other employees. As a consequence, I would classify this component as World Class: Occupational health and safety efficiency.
Employee Participation 3.2
The goal of this section is to empower the overall labor force at all ranks in order to achieve continual progress in safeness and wellness (Howe, 2013). Optiven excels at this aspect of the SMS strategy. Workers are given the opportunity to engage a committee to help study and implement an innovative approach or operation for each additional technique or routine. Therefore, I would rate Optiven Strong in this segment: Conforming/completing, with minimal deficiencies in operational objectives. The only recommendation for evaluation is that there is presently no worker participation monitoring mechanism in place. As a result, in order to achieve the world-class ranking, a monitoring mechanism would require to be implemented to initially define the baseline involvement degree and then follow the levels as they develop.
Review Process, Assessment, and Prioritization 4.1, 4.2
I would rate Optiven Moderate for this segment once more: scattered disagreements need to be rectified, good patterns, and significant components must be in place. Essentially, the Optiven evaluation procedure is more of an analytical idea employed after an event arises. Every three months, an emergency evaluation panel gathers to go through the specifics of any documented occurrences. To get a world-class ranking in this category, Optiven would require to implement a transition administration approach within the organization. Having evaluation teams convening on a frequent basis to evaluate both the positive and the negative and make adjustments will benefit the organization more than convening exclusively when there is an event. When the administration converts an assessment into a witch hunt in search of single personnel or fundamental behavioural reason, the facts may be hidden or mangled for self-preservation reasons. Inspections done to get a complete awareness of the circumstances bringing up to and around the occurrence, on the other hand, result in a higher possibility of endorsement and guidance in the procedure (Bradbury, 2019)
Risk Assessment 5.1.1
Determining how considerable exposure to a danger causes health hazards to employees is critical in order to remove, regulate, and mitigate those risks effectively. This is an essential component of every corporation’s SMS. This assists in identifying and estimating the impact that these hazards may have on the personnel. I would rate Optiven as World Class: OHS excellence in this segment. Public safety, in particular, is a vocation that will always be fraught with danger. Optiven has various work teams that examine existing procedures and activities and review them in order to create healthier, more effective systems.
Hierarchy of Controls 5.1.2
I would rate Optiven as World Class: OHS effectiveness in this segment. For the last nineteen years that I have worked there, Optiven has accomplished an amazing effort of changing the work regulations to make it healthier for the employees. As a result, personal protective equipment (PPE) usage is more widespread than the remainder of the Hierarchy of Controls. Due to neck, spine, and limb casualties caused by reaching higher inside lorries for supplies, Optiven entirely modified the equipment to be extremely modest aspect. This job’s controls were changed at a multi-million financial cost.
Design Review and Management of Change 5.1.3
This refers to a method for ensuring that modifications in structures, paperwork, staff, and functions are examined and controlled in order to minimize the safety and health hazards posed by these modifications (Howe, 2013). This implies that the modifications to the controls can be tracked or seen. I would rate Optiven as Strong in this segment: Conforming/completing, with minimal gaps in operational objectives. As previously noted, Optiven has made multiple excellent adjustments to its Hierarchy of Controls. To achieve world-class for this aspect, Optiven would require to implement a documented program with worker involvement to help decide the adjustments required for prospective departmental activities rather than inventing a new system due to an event.
Procurement 5.1.4
The method by which equipment is obtained is critical to any organization. If dangers are adequately handled and prevented, eradicated, decreased, or kept under management during the planning phase such that the dangers resulting from them are at a reasonable degree, the possibility for injury or damages, as well as functional inefficiency, are diminished (Manuele, 2014). This indicates that by developing and purchasing machinery with safety in consideration, the bulk of the machine’s dangers will be minimized or decreased for the worker. I would rate Optiven as World Class: OHS effectiveness in this segment. Presently, the organization only participates in agreements with suppliers for a maximum of four years. Several functional agreements, such as building upkeep and facility merchandise, are rebid on a yearly basis. There is a “safety clause” in all of the lengthier agreements. This implies that if there is a safety concern with the organization or service provided by the organization at any point throughout the contractual duration, the agreement is promptly canceled and the purchasing procedure for that product commences afresh.
Monitoring and Measurement 6.1
I would rate the organization as Strong in this segment: Conforming/completing, with minimal deficiencies in operational objectives. Presently, occupational assessments are intermittent and take place at uncertain frequencies, with an undetermined list of objects to be inspected. Exposure evaluations are performed as a reactive rather than a proactive approach. Optiven, on the other hand, has an inner mechanism for monitoring all occurrences and engages each member of the unit, and each person obtains an OSHA-certified health medical per year. For Optiven to earn a world-class ranking in this part, they must maintain to provide the operations that they now provide while also instituting more frequent intervals of occupational inspections and exposure assessment.
Incident Investigation 6.2
Incident investigations aim to thoroughly analyze why an employee was harmed in the workplace, discover the sources of a mishap, and devise methods to avert similar future incidents. Incident assessment systems rely heavily on remedial and preventative measures (Wachter & Yorio, 2014). I would rate Optiven as World Class: OHS effectiveness in this segment. The department’s personnel and managers are excellent at identifying accidents and mishaps. There is an electronic mechanism where the problem can be reported from any computer. Every three months, the incidents assessment board convenes to analyze occurrences in order to remedy any necessary measures to prevent future accidents.
Audits 6.3
Optiven typically examines its SMS and operational protocols once per year. I would rate Optiven as Moderate in this segment: Scattered disagreements must be handled, while good patterns and significant components must be in place. The organization presently has no official assessments of periodic regularity. To achieve world-class in this segment, Optiven would require to implement a protocol to have a service provider assess its operations and SMS at most twice yearly. Along with this would need to be a record-keeping process for the issues that are found by these audits.
Corrective and Preventative Actions 6.4
Corrective Action emphasizes the methods that a corporation must have in existence to guarantee the SMS’s day-to-day viability and the efficacy of procedures. This signifies that this portion is the segment that details the tasks that must be taken in order to achieve the SMS’s objective. I would rate Optiven as Strong in this segment: Conforming/completing, with minimal deficiencies in operational objectives. Any necessary adjustments for errors discovered are implemented, although not as quickly as they should be. For an acute demand, it can take months for a reform to occur. To attain the world-class grade, Optiven would require to be extremely aggressive in implementing the audit conclusions or remedial measures.
Feedback to the Planning Process 6.5
The utilization of worker input as a technique for evaluating the efficacy of any operation is a valuable technique for evaluating the efficiency of any procedure. This can be the most effective technique to learn how or why individuals felt regarding a firm scenario or operation. I would rate Optiven as World Class: OHS effectiveness in this segment. There is constantly a means for employees to provide input on any rule or regulation modification. There are email addresses for the relevant body. In addition, there is a well-established line of power in Optiven, with each worker enjoying full access to email or speaking with the senior officers or management about their difficulties.
Management review 7.1, 7.2
To ensure great managerial competence, a firm or corporation must evaluate the performance of its safety systems so that modifications or alterations can be implemented (Manuele, 2014). I would rate Optiven as World Class: OHS effectiveness in this segment. Throughout the assessment, it was clear that each administration level within this organization had a distinct responsibility and was engaged in some way with the corporation’s SMS program.
In conclusion, this lesson and assessment have prompted me to take a closer check at the SMS system for the organization where I have worked for almost nineteen years. As a community safety agency, it goes without stating that the safety of the general public is of the utmost importance, but the safety of the staff requires comparable, if not more significant, attention. Optiven had a high rating in this assessment. Generally, utilizing the identical four-level evaluative rating employed for the assessment, I would rate the organization as Strong: Conforming/complete, with minimal deficiencies in operational objectives. This assessment revealed certain “aspects for enhancement” that must be addressed or changed. The assessment reports will be communicated up the chain to the managerial employees, and hopefully, beneficial improvements will occur in the coming years for this organization.
References
American Society of Safety Professional (2020). OSH Management (Z10). Retrieved from https://www.assp.org/standards/standards-topics/osh-management-z10
DOD Safety Management Center of Excellence (2020). ANSI Z10. Retrieved from https://smscx.org/pages/ansi.aspx
Fred A. Manuele. (2014). Advanced safety management focusing on Z10 and serious injury prevention. Wiley Online Library. DOI:10.1002/9781118840900
James Howe. (2013). Professional Safety, 58(7), 20–22. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login.aspx? direct=true&db=asn&AN=88379554&site=eds-live&scope=site
Jan K.Wachter, & Patrick L.Yorio. (2014). A system of safety management practices and worker engagement for reducing and preventing accidents: An empirical and theoretical investigation. ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2013.07.029
Manuele, F. A. (2014). Ansi / Aiha / Asse Z10-2012. Professional Safety, 59(4), 44–51. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login.aspx? direct=true&db=asn&AN=95254895&site=eds-live&scope=site
Wyatt Bradbury. (2019). Three Overlooked Elements of a SUCCESSFUL SAFETY CULTURE. ASSP – American Society of Safety Professionals | ASSP. https://www.assp.org/docs/default-source/psj-articles/bpbradbury_0219.pdf?
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