The culture of an organisation makes the greatest contribution to its health and safety performance. Unfortunately culture is not an easy concept to understand, measure or manage. A good health and safety management system can go some way to setting the scene for developing a good culture, but it goes much deeper than that.
It is important to properly select, install, use and maintain all electrical systems and equipment. Any use of electrical and mechanical equipment has the potential to create very serious injuries, which can have fatal consequences. As a result, it is of utmost importance to ensure that any use of electricity or mechanical forces, be it…
When you receive a calibration certificate from your supplier a few things should be noted: The certificate is giving you the outcome of the inspection and is NOT an indication that your equipment is fit for use. READ the certificate. Check that the certificate indicates traceability to the equipment that your supplier has used to…
When you write up a system do it according to your processes and departments and not in a format that follows the ISO clauses. The system needs to make sense to your staff, let the certification auditors pick out what they want. Use your policy section to create references in your documents to the standard…
The QUALITY of products and services can only be achieved through quality employers and employees. Train your staff and make the necessary resources available.
ISO9001-2008 requires Companies to have a mechanism to assess their suppliers and continually evaluate the overall products and services they offer you. It is not necessary to assess every single supplier who you might purchase from. It is more important to control your critical suppliers who do supply products and services that affect your product…
The OHS act requires that lifting equipment be assessed and validated as fit for use. Remember a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Therefore when having lifting equipment inspected and certified you need to ensure it’s done from the beam or gantry that the lifting equipment is attached to, right down to…
Did you know it is a legal requirement stipulated in the OHS act that all companies need to have a Health and Safety meeting at least quarterly? It is a good idea to ensure you have representation for all levels or departments in your business to make the meeting effective and have overall input. Each…
It should be noted that it is a legal requirement for all lifting equipment to be inspected and passed as fit for use according to the rated lifting load. This includes all supporting beams, chain blocks, chains, ropes, slings, as well as bottle jacks and stays. Make sure all equipment is on a register, and annual load tests…
Always ensure fire hydrants are strategically placed in the workshop so you can access any fire hydrants within 25 meters of where you are standing. Make sure that fire hydrants are hung securely on the required hooks and are no higher than 1.5 meters off the ground. Ensure that fire hydrant indication signage is placed high…
