Reviewing the conveyor system to eliminate hazards and improve safety
A healthy and safe workplace is one of our client's biggest priorities. It was a pleasure to work alongside this safety-conscious team to conduct an audit of their conveyor system.
Understanding the high-risk work environment
When rock-laden conveyor belts travel across work sites at high speeds, for kilometres at a time, there is a risk to people who are near those conveyors.
Although our client had already introduced many safety measures (including having installed guarding), they wanted to do more to keep their people safe. Yet, they were not sure whether more guarding was the best solution.
Our challenge was to review their entire conveyor system – through a safety lens – to find the most impactful way of eliminating hazards and improving safety. But we had to find a way to do it without deploying any capital!
Identifying and clarifying the challenges
The audit had two goals – to confirm the conveyors met all engineering and safety requirements and to ensure they were as safe and practicable as possible.
We approached this task by undertaking:
A gap analysis to compare the intent of our client’s operating procedures with the practices that were commonly occurring on-site
An on-site assessment to identify areas with a potential risk to safety.
These activities confirmed that guarding was not the correct response in all areas, predominantly due to space and access limitations. They also revealed some opportunities for further safety improvements. These opportunities ranged from eliminating newly identified trip hazards to tightening induction requirements around different site areas and enhancing signage and communication processes.
This multi-faceted approach meant our client had a comprehensive understanding about conveyor safety, without having to invest additional time and resources to review the non-engineering and standards-based elements of the conveyor system at a later date.
Communicating the gaps and opportunities
Our final stakeholder-endorsed report, with accompanying photographs, summarised the gaps identified throughout the audit process and clarified the actions needed to further eliminate hazards around the conveyors. Fortunately, many of these solutions were OPEX-based.
Creating safer operations
We developed our improvement recommendations in conjunction with representatives from the health and safety; operations; and maintenance teams, who met with us on-site to personally view the areas of concern (identified throughout the audit process) and build on the proposed safety initiatives. These people were an integral part of the process – they are experts at managing their own risks.
Our collaborative approach produced some of the most innovative and impactful ways to eliminate future hazards, while still being practical and easy to implement. And because most of the solutions were OPEX-based, the approval requirements and timeframes were minimal. This led to a proportion of the conveyor safety improvements being rolled out immediately.
Engage stakeholders early and often - they're the experts at managing their own risks.
