Suresh Tanwar, Head – Audit and Consultancy, British Safety Council India. In an interview with B2B Purchase.

What is the role of digital technology in equipment safety? 

The use of mobile phones has increased to capture unsafe conditions by instantaneously clicking the pictures and sending it to the concerned department / reviewing those by the Site Head in the morning meetings the next day. This process helps in immediate closure of the unsafe situation.

Virtual Reality for training programs would be used in the near future; however, its use is very limited as of now in Indian factories.

Apart from technology, the safety norms and standards the company sets for the employees and contractors’ workforce to follow, are based on risks the site has. Risk Assessment is the most important tool used to reduce the level of risk the workplace poses.

What makes safety maintenance important in construction projects? 

High-risk operations safety audit is an in-depth audit of situations that could potentially cause serious injuries and harm to people and property and assists organisations to focus on these activities. The audit actively looks at high-risk activities such as working at height, confined space entry, lifting operations, ground excavation, electrical safety, fire safety management, and contractor safety.  

Construction companies should make high-risk operations safety audits a priority. A comprehensive and thorough audit will help evaluate and address potential high-risk areas and provide opportunities to improve and strengthen them in line with best practices. A high-risk safety audit helps build confidence in the safety system and its ability to prevent injuries and fatalities. It will help the management to understand high-risk areas of work and the situations that could cause serious harm and the control that needs to be taken. All in all, a safety audit for high risk operations will help create a happy, confident, and safe work environment for everyone.

Benefit of a high-risk safety audit

For businesses with high-risk operations, like the construction sector, the benefits of auditing can be both tangible and intangible.

Some of the intangible benefits of safety audits: 

• It can help with building an effective hands-on hazard reduction learning tool for construction workers.
• A safety audit can help in setting up a forum for identifying safety hazards, root cause analysis, and implementation of corrective actions. 
• It can lead to increased awareness and positive behaviour among workers, toward safety. 
• A safety audit can help improve the construction company’s safety record with fewer accidents, injuries, near misses, and physical hazards. 
• It can facilitate root cause analysis and corrective actions to eliminate hazards. 
• An audit can set the ground for providing on-the-job training for supervisors and construction workers.  

Equipment safety skills 

Organisations should focus on developing skill sets within their workforce towards equipment safety. With the rise in technology, modern workplaces are populated with specialised equipment requiring specific training to handle safely. If the employees are skilled in using the equipment safely, the company can benefit from fewer workplace accidents.

We insist that foremost there should be proper machine guards which means all the rotating and oscillating parts of the machinery are properly guarded. If this is not done, there’s a chance that fingers or hand may get drawn in the nip points resulting in amputation. Another important thing that we check for our clients is that when there is manual activity going on in the premises, people need to be well trained for correct manual handling practices and procedures. We help them with aspects like TILE manual handling which is an acronym that helps consider each essential area of the manual activity in order to prevent occupational injury/illness related to backache etc. TILE stands for Task, Individual, Load, and Environment. So, companies need to ensure they are following these things and must undertake risk assessment from time to time for the same.