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Risk assessments for maintenance and fitters duties
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Posted By Kev Ran
Hello All,
I am very much hoping that you could please take the time and help me with some advice.
I work within the manufacturing industry and have been assisting area Managers to ensure that the Company has a comprehensive quantity of suitable and sufficient risk assessments for activities.
However.....The last area which is due for review is the maintenance department.
How do you produce a risk assessment for working on a machine having removed the guarding but still need to run the machine for fault finding and diagnosis ?
Also for times when electrical live working is required again for fault finding and diagnosis ?
Does anybody have similar risk assessments within there organisations which they could share with me the content to help me get my head around the concept ?
Any other help or guidance would be much appreciated.
Many thanks and best wishes to you all.
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Posted By Mitch
Do not use a generic RA. We have trained all our Technicians and Assistants to carry out RA's each and every time they undertake work on a machine. There are basic control measures required before and during work, I will email you direct with our method statement, not rocket science but, fingers crossed, it has worked well up to now and serves as a reminder to our people.
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Rank: Guest
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Posted By CFT
Kev
For me this goes beyond RA production, and this is where Job safety analysis (JSA) and Hazard operability (Haz Ops) studies come in most useful.
In the shorter term, speak to all those involved in the processes you have described , include the supervisors, the operatives and any maintenance staff, (this may be contracted in) don't hesitate to re-write the rule books on this and then once complete you can start to produce those RA's with confidence; you will at best have control measures that you can identify within the assessment, induction, training, P'sTW etc etc, it will all add up to make a highly efficient system, and don't hesitate to bring in some local expertise, don't exceed your own levels on this.
All the best
CFT
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Posted By Philip Beale
I work as a maintenance engineer to hopefully can give you a hands on view
All our electrician have to have suitable electrical qualification and are authorized to work electrically live (for diagnosis when required) at all other time equipment is to be isolated. Contractors have to prove electrical competence and have a permit to work at all times if working electrically live.
We often run equipment with guards removed or interlocks overridden. we normally carry out an on the spot risk assessment and part of that will be to restrict access to the area to all other staff.
This is backed up with engineering qualification as well as a training course on guarding and importance of reinstating correctly. also we are trained on carrying out risk assessments.
At the end of the day your engineers should have qualifications and experience to enable them to do such work making them competent. all other measures are to protect others form access the kit when it is in an unsafe state (barricade work area)
Phil
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Posted By RBW100
I think Phil's approach is the most sensible, however I'm sure that there will be many here that will disagree.
I think that if the maintenance lads/lasses have been suitably trained to a level that demonstrates competence, then requiring a permit for any and all tasks is over the top.
recognition of the fact that live working is likely to happen on a regular basis.
The scenarios such as live working for fault finding are a regular and normal function for a maintenance electrician. Our electrical standard request that the control circuits on all new installations are at 24v. This is in
I look for competence via a time served route for both electricians and fitters. City and Guilds certs in relevant disciplines are also required by us.
Having said all of the above, we still complete risk assessments for tasks that happen on a regular basis (eg planned maintenance).
I would be interested to know what a HSE inspector would think of the controls required for maintenance engineers.
Rob
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Posted By Chris Jerman
I'm with CFT here. Risk assessment takes many many forms and doing a (V Steps type) risk assessment of the blindingly obvious is utterly pointless. It's like doing a risk assessment of catching a bullet in your teeth! What you need is a proper analysis of the effectiveness of any controls that your are to apply - just a different sort of assessment. What you're not after is the traditional Hi, Med, Low sort of outcome.
In fairness, I don't think that the other postings were really contrary to the main thrust of this. It's about being competent, supervised and thorough.
After all, if it went wrong, it would not be the risk assessment that you would be taken to task over it would be the adequacy of the controls.
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