Hi All, Looking for some help if anyone can. We are entering a pre qual shortlist stage of plate and pipe mills, part of that will include a full HSE Audit, whilst I'm perfectly well qualified and an auditor my experience with plate and pipe mills is quite limited. I am slightly worried about missing something. I will work up my own checklist but if anyone is willing to share one that is already in existence that I can either use as a basis or for comparison. I'd very much appreciate it. Thanks in advance Ian

Might I respectfully suggest that you need to employ some skills in this area as you are not competent to undertake this aspect of the contract you are tendering for. Even though I have worked in the sector for a short period I would not presume to be a fount of knowledge. Steel plants and the like do need a significant amount of experience of the process to deal with and understand the issues involved. Even the HSE inspectors often struggle in this field of work. Bob

Hi All, -Thanks for the responses this far, @Jim – Thanks, good points something to think about. @Bob – Again thanks for the opinion. I don’t have too much in the way of competency concerns per se; if I did I’d be raising the issue with management and looking for help. Without boring everyone to death lets just leave it at I’m qualified and sufficiently experienced for the task at hand and I have a pre qual team of experts to pick up the any process shortfalls that I may have and support me with the technical expertise. I’m lucky enough to also have my checklists from my last pipeline job (2 x 48” 1224km subsea lines) and I've been in the game a while now. What I was really looking for was comparisons, in reality seeing if what fellow professionals are doing is similar to what I have in mind, I guess you could call it knowledge sharing. @Ron. Thanks. Although not relative to the original post I’ll explain a little more. As part of pre qual we are assessing 11 mills. All of whom will provide significant detail both on their SMS and other relevant HSE points. We have developed an appropriately weighted scoring model and been very specific about what we expect from the tenderers. The HSE elements of the ITT are quite a small part of the overall prequal but overall the bottom line a small number of tenderers will be shortlisted. (I think its four but not exactly sure and I’m not in the office) The second phase of the HSE elements is to formally audit the premises of those shortlisted. (and already having their submitted documentation to hand) This is done simply because as I’m sure you’re aware not all countries have the same standards of HSE and as a large scale international project we need to give our lenders confidence that any contractor we select is not practicing the art of paper safety and that their written SMS translates to actual culture on the shop floor. Equally it’s not uncommon in the oil and gas industry for bidders to be economical with the truth where safety performance is concerned, so we simply, check check and check again. A physical audit of the premises forms part of that checking process. Aside from the explanations above if anyone has any thoughts on what should or should not be included in the checklist please feel free to drop me a pm offline if its easier. I should probably also add it is a mixture of plate, pipe rolling and coating mills (the latter two are sometimes one and the same place) Hope the above provides a bit more info for constructive help, Many Thanks in advance Best Wishes Ian

Sounds a it of a cliché I know, but, I have a personal friend who has an engineering company. To get a direct supplier account with a steel processor, his workshops had to be audited by the client personnel. These client "auditors" imposed & required changes before they were granted a supplier account. I'm not going to comment further any way, as it may not be professional. I would however be interested in the opinions of other experienced & competent H&S personnel on this point...

Hi all, Many Thanks, good points for thought. @Bob The sections you listed are pretty much in line with what I have bar one or two that I didn't have and I'll think about how best to bring them in to what I have. And to back up your point. While I have a general checklist they will be adapted for each individual organisation. Based on the returns of the ITT and my observations of problem areas during this round of Pre visits. The standards is more tricky. We have our own standards for contractors which is based mostly on EU and UK Standards along with GIIP which is our base level, and there is a requirement in the contract for the mills to comply with local legislation but its not always easy to figure that part out. We don't insist on accreditation eg ISO but it helps us if they are. In the environment we work in we accept there may be gaps and unfortunately sometimes we have to accept minimum levels rather than what we'd like to see. We did however fight for a large percentage of the overall ITT for HSE which means The eventual winner should have quite high standards. @Ron. I think that's a case of definitions. A quick google indicates it means different things in different scenarios. To us it means not only the system but how that translates physically in to action. @Paul. Good point and I can see how that could be a problem. We generally don't "force" change but we are clear from ITT what we expect, if the tenderer chooses not to bother that's up to them. Our standards because of the international nature do allow a certain amount of flexibility so I'd say they are not to onerous and any contractor managing there HSE well shouldn't need forced change. Thanks all for the feedback. Some good stuff for me to take on board and think about - appreciated. Cheers Ian