I would like a view from others with LOLER /BS7121 experience please.

I have a manufacturing client with a number of over head cranes, competently trained operators (ITSSAR) by a competent trainer. However the company does not have an "appointed Person" to plan lifting plans etc. Before i advise my client accordingly i would like feedback from forum users.

My view is that the company should have access to a competently trained appointed person as per standard BS7121.

Thanks thats my understanding as well. What i forgot to mention that some of the lifts are with the use of vacuum lifting equipment, which in itself i would class as complex i believe!!!!

At the risk of annoying people of a construction persuasion there is a world of a difference between overhead travelling cranes within works used for essentially repetitive tasks and mobiles etc. use in construction.

The first sentence of the HSE guidance referred to in post 2 starts "The planning of individual routine lifting operations may be the responsibility of those who carry them out (eg a slinger or crane operator). " The slinger and crane operator may well be the same person. Are they trained? Yes, it sounds like it. Were they trained on actual loads in their own works? If not then there's a familiarisation step to take (compare FLTs). And of course there are all the peripherals, like getting weights marked on drawings (I mean reliable weights with all the bits added, not rough guesses of the basic structure) and overall risk assessment to look at repeated issues like travel routes and sling selection and storage. But plan each lift individually? Only the real oddity.