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Showing posts from November, 2017

Where are we fundamentally wrong in our efforts to improve safety?

The annual figure that 2.2 m work related deaths, 160 m work related diseases, and 250 m work related absenteeism globally supports that safety still finds no place in main agenda of the business. Almost every organisation has to realise that Health and Safety is a basic aspects of managing an organisation as it impacts on all the functions within the organisation. There is certain prerequisite before we expect any improvement in safety and that is mind-set of those who can influence organisation for safety. There has to be structured approach (POPEAA) for safety which nowhere is seen in complete existence. The onus of safety improvement left on the shoulders of one or a few safety pros is nothing than giving it a back seat. Sole commitment of Safety pros is something that is keeping the profession alive but is not a sustainable solution to the problem. If we want to see safety flourish and unlock the menace, we need safety to be approached with newer thoughts that strike b

Safetitude:Does higher risk mean higher investment?

Risk management is now gaining a more focus to scientifically manage an organisation from safety point of view. Risk is now a tool to have investment decisions in order to reduce it to a reasonably practicable level. Therefore, an understanding of a relevant risk and correct estimation of it pertaining to various independent functional departments is very essential. One such relevant risk is “Risk Ranking” which is different from general risk. Risk Ranking is a measure of degree of hazards due to factors that include inherent process, inventory of hazardous materials and hazardous operations. Risk ranking estimation takes into account of the composite risk due to property value, downtime (including production loss), and personal exposure and is calculated as multiplication of ‘composite exposure value’ and ‘percentage risk index’. This way, the different department is ranked 1, 2, 3.. and based on this, risk mitigation investment is prioritize accordingly. For further details, you

Inside-out of Safety Culture.

In the present article, attempted to put a perspective out of what has been earned over the long years of working in Safety. Culture is a very commonly spoken word and has been in usage in different perspective since long. In safety world, this is most differently interpreted and is being shown as something like a tool to improve safety in an organisation overnight. As I have opined many times that a certain behavior  followed and demonstrated by majority in a group is called a Culture . E.g. dining (an observable behavior ) generally before sunset is a culture in Jainism. So it never mean that this single customary behavior as a culture is alone enough to describe this religion. Most important here is to understand that this is neither good nor bad to be followed by others unless you choose it for the sake of increasing or decreasing based on your objective. Now, let’s take an example in the context of safety. We heard many saying “safety culture is not here at and

Kind Attention-All CEOs

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@safetitude: Kind Attention- All CEOs The accident in an Indian nation run Thermal Power Plant (32 deaths and 100 injured) is one of the deadliest industrial occurrences that took society a back as how an industry meant to provide livelihood can snatch lives of many. Questions like why safety aspects are being ignored and is given a back seat are hounding everyone. As usual, this wave I am sure will vanish in a further couple of days and by the time inquiry report will come, everything will get settled. But the question of safety will remain where it was till we again see a bigger one next time.  Reasons that end into such accidents are multiple however, the prime cause is apathy of the person who has ultimate authority/influence over the day today activities in the organisation. I wont jump into conclusions by guess on the situations leading to this incident before the govt. make available the inquiry report.  However, I have been campaigning through posts /articles highlig