Research - White Papers

Safety Systems

Covaris Pty Ltd
www.covaris.com.au
Covaris White Paper - Safety Systems ver 1-0.doc 1
Safety Engineering Management – SafetyPoint
Covaris Pty Ltd
PO Box 3456
Bankstown Square NSW 2200
Summary: The Covaris Safety Engineering
Management is an established system based on the
Australian and International Standards and engineering
best practice in safety engineering. It enables the
systematic examination of the hazards associated with
plant and machinery, leading to a documented safety
improvement scheme and an ultimately safer workplace.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This paper presents the information system developed by
Covaris Pty Ltd to manage OH&S engineering data, with
the intent to:
1. Optimise improvement opportunities
2. Assess risk in various situations
3. Register improvement works in hand
4. Report on legacy risk once improvement work
has completed
The technology is a web-based product fully developed in
Java, and accessing a database containing relevant
information. The product is called SafetyPoint and
represents a cohesive way in managing information for
the engineering process in reducing work place risk.
The steps involved in this process include:
• Identification of machinery and locations for which
risk needs to be managed
• Conduct a consistent and comprehensive assessment
of the risk present, including an appreciation of
multiple energy sources
• Identify and score all hazards present according to
an approved risk matrix
• List and manage safety jobs which are tasks needed
to mitigate the risk, eg isolation, guarding, re-design,
etc
It is important to appreciate that effective safety
engineering traces the mitigation work and subsequently
scores the risk reduction associated with
2.0 MACHINE IDENTIFICATION
Safety is managed on the basis of individual machines or
location sites. The safety database can be search
according to a number of criteria as indicated in the
search window below.
Once a number of machine possibilities are determined,
then options are presented to the user. In the example
below a search was made for all machines which
included the word sweep in their description.
Clicking any one of the command buttons will raise the
main record window for that machine or location. An
example is shown below for a sweeping machine. Saving
and changing data is subject to privileges applied to the
user.
Functionality associated with the item of equipment is
then displayed as a set of command buttons below. These
include:
• Assessor Checklist
• Multiple Energy Source
• Hazard Identification
• Safety Jobs
Covaris Pty Ltd
www.covaris.com.au
Covaris White Paper - Safety Systems ver 1-0.doc 2
• Users with write privileges can also see the
“CREATE NEW RECORD” option which will open
a blank Main Record Window form allowing the
user to enter their data.
3.0 ASSESSOR CHECKLIST
The Assessor Checklist captures information associated
with the technical risk of an item of equipment or a
location. Only users with write privileges can modify
and save the data.
In the above example, a sweeper has been reported to
create noise and assessing the machine resulted in
measuring 96dB of noise level. In addition to the general
level of assessment there is a tick list of standard
questions that have to be considered.
Certain measures have been suggested for this machine to
retain its safety standard. Some labels need to be made
more visible, start up and shutdown procedure needs to
be made available. Operating instructions and operator
training document are also assessed as being needed.
Part of the assessment of a machine is the checking of
multiple energy sources. This is critical in considering the
isolation of the machine for either maintenance or in the
case of an emergency. Multiple Energy Source Checklist
identifies the energy sources powering the particular
machine.
4.0 HAZARD IDENTIFICATION
This window is used for identifying current and potential
hazards points associated with this machine. The hazards
are classified according to repeatable criteria that allow
comparisons between situations and different
machines/locations.
4.1 All Hazards
This window identifies all the risk factors associated with
this machine in more detail. The list is displayed in
descending order by risk level. This window only shows
a brief portion of the data for the actual risk factors.
Clicking on “Show/Edit All Details” will display the Risk
Level Calculation window for that particular risk factor.
Clicking on “View/Edit Residual Risk” will display all
the risk factors and their current residual risk levels and
what measures have been taken to reduce the risk levels.
Covaris Pty Ltd
www.covaris.com.au
Covaris White Paper - Safety Systems ver 1-0.doc 3
4.2 Risk Level Calculation
The Risk Level Calculation window shows all details
about a particular risk factor.
The user selects the Exposure, Likelihood and Potential
Severity out of the tables and the system computes the
risk level for this hazard. This example pressure/vacuum
risk is relatively low in comparison to the noise level risk
also associated with this sweeper
This is the noise hazard associated with the example
sweeper. It is much higher than the earlier hazard and that
is why in the Show All Hazards Window is listed first.
4.3 Residual Risk
Residual risk is where the assessors enter their
calculations after a particular risk has been dealt with.
Residual Risk Window is similar to Risk Level
Calculation Window and it is used to calculate the new
risk level. This would usually end up being 0 if the
hazard has been completely removed but in rare cases
some residual risk may still be present.
5.0 SAFETY JOBS
This is the default screen for jobs when no safety job has
been associated with this machine. After creating a job
we see the capability to add new tasks. In this example,
we are going to add a task which will display under the
current safety tasks heading.
6.0 CONCLUSION
SAFETY POINT is a self-contained web enabled
application, which is designed to capture and manage all
necessary documentations from the beginning to the end
of the process. The main steps through which this system
provides a complete and comprehensive safety solution
are:
• Operational requirements – Operational
requirements of an asset are identified.
• Hazard identification – Hazards, hazardous
situations and hazardous events for the asset in its
operational environment are registered.
• Risk evaluation – For each hazard a risk profile is
developed. This will quantify the process using
sound engineering judgment.
• Safety measures – The identified safety measures
(e.g. safeguarding, painting, interlocking, emergency
stop switch,…) are implemented to eliminate
identified hazards and/or reduce risk level.
• Residual risks – the residual risks after
implementing the safety measures are documented
and compared with the original risks to demonstrate
safety improvement.