SPOTCHECKSAFETY

Ensuring that
safety pays off

Heavy lift and over-dimensional cargo safety expert

Richard Krabbendam emphasises that employees are
the most valuable assets of a company.

ollowing the award of its first

offshore contract in 2003, which gave
an insight into the strict safety regime
applicable in the offshore industry,
and its involvement in a fatal incident
in the same year, Jumbo introduced its Stay
Well Safety Management Program.
However, there are still companies that
do not understand the benefit of a safety
management programme.
Safety is not just a matter of wearing
personal protective equipment (PPE), it
involves a culture change within the
company, which needs support from
company management from the outset if it
is to succeed.
It is the employers responsibility to
provide a safe working environment and the
proper equipment for staff. To do this, there
are several tools that the employer can use.
Most incidents at work are caused by
human error. We refer here to something
that happens incidentally and was therefore
completely foreseeable in its context. In
contrast we have accidents that are not
foreseeable such as when lightning strikes.
These occurrences cannot be predicted and

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November/December 2015

are not foreseeable. So, what can be done?

The process starts with making people
aware of unsafe situations, which can be
done by reporting and recording incidents
such as near misses. You can also record all
incidents that do have a consequence (such
as a lost time incident (LTI), but also near
misses that do not have any consequence. By
reporting, recording and making an analysis
of each event, you can measure how safe or
unsafe your operations are.
The only way to ensure that a safety
management programme will work is by
involving everyone in the company and
ensuring coherent two-way communication.
It is important to foster a culture of how we
do things around here. It is also key that bad
news, not just success stories, are shared

The process starts with making

people aware of unsafe
situations, which can be done by
reporting and recording
incidents such as near misses.

around the company.

Monthly reporting of statistics company
wide allows safety performance to be
monitored and compared over time.
It is important that a quality, health,
safety and environmental (QHSE) system is
available, structured, coherent, up-to-date,
and fed with input from operations
The overall goals of a QHSE system are
to prevent injury to persons and damage to
equipment and cargoes. As a result, a
company will be accepted as a serious
partner to its clients, distinguishing itself
from its competitors.
When the QHSE system is in place, it
still has to be implemented within the
workforce a process that takes time and
requires everyones undivided attention. It
starts with making personnel aware of
unsafe situations.
A safety culture must be adopted and
staff should wear the appropriate PPE.
Hands and eyes are involved in 80 percent
of all incidents so when welding, cutting and
grinding always use: safety goggles and
gloves, protective clothing; fire protection
blankets and fire extinguishers. It is crucial
to protect lifting gear and keep equipment in
good working order. It is advisable that a
Hot Work Permit is issued when welding
and cutting work is planned.
When lifting at height, make sure a
proper access platform is arranged and a
safety harness that is properly attached to a
secure anchor point or line is used.

Why have a job hazard analysis?

A job hazard analysis is a tool to evaluate
tasks and identify if the risk of that particular
job is unacceptable. But what is risk?
Risk can be calculated as: frequency x
consequence.
In order to identify whether a certain task
is risky or not, we use a risk matrix (Figure
1). On one side of the matrix, the likelihood
of the occurrence is quantified (from 1-5)
and on the other side the severity of the
consequence (from 1-5).
The likelihood of a hazard that could
lead to an incident and the consequences of
such an incident, should be established. It is
quantified in red (high risk), yellow
(medium risk) and green (low risk). It is
usually done by a group of people who are
involved with the task. A job hazard analysis
often reveals silent knowledge and
experience that would otherwise remain
inside the heads of experienced personnel.
Executing a job hazard analysis need not
be difficult and just needs some practice. For
example, consider a task that involves
drilling a hole in the ceiling above a

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instructions on how the job is to be

undertaken. This usually occurs in a socalled kick-off toolbox meeting just before
the job starts. If circumstances are not going
to plan while the job is being executed,
initiate a take-five toolbox meeting. Work
stops and a discussion takes place to identify
what has changed, what are the new risks,
and how can these risks be minimised.
We can then adapt the plans and agree
how to proceed, before evaluating whether
these changes have been effective.

HLPFI

FigurFig 1e 1: The FIG.01risk

matrix.
swimming pool.
Divide this job into separate tasks
Identify the hazards per task, assess the
risks and prioritise which hazards have to
be handled
Identify possible solutions
Choose and implement solutions
Evaluate after some time whether the
solutions have been effective
Begin the hazard analysis by writing down
the risks that you can think of when executing
this task: those being the potential of drowning,

falling, electrical shock and so forth. Identify

the risk category by giving the likelihood and
consequence a number and when the numbers
multiplied are high, the risk is high (red) and
one should change the work procedure.

How to avoid unsafe situations

The best way to avoid unsafe situations is by
preparing the job well in advance,
investigating all possible what if ?
situations, and ensuring that all personnel
involved in the project receive clear

Please note, this article is intended for

guidance only. While every care has been
taken to ensure the accuracy of the contents,
no responsibility will be accepted by the
publishers for any errors.

Richard Krabbendam was a heavy lift specialist

during his whole working career, after which he formed
Krabbendam Advisory Service. A Master of Mechanical
Engineering from Delft University of Technology, he has
worked with BigLift and Mammoet, and was a co-founder of
ITREC. He helped to set up Jumbo Offshore and was involved
in the development of its super heavy lift carrier fleet, the JClass, which uses two 900-tonne mast cranes for subsea
installation works. Since his retirement from Jumbo he has
been working as a freelance trainer/engineering consultant.
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