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| https://airportsmstalk.blogspot.com/ |
Written By Jason L. Hamlett AMT, ACE, CM, GSP 4/20/2022
If
you’re reading this, I am assuming you are interested in safety and learning about
SMS, and how SMS can improve your airport campuses health, and safety program.
You won’t be disappointed. Before I can explain the ins and outs of managing
safety from a systems approach, I feel you the readers must have a clear
understanding of what the word safety encompasses. Webster’s dictionary defines
safety as:
1. : freedom from harm or danger: the
state of being safe
2. : the state of not being dangerous or
harmful
3. : a place that is free from harm or
danger: a safe place
These
are decent definitions of the word safety; however, for the purposes of
understanding SMS they fall short. In terms of SMS, you can’t define safety
without acknowledging another key term and that’s risk. The word risk cannot be
fully understood without highlighting another key term and that’s hazard. A
hazard can be defined as any action, condition, or situation that exposes a
person to harm, danger, injury, or illness. Hazards can also have a negative effect
on assets such as facilities, vehicles, and equipment in the form of property damage
resulting in loss of service. Risk can be defined as the probability that an
individual, or assets can be exposed to harm or damaged by an unsafe behavior, action,
or condition (hazardous). The presence of a hazard in the workplace creates a
level of risk. From this we can deduce that the greater the hazard the higher
the level of risk. An unchecked hazard with a high level of risk will most
likely result in a negative situation such as an accident resulting in injury
or property damage. This condition has a negative effect on the overall level
of workplace safety. Managing risk to an acceptable level or complete
elimination is accomplished in a 5-step process which I will explain in detail
in a latter article. The absolute best explanation of the word safety was found
in reading Ron McKinnon’s 2017 book on Risk-Based, Management-led,
Audit-driven, Safety Management Systems. Ron’s definition of safety is as
follows:
“Safety is the control of all forms
of accidental loss by identifying, analyzing, and reducing risk.”
Learning
from that if we examine both Webster’s definition of safety with how Ron
McKinnon explains. My definition of safety is as follows:
“Safety is an organizations effort to create
an environment that is free of hazards using effective controls that reduce
risk to an acceptable level or complete elimination”.
The
goal of safety is to create a state where accidents, exposures, and injuries
are reduced as close to zero as possible. How is this magical state achieved?
The first step is to acknowledge and identify hazards within the workplace.
This can be accomplished by worker reporting, inspections, and investigations. Reporting
involves providing channels of communication where the workforce can openly
voice safety concerns. Examples of this include hazard recognition programs,
near miss reports, safety committee meetings, internal social media platforms, and
accident / injury reports. Accident and injury reports are not the most
effective way to abate hazards as they are retroactive in nature. Inspections
are critical to safety as they can uncover underlining conditions that could
lead to an actual hazard. Investigations are typically followed by accidents /
injury reports and are also retroactive by nature. Investigations take a deeper
dive into the scenario that led into the accident / injury report which gives a
much clearer picture of the root causes and contributing factors of an
accident. The second step is to apply effective control measures by utilizing
an organized framework to abate hazards. The NIOSH hierarchy of controls is an
excellent resource that can be applied to remove hazards and increase safety. Of
course, elimination is the best choice but not always the most practical.
Airport operators should examine closely each hazard to determine the most
effective control category, then develop a strategy to implement a specific
control action. For example, let’s say you manage an airport in a winter region,
and you must do active snow removal in the movement areas. Each piece of snow
removal equipment will have to conga line down the runway and stagger their
plow blades, brooms, and blowers. In low visibility operations during snow
removal, the risk of rear end accidents of large pieces of equipment is high.
The closer the machines are staggered the greater the risk of an accident. Having
a Vammas disabled on your main departure runway 15 minutes before the planned
reopening time is never a situation you want to be caught in. Not to mention
the risk of serious operator injury from being involved in a Vammas-on-Vammas
rear collision. You can’t eliminate the need to remove snow from the movement
area. It would be extremely expensive to substitute the work to a contract
company making that option impractical. You can’t engineer a protective bubble
around each Vammas. The most likely control category to apply would be
administrative. The specific administrative control would be company policies
and training. Training on maintaining situational awareness, following to
close, and low visibility driving. Lastly a safe state must be continuously
improved upon. This is achieved by reviewing control measures for accuracy,
effectiveness. This ties into the continuous improvement loop of safety
management. In essence the goal of any
quality safety manager is to create an environment at work where he is no
longer needed. Safety managers should approach their job with the intent of
putting themselves out of a job by making the workplace as safe as possible by analyzing
the level of risk in each hazard and then applying controls to remove the
hazard or make its presence as acceptable as possible.
How do
you define safety?
What types
of hazards does your organization currently struggle with?
What
topics would you like to read about and discuss in this blog?
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| https://airportsmstalk.blogspot.com/ |
Safety is more than just a buzz word or slogan. Its the practice of removing hazards and reducing risk.
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