OCTANE The Octaφhi News letter Volume 01, Issue 02, July, 2012 K.P. Ravinath Deputy General Manager
Safety, SMS Siemag, Gurgaon, India. K.P. Ravinath is an accomplished safety professional and has executed projects both in India and abroad ranging from Thermal Power to Wind Energy and Petrochemicals to Steel industry. What safety standards being generally practiced in industry? What is the role of ISO in safety management system? There are many mandatory rules and acts that help in framing safety rules. Some of them include the Building & Construction Act, Factories Act, Gas Cylinder act, Workman Compensation Act and the rules pertaining to electrical and environmental protection. ISO 9001 is the single management system that helps quality being practiced all over the world. Adopting ISO 9001 by the Safety Dept. will help in improving the quality of Safety Management being practiced. One can also consider the option of adopting integrated management systems like Occupational Health and Safety (OHAS) & ISO 9001. It’s been reported that ‘the national culture has effect on the safety climate but that does not ensure safe behaviour by individuals’. So how does a company like SMS Siemag ensures that safety followed at all its sites are standardized and uniform. Let’s focus on the effort we have taken at SMS Siemag. It has a well-defined standardized system in place and an Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for monitoring, performance and evaluation. An SOP deals with all relevant checklists. So whatever project site is under consideration, the environment and environmental procedures, and the operating procedures being adopted are critically reviewed. Also attempts to identify various other safety factors so that the project can be brought into a single framework are shared with
In this issue Interview Safety Quotes Article Puzzle Events Feedback at octaphi@jgu.edu.in
like-sites. We also refer to various incidence case studies of not only our company but also others and plan upfront the remedial actions. It’s more like sharing and learning process so that recurrence can be stopped. Please share some experience on injury risk and frequency of injury occurrence? It depends upon the complexity, volume and risk involved in the particular work. Many companies have achieved zero accidents and same can be achieved even if there is complexity, volume and risks are high. This is possible only if safety culture is developed. There are certain numerical parameters like man-days lost, frequency rate, severity rate, etc. that are a measure of the accidents at the company if reported. So the safety performance of a company and how well these companies have developed safety consciousness among the workmen cannot be ascertained. How safety protocols get developed? Are they reflection of course materials taught or they get developed from field learning? Whatever is being practiced is based on theory. And, how we are making theory is based on practical knowledge. No theory is written without any practical sense. So it’s intertwined. For example there may be many formulae for designing equipment but none of the designs get passed without applying the ‘Margin of Safety’. If engineering field is so competent then adding Factor of Safety is not required. Factor of Safety is included in theory and the value differs for different equipment. This value is assigned based on practical experience. What have been the innovative approaches in general SMS Siemag adopted to continuously optimize organisation safety and security culture and practice. Before I answer this particular question one must understand factors like team acceptance level, safety profession vision, employee awareness, environmental safety which help in adopting innovative approaches. It would be difficult to justify
Workspace Safety Logos
the technologically innovation made in safety but at the implementation level starting from awareness level in safety system among employees, making sure that the employees are being trained, making scope for respective site engineer in the safety implementation establishes a safety culture. Our project Site Engineer works in unison with the Safety Engineer at a project site. Group risk assessment follows the assessing and grading the risk involved on a priority. How do you rate Indian Companies in terms of Safety Culture being advocated and practiced? What are the areas of Safety Management that Indian Companies may need to improve upon? Safety Culture has been taken-up seriously. Indian Companies, because of high competition are developing safety systems, investigating system, learning lessons from previous accidents to bring down accidents in their business. Also, numerous devices and alarm-instruments to protect us have been developed. With safety officers, volumes of manual and checklist in place in the industry; however it’s only the implementation portion that can be driven through commitment only. What as per you are the competencies required by management graduates to enter in the safety industry. First is Passion. One may have a number of degrees and qualifications but to succeed in any professional it’s the passion that decides. In addition, he should have technical expertise, good communication skills and good investigative nature to judge and decision-making abilities. Further each of these characteristics can be improved if only the individual has the passion towards the profession. -Interviewed by Yatish Prasad Dasari (11 JGBS)
Famous Workplace Safety Quotes A danger foreseen is half avoided A spill, a slip, a hospital trip Better safe than sorry Don't be safety blinded, be safety minded Work safely today and every day
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OCTANE-The Octaφhi News letter
As reported in World Economic Outlook (2010) amongst the lowest Emerging Asian countries workers of Bangladesh have an average minimum annual salary of USD 798, followed by India at USD 857 while in Malaysia a worker earns an average annual salary of USD 5824.
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Answers for vol 1, issue 1 crossword: 1. Quotation, 2. Activity, 3. Invoice, 4. Backflush, 5. Automation, 6. Anon.
LOW COST COUNTRY SOURCING (LCCS): When procurement of material, service or manufacturing technologies takes place from low cost countries the so-called procurement strategy is termed as Low Cost Country Sourcing (LCCS). While low cost countries due to a lower labour cost have a low production cost of goods, procuring companies need to strategize upon the LCCS mode based on a long-term cost competitiveness, existing capabilities and organizational structure.
Submission by Sep 20, 2012 to octaphi@jgu.edu.in
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3. 4. Few benefits for Low Cost Countries Sourcing include: 1) LCC does not mean that they lack in technology or manufacturing skills. 2) LCC may offer high quality manufacturing at very reasonable price rate, which adds value to finished goods and increases the procurement efficiency. 3) Sourcing from LCC, helps that country to develop and it Benefits Company to create presence in that country and their neighbourhoods. 4) Only those countries with a better economic background and a stable political and economic growth give advantage to companies planning LCCS. They also protect the company from financial risk and political risk. Sources: 1) 2) 3)
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A storage system which brings the product to the picker in a warehouse. System whereby material is released for production and movement by a central or local scheduling algorithm and based on forecasted or anticipated needs for that material. In a production or process operation line with several processes, machines, or operations in sequence. Process of identifying & learning from the best practices of similar activities being undertaken by other organisations. Simply means a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. It is a data-driven approach & methodology for eliminating defects.
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http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2011/01/19/china-near-top-of-the-listfor-wage-overheads-in-emerging-asia.html retrieved 6 July 2012 http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2012/01/pdf/text.pdf retrieved 6-July 2012 http://bain.com/Images/BB_Making_move_low-cost_countries.pdf retrieved 8-July-12
- Article by Mudit Desai, 11 JGBS
Best Concepts of the First Quarter 2012 2012quarter Work Breakdown structure: A complex project is made manageable by first breaking it down into individual components in a hierarchical structure. Six Sigma: Six Sigma simply means a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. Delphi Method: It is a structured communication technique, originally developed as a systematic, interactive forecasting method which relies on a panel of experts.
120 OM concepts covered under the “Octaphi Concept of the Day” series
Editorial Board: Yatish Prasad Dasari (11 JGBS) J.Joshuva Alexander (11 JGBS) Saroj Koul (JGBS) Contact: octaphi@jgu.edu.in
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