Chapter 14

Systematic Health & Safety Management

Systematic health and safety management in maintenance is the process of organizing and implementing measures to prevent accidents and injuries in the maintenance workplace. This includes identifying potential hazards, assessing the risks associated with those hazards, and implementing controls to mitigate those risks. This can be achieved through a combination of training, engineering controls, and administrative controls such as establishing safety procedures and protocols.

By effectively managing health and safety in maintenance, companies can reduce the likelihood of accidents and injuries, improve employee morale, and increase productivity.

Safe Maintenance

Maintenance seeks to reduce disruptions and stoppages in production, and under your National Work Environment Act, work must be planned and arranged such that it can be conducted in a healthy, safe environment. Any extraordinary work such as repairs due to a machine breakdown, must also be planned and prepared such that it does not pose a risk to maintenance technicians or people in the vicinity. Machinery, equipment and other technical devices must be constructed, located and used such that adequate safety is provided to prevent ill health and accidents.

Responsibility for coordination

Sub-contrator activities always need someone within your organization ordering/approving the job. It must be clearly determined who’s responsibility for coordination in work carried out by subcontractors.

The individual responsible for coordination must schedule the work and make sure responsibility for protective devices, cordons and other protective measures such as hot works is clearly defined between the responsible and the sub-contractor. Communication and joint planning are necessary to reduce any risks that may arise over the course of maintenance in progress.

The dedicated responsible is also responsible for ensuring the subcontrator is acquainted with, and complies with applicable rules and regulations.