• SH&E is a line management responsibility. Ownership and accountability for SH&E performance is embedded in the line at all levels and Line Managers are responsible for providing SH&E leadership and for development and implementation of SH&E management plans for their areas of responsibility. 

We make this commitment to our employees, contractors, customers, shareholders and the community as we work towards our vision of

Value people and the environment

To be continued…..

Three Ps – Plant, People, Procedure

Well, now is the time to look at this three legged stool again.

And what we need to consider in developing  SHE Management Plan.

• Equipment and materials that are designed and maintained fit for purpose (Plant).

• Well communicated principles and behaviours that promote continuous SH&E performance improvement through leadership and personal responsibility (People).

• A SH&E Management System with systems of work that ensure the integrity of plant and people-based control measures are sustained (Procedures).

Today let us have a look at Plant.

It talks about design and maintenance of plant and equipment and materials used for the same. Now, how would one develop plan around it?

Let us look at the given below key pointers. Do we have systems and procedures in place to deal with these requirements effectively? We need to see that these elements are part of SHE Management Plan.

 Design standards

 Hazard Study  

 Effective maintenance programs

 Modifications management systems

 Critical systems, equipment and controls

 Basis of Safety

 Expert Panels and Significant Risk Working Groups

 Responsible Engineers

 Process safety

 Product Stewardship

Your plants are designed to which Standards? There are Standards existing globally and then we have Indian Standards. You will invariably see that all aspects of plant and machinery are covered through Standards. In the Implementation Phase we will see how to go about extracting and preparing a list of applicable standards for your set up.

Hazard Study is a vast subject and will be dealt with when we reach that point.

Effective Maintenance Program is key to Plant safety as the operating statement says

Modifications, Critical systems, Basis of safety, risk Assessment, responsible Engineering, Process Safety, Product Stewardship are all key to SHE Management Plan concerning Plant and should for part of it.

All these aspects would be elaborated in detail when we come to implementation stage.  

To be continued…

 • SH&E is a line management responsibility. Ownership and accountability for SH&E performance is embedded in the line at all levels and Line Managers are responsible for providing SH&E leadership and for development and implementation of SH&E management plans for their areas of responsibility. 

Next we move to Develop and Implement SHE Management Plan….

SHE Policy

All companies should have their own SHE Policy

Some companies one combined Policy covering all aspects of operations including safety, quality, efficiency etc. This may not be a bad idea if set up is small.

Now what all should come in to SHE Policy?

There are three aspects namely Safety, Health and Environment as the name SHE suggests. One needs to have a look at operations and see which all components of SHE are impacted by your operations. In some cases there may not be any impact on Health of people working there or Operations may not be impacting Environment at all.

After having worked in Hazardous Industries for many years, I have myself starting believing that all accidents and injuries are preventable. Believe me you will find scores of people saying this but not many from within accept this. I was one of them but today when I look back, I sincerely believe that this is possible.

So, whether you believe it or not you should have this in your Policy. I can assure you that with passage of time and actions at work place you will start believing in it (if you do not believe already!)    

Now to be a Responsible Company, Statutory compliance is a must. Pl see what all Rules and regulations apply to your company. A line covering this should be in your policy.

As you are starting with a preamble that all injuries are preventable you need to have plans for continual improvement of safety at work place to achieve this ultimate goal. This should also reflect in your SHE Policy

If your operations can affect Health of people of pollute environment then your policy should cover this aspect as well.

Efficiency at work place is good both from business point of view and also from the point of Energy Conservation. See if this fits in your SHE Policy.

Training of work force is a must and important for continual improvement as it adds many hands who will help improve SHE Performance

You may think of other aspects as well which may be relevant to your business and include in the SHE Policy.

Having said whatever I have said above, one has to see that SHE Policy is not just a piece of paper and hence take up challenges which you think you can fulfil in next one or two years. You will always have opportunity to amend your SHE Policy as you move forward!

Given below a sample SHE Policy which you may look at

  

(COMPANY’S NAME)

The SH&E policy is:

At xxx we believe that all work-related injuries, illnesses and environmental incidents are preventable. We will manage all our activities with concern for people and the environment.

In particular, we will:

·         comply with applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.

·         strive to ensure our facilities operate to the highest standards to protect our employees, contractors, neighbours and the environment.

·         continue to seek ways to efficiently use materials and energy and thus conserve scarce natural resources.

·         provide appropriate information and/or training on the safe use and disposal of our products to our customers.

·         seek to develop new or improved products and processes to improve quality of people’s lives and to minimize the impact on the environment.

·         require every employee and contractor working for us to comply with relevant legislation and with this policy, and we will provide them with the necessary training.

·         set challenging targets and measure progress to ensure we continuously improve our safety, health and environmental performance.

We make this commitment to our employees, contractors, customers, shareholders and the community as we work towards our vision of

Value people and the environment

To be continued…..

• SH&E is a line management responsibility. Ownership and accountability for SH&E performance is embedded in the line at all levels and Line Managers are responsible for providing SH&E leadership and for development and implementation of SH&E management plans for their areas of responsibility. 

These actions of yours are SHE Leadership by you! And you will see that one would lead to another and there would be cascading effect. What hundreds can do and impact of the same would be far more than what you can do single handedly!

To be continued…

Now how to develop SHE Management Plans for your factory and then respective work areas.  Look at the list below:-

·         SHE Policy  

·         Three Ps – Plant, People & Procedure

·         SHE Standards

·         Model procedure compliance

·         Process Safety

·         Health Hygiene

·         Environment

·         Training & Development

·         Performance Monitoring

Pl see if there any areas which have been left untouched? Well SHE Management Plan for your set up would evolve from these headlines.

Now before you start getting worried on how to develop plan, let me tell you that broad plans are there and the same can be updated, modified to prepare a plan for your company.

In subsequent blogs we will see how to go about elaborating these headlines for your company.

What all need to be considered for developing a SHE Policy. Three Ps are important and we need to move ahead with all these with some changes in prioritization based on your areas of operations. Risk based approach is a modern tool and is given and has to be adapted.

There are a set of Model Procedures covering all aspects of operations and we need to pick and choose ones which are important for your operations.

If yours is a process plant then Process Safety would be part of SHE Management plan.  Important and inclusion of health and hygiene would again depend upon area of operations and impact of the same on Health of people working and Environment

Training and Development are essential ingredient of any Plan would be there in your as well. And so is Performance Monitoring. Without monitoring you would not know if you are heading in the right direction.

Next we move to Develop and Implement SHE Management Plan….

 • SH&E is a line management responsibility. Ownership and accountability for SH&E performance is embedded in the line at all levels and Line Managers are responsible for providing SH&E leadership and for development and implementation of SH&E management plans for their areas of responsibility. 

This message to the team, however, has to come right from the top. It could be Chairman or MD of the company. By making such communication to the team they also take direct responsibility and the message has to flow directly from top till the lowest contract operator working in the plant.

To be continued….

  

We keep hearing about SHE Leadership and then we have host of Training Modules on the same. But we need to take a step back and think what people at different levels are expected to do to demonstrate SHE Leadership?

    

How many of your workmen ever complaint about poor house-keeping standards, over stocking of material, poor engineering standards (eg. loose wiring etc.) in plant?

How many of your workmen have ever talked to you about some training program which would help them performance better at work place?

How many of them have ever pointed out any safety related short comings (eg. slippery floor etc.) in plant?

How many of your supervisors and even managers have raised such points?

If not too many then SHE Leadership, I am afraid, is lacking at your work place and you need to do something about it.

What you need to do is to make then raise such points till it becomes a habit.

One simple way of doing such things is to have a time bound contest with winner declared every week for best suggestions from work place. There should also be appreciation for raising a point by way of displaying entries etc.

Other way is show your leadership by visiting plant regularly and raising points to make people workmen what they should be looking for.

These actions of yours are SHE Leadership by you! And you will see that one would lead to another and there would be cascading effect. What hundreds can do and impact of the same would be far more than what you can do single handedly!

To be continued…

  

  

• SH&E is a line management responsibility. Ownership and accountability for SH&E performance is embedded in the line at all levels and Line Managers are responsible for providing SH&E leadership and for development and implementation of SH&E management plans for their areas of responsibility. 

This strategic view point reminds me of a real life happening during my working days as Site Manager of a Global Company.

Company was getting in to implementation of In-Process checks in the factory and it was decided to start with the work area producing the most recent and important product in terms of quality requirements.

We had an opening meeting with section of work force and supervisor on some routine checks to be done by plant operators while they are producing. As expected the immediate response was:-

that this is the responsibility of Quality Control department….

if we are asked to do this then it may impact production…

then what is the need of QC department….
operators are not trained to do measurements using measuring instruments…

There are always reasons for not doing new things

Only after 6 months of continual focus we could convince the team to start In-Process checks in which operators became proficient in no time and could see that they have sufficient time to do this activity without any impact on production. Further, what made them even more satisfied is that they are now more in control of what they are producing and at what quality standard. They could see that customer complaints have taped down significantly.

Well the story pertaining to this strategic initiative in no different. And efforts and focus required to make the line function aware that what they can do to help improve safety at work place cannot be done by anyone else. Reason being they have all authority unlike support function like Safety department who can only advice and suggest.

This message to the team, however, has to come right from the top. It could be Chairman or MD of the company. By making such communication to the team they also take direct responsibility and the message has to flow directly from top till the lowest contract operator working in the plant.

To be continued….

Before we get on with the nuts and bolts of the activities to pluck out various  deficiencies at work place, we should have a strategy in place and the whole team should be committed to it.

A set of strategies could very well be as listed below.

 • SH&E is a line management responsibility. Ownership and accountability for SH&E performance is embedded in the line at all levels and Line Managers are responsible for providing SH&E leadership and for development and implementation of SH&E management plans for their areas of responsibility.

• There is a consistent risk-based approach to SH&E management with appropriate emphasis on high severity, low probability events as well as low severity, higher probability events. Resources are allocated and activities prioritised on the basis of risk; and

• Appropriate training is in place to equip all personnel to carry out their tasks so as to take care of themselves, others and the environment.

Pl think of the following in context of the above strategic points–

Company culture flows from top to bottom and not the other way round…

You very seldom fulfil your responsibilities without having requisite authorities….

Standard you walk past are the standards you set…

One should train, train and train till it becomes a habit, remember which shot Saurav Ganguly practiced whole night in hotel room after he got out playing that shot earlier in the day in test Match against England…

We will discuss next how to implement these strategies at work place.

To Meet Safety, Health and Environment (SH&E) commitment and for achieving vision for a safe workplace, one needs to have

Plant designed and maintained well

People trained adequately to act and demonstrate good workplace behaviour and

Procedure covering system of work for sustenance of plant integrity and people based controls

Now the moot question is how do you ensure that the three legs (three Ps) are strong to give stability to the platform on which the workplace safety, health of people and environment protection rest?

Let us look at a real life situation.

You are an entrepreneur and have decided to set up a hazardous industry, say an industrial explosives plant.

You will hire a consultant or a person who will help you with the plant design, construction work.

You will then try to get hold of person(s) having experience in similar field who can help you get a team ready for plant operation / maintenance

The same core teams would help you with procedures or may handover set of procedures available with them.

Now the SH&E performance of your plant is largely dependent upon the sum total of knowledge of the people who have helped you set up plant, train people and put procedures in place.

Now just to think what if there is a knowledge gap? There is something missing in either plant design or knowledge being imparted to people or in procedure?

You may live with such short coming for years without realising there is a time bomb ticking and an accident is waiting to happen when the following happens:-

How to safeguard against any such shortcomings at your workplace?

Watch this space for future posts!!

SHE Strategy

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