The Hazard identification process must deliver to the Safety office all perceived risks, this will allow the Hazards to be analysed and for an assessment to be made which “measures” the amount of exposure which the organization is facing, sometimes known as ERC (event risk classification).
Once analysed, suitable mitigations may be developed, which will provide for additional barriers to protect against the Hazard.
We can set ourselves organizational challenges:
a) To communicate the importance of identifying Hazards across the organization
It is of significant importance that we have full management support and that across the business we are seen to be promoting the need to identify hazards.
This should be done in a variety of ways including mentioning during briefings, direct mailing through email etc. to the employees, during trainings, via posters, in fact anyway which raises the visibility of the need to identify & report.
b) To encourage everyone to report no matter how small a perceived Hazard
We can not place the entire organization on specialist training to Identify Hazards, however in reality we do not need to, rather we need to directly encourage them to report anything which they see as an impediment, whether it be related to tooling, personnel, competences, documentation or manpower.
In fact anything which causes them a problem has the potential to cause a problem in a small or more significant way.
c) To develop inspection processes designed specifically to Identify Hazards
To implement assessment processes which are ongoing and continuous, to ensure through an assessment plan that all areas of the business are not only assessed as a function on the SMS implementation but are thereafter adequately assessed on a continuous basis.
d) To train a small group of staff in depth how to assess Hazards
We need to target a small group of employees who will receive dedicated training in support of hazard identification and to use these employees to systematically review the Organization processes procedures facilities and personnel to search for hazards.
It is important that this is carried out to the correct depth means that the competence of the employee doing the hazard assessment is assessed and measured.
e) To analyse existing documents in such a way as to strive to identify exposure, which could indicate a hazard.
As an exercise we can review existing documented procedures and processes for the existence of hazards
What would a hazard look like?
In fact anything which exposes us to any weakness in the integrity of our system is a hazard and could become a problem.
So are the procedures strong – how do we test them?
Is our tooling & equipment adequate?
Are the facilities acceptable?
Is our process of training and competence management effective?
f) To look outside the organization at Hazards which have been identified in similar operations or similar organisations
The Safety Office should be constantly looking outside the organization to gather data which can be added to the knowledge base within the organization to assist with the Hazard Identification Process.
Tags:
ERC (event risk classification), Hazard Identification Process, sms implementation, Sofema Aviation Services
