Training & education
Taking confined spaces training deeper LIEBHERR-AUSTRALIA HAS LED THE WAY IN MAKING ITS WORKPLACE SAFER BY IDENTIFYING A PRACTICAL SOLUTION TO EMERGENCY TRAINING WHILE ALSO BOOSTING CONFIDENCE AND MORALE.
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iebherr-Australia’s fabrication department in Perth has a tough job. Working in confined spaces, the team is assigned to conduct inspections and undertake maintenance and repairs on the company’s R 9400 and R 996 hydraulic excavators. This can often take members of the team to mine sites around Western Australia, including Tom Price, which is one of the hottest parts of the state. The heat from the equipment, combined with personal protection equipment and the natural warmth of the region, can make working inside the excavator booms incredibly uncomfortable. However, there was also another significant issue with the work. It was discovered that standard rescue plans and associated response times with confined space work inside the booms lacked efficiency, resulting in residual risk. Liebherr-Australia fabrication team member Ben Palmer was instrumental in identifying the need for in-depth requirements regarding boom confined space preparation. He also maintained an unwavering drive to continue to find a solution and implement new practices to better his team over a four- to five-year period. Palmer encouraged and led the fabrication team in identifying, developing and implementing
The Liebherr-Australia Perth fabrication team.
confined space rescue plans for excavator attachments. Due to a swift increase in workload, Palmer became increasingly concerned as the frequency and, in turn, the number of employees required to enter the booms/sticks increased, from just himself and two others to the majority of the team. Determined to find a solution, Palmer consulted with various levels of the company and industry experts, all the while fostering an environment for solutions to be developed and implemented, while positively influencing a proactive safety culture for the fabrication department and wider Perth branch. Fabrication supervisor Neil McHugh says discussions around the training
SAFETOWORK.COM.AU 20 NOV-DEC 2021
started taking place in around 2014. “While we had identified safety aspects, it didn’t really go deep enough to address what we were doing inside the boom,” McHugh tells Safe to Work. “So we had to go that little bit further. Most confined spaces are like cylinders and tanks, but this was unique in the way that the internal design of the boom is structured and is inherently a lot more difficult. “While still compliant, it just wasn’t the most ideal way of training, so we decided to find a better way. “Finding someone who was able to see what our requirements were and address those as a training provider was quite difficult.” The company turned to safety training specialists ERGT, located
