3 minute read
Taking compliance seriously
from Renew Magazine - Quarter 2, 2021. Condition monitoring and predictive maintenance focus
by touchwavegc
Taking compliance seriously
Engineering compliance needs to be the number one priority to keep staff safe and to avoid heavy penalties. Renew finds out from Musk Process Services how external compliance specialists can help lighten the load.
Just three examples of the penalties handed out last year to UK manufacturers for failure to comply with British engineering safety standards and regulations were £20,000 for breaching PUWER regulations; £400,000 for not complying with DSEAR; and another £100,000 for PUWER breaches.
The potential fines for non-compliance are unlimited, and in the most severe cases, can also include a custodial sentence for company directors. It does beg the question, why, 18 years after the introduction of the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations (DSEAR) and 28years since the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) came into effect, are we still seeing frequent examples of dangerous compliance failures in the manufacturing industry?
A NUMBER ONE PRIORITY
Chris Wood, Head of Engineering Compliance at Musk Process Services, believes that engineering compliance should not just be an expenditure enforced retrospectively. Instead, he argues that it should be the number one priority for every organisation, no matter how big or small. “It’s all about keeping employees safe,” he said. “Unfortunately, as with wider health and safety issues, it’s often seen as boring, inconvenient and isn’t prioritised, until an accident happens, someone gets seriously injured, has their quality of life affected or in the worst-case scenario, loses their life. Then suddenly, the company will start looking into compliance. But it should be the other way around. Compliance may not be exciting, but there is a very good reason why it is required by law, and that is to keep people safe.”
How, then, can engineering compliance regulations be more effectively handled by manufacturers? Chris believes that engaging external engineering compliance specialists could offer an easy, safe and convenient way for many manufacturers to ensure they meet British safety standards, avoid fines and keep their workforce safe.
Most businesses have their own Health & Safety (H&S) manager or teams in charge of keeping the workplace in line with UK safety regulations. However, where equipment, machinery or the working environment is found to be non-compliant, even if they identify an issue, these H&S professionals often lack the specialist engineering knowledge required to design and implement the upgrade or solution to rectify the noncompliance and bring it up to standard. This is where the knowledge of an engineering compliance specialist can be helpful.
“The Musk Process Services design team, for example, includes electrical, mechanical and software designers who are all trained in engineering compliance,” said Chris. “This means that a PUWER assessment, for example, detailing the non-compliant equipment in a plant, our design team is able to identify how to make that equipment compliant, then design the necessary upgrade, then oversee its correct installation.”
In addition to day-to-day standard operating procedures, it is also important to ensure the workplace is safe for maintenance teams. “At one brewery client, a lot of the upgrades we have installed recently have been to improve the safety of maintenance engineers. For example, installing interlocks to prevent machinery from running when someone is inside it, and creating improved pipework schematics for easier identification and maintenance,” said Chris.
Another reason businesses may be tempted to avoid their compliance responsibilities is that they fear any upgrade work may impact production or cause delays and downtime. But this does not have to be the case. “Take, for example, a major UK food manufacturer, for which we carry out remedial actions highlighted in the PUWER risk assessment. For 2019 there were over 2,800 tasks assigned, all of which were successfully carried out without impacting production or interfering with the client’s engineers and normal working patterns. This was achieved by taking a partnership approach to the upgrades and scheduling them to avoid any disruption, just as regular outsourced maintenance is planned to avoid unnecessary downtime on production equipment,” added Chris.
