In industries reliant on the operation of machinery, actions are pivotal to helping ensure the safety of workers, reliability of machinery and compliance with legal requirements.
These actions are used to mitigate the risk of identified hazards, prevent their occurrence, and ultimately, create a safer working environment. In this article, we delve into what exactly actions are, action processes and the importance of actions.
Actions are control measures implemented to ensure the likelihood of a hazard arising is reduced, or an incident is less likely to occur with your machinery. Actions may also be referred to as risk treatments. The main objective of actions or risk treatments is to mitigate risks. These actions usually arise as a result of forward, risk-based thinking, and desire to improve processes and, of course, safety.
There are 5 main steps in the process for managing actions.
Identify the hazard. The hazard may be identified through a machinery risk assessment, or an incident report.
Determine the cause of the hazard. The hazard’s cause can be determined through investigations and a root cause analysis.
Develop an action plan. At this step of the process, it is crucial to determine the most effective control measures to eliminate, where possible, or reduce the risk posed by the hazard identified in step 1. To find out more on how to do this, check out our article, Hierarchy of control explained. These control measures will form the basis for your action plan.
Implement the plan and the actions. The actions or risk treatments identified during the previous step should be implemented at this stage.
Monitor the risk treatment and verify the effectiveness of the actions. Risk treatments or actions Hazards that have been implemented should be continually monitored to ensure the hazards do not arise again. It should also be confirmed that the control measures selected as part of action plans remain effective at reducing the risk.
Implementing actions is a great way to boost the safety of your machinery. Some of the benefits include:
Keeping people safe. Implementing actions is a great way to improve the safety of your machinery, and consequently, your employees. When your employees know they are safe at work, they may be more motivated and satisfied within their jobs.
Complying with legislation. We all know compliance with legislation and regulations is non-negotiable. It’s the bare minimum for keeping your machinery safe and protecting your people. Risk treatments can help you to ensure you are compliant with these obligations as well as standards and codes of practice.
Reducing the likelihood of prosecution. Using actions to help you comply with legislative requirements may mean you are less likely to be prosecuted, should an incident occur at your workplace.
Developing a culture of safety within your organisation. Leading by example through the implementation of actions can help you set up a culture of safety within your business, where issues relating to safety are taken seriously and dealt with promptly.
Reducing downtime. Risk treatments can assist in reducing hazards and issues with your machines that may lead to downtime, and costly mechanical faults, if not dealt with in a timely manner.
Determining your own actions to reduce the risks posed by machinery hazards can be a time consuming task. But with Plant Assessor, all the hard work is done for you. When a hazard is identified during a machinery risk assessment conducted through Plant Assessor, our industry leading platform will specify all the actions your machine requires to effectively treat the risk. Our automated risk assessment processes will ensure the best possible measure is recommended to control the hazard, taking the guess work out of this process for you.
Our machinery safety experts are on hand to help you understand the need for actions, and how to implement them effectively. Simply contact us on 1300 728 852 or info@assessor.com.au for more information.
Disclaimer: This information is intended to provide general information on the subject matter. This is not intended as legal or expert advice for your specific situation. You should seek professional advice before acting or relying on the content of this information.