Macro "Safety" (Part 1)

a headache day for me today... economy recession affected all the industries including the company that I'm working right now (well, electronic industries.... ). Management's decision, freeze new hire... wowww, nothing new then.... a common decision to cut the cost... including my Safety Department... previously, we have 7 manpowers & now left 4... 2 managers & 2 engineers (one of the engineer is me!!)

One of the engineer (initially we have 3, but 1 of them will leaving tomorrow)... so, as usual & also to ensure the continuity of Safety Management in the company, he passed down all his tasks (most of his tasks, of course...) to me... can start to feel the additional responsibilities & workloads on my shoulder... wahhhhh, cool :)). Well, just to please myself, I take it as another challenges that I need to face & it's a good exposure for me to learn more...

So, I'm trying to think how I can manage all the workloads... I handle ISO14001, OHSAS18001, Radiation Protection Program, Construction Project, Safety & Health Promotion, Training, Risk Management for right now (I think that's all for right now....)... furthermore, I'm supporting my another colleague managing ERP.... so, I sit down & observe all the workloads on my table... sketched some strategies on a paper (... I called it a strategy, hehehehe) on how to manage the workload... somehow, at the end of today, I can see the overall view & cleared picture on how to manage the workloads... I called it Macro "Safety"... same methodology as Macro Economy...

I will continue the writing later... need to write down my Macro "Safety" Strategies first :)

Management Tools for Safety (Part II)

In the NRG network, Mr. Mohsen highlighted one point on OSH Management... for me, it's interesting & maybe it's quite new for SHO.... "Quality Safety"...

Let me define & discuss it from my personal view... for me, it's not new... but it's more on the integrated approach frm management point of view... especially in business strategy... we trying our best to deliver some tasks... & from quality point of view, we do it based on "the standard/defined specification" to achieve "desirable/targeted result"... a good/achieved results will satisfy us (as personal achievement, of course) and also the management....

so, what I can say here is, if you can make "Safety" in a good "quality" approach, the end results must be good... using Safety's terminology or common Safety's target, it means no accidents, injuries etc depends on your target setting if we follow the specification!... in an ideal situation, of course :))

Management Tools for Safety

I bought a book from MPH yesterday, title "Job Hazard Analysis: A Guide for Voluntary Compliance & Beyond" by James E Roughton & Nathan Crutchfield... when I ask my wife whether I can buy the book or not, the 1st question is "How much??"... hehehe, of course quite expensive then since it's an imported book... but, for me it's an investment...

The interesting part about the book is the application of other management tools used to manage OSH... this is interesting... when I studied MBA, I can foresee the possibility to use some management tools to manage OSH.... this is unique approach, and I believe if OSH can be managed using some of the management tools, it can become an eye opener to the top management... management like to see something that is tangible... as an example , KPI from financial point of view....

There are a list of management tools outside there... some of the common tools are SWOT analysis, fish bones diagram (Ishikawa fish bone analysis), Quality Mgmt Syst ISO9001, 6 sigma, Strategic Management tools etc... for more management tools info, you can go the website below... cool one, I learnt it from MBA :))
http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/

I will try to digest & discuss the application of this management tools in managing OSH in another post....

Quality in Safety

Last night, I watched National Geographic documentary... about Tokyo Fire Brigade team... what make me impressed about the team is "the quality" shown by the Fire Brigade team... really2x interesting...

of course, one of the interesting info about the team is the tools used during emergency... hi-tech devices such as heart-beat detector, terminator, impulse gun, rainbow robot etc... BUT, the one that really caught my attention is the application of "quality concept" in the ERP training program... example are as below

1. Training program - was established based on the past experience when dealing with the emergency situation or disaster.. e.g earthquake, terrorist attacked, HAZMAT accidents...

2. Clear Objective - to save people without injuring/endanger yourself....

the most interesting part is.....
3. Set a standards for each emergency response. This is shown from the standard operating procedure (SOP) based on the most efficient & effective + safe to save people. At the same time, established a benchmark in term of time to save people life and response to any scenario... this can ONLY be done by training, training, training, training to sharpen the skill...

Safety and Health is commonsense (II)?

I had an accident inside my own house.... hemmm, work as SHO, but still you are not "immortal or immune" from any accident!! Why, because we just a human... what was happened, I slipped at the front of my toilet... slippery floor... really a good experience & alhamdulillah there was no major injuries :)

so, what other safety issues that most of us don't realized in our daily life? here are some of them, categorized based on hazards
Physical - sharp edges, slippery floor, staircase/steps, hot water, heat from iron/water heater/stove

Chemical - clorox, medication (pill, medical syrup etc), insect repellent (Redsect, Sheildtox)

Electical - all the electrical appliances...

We heard few accidents happen at home, but most of us ignored it because we don't realized the risk (or don't care about it unless it happen to us).... below are some accidents happen in Malaysia, & I really2 hope we can learn from it... "Learning is a continual process....."

A kid was hit by a fallen tv when he climbed the tv rack

A boy fell into a boiling curry cauldron

Safety on the road

Raya Aidil Fitri, I think the busiest & crowded highways were during this period (of course sometime during CNY too...)... just came back from Raya in Kuala Lumpur yesterday... I was lucky, the traffic from KL to Northern is OK... nice weather too yesterday... Bad traffic jam at few routes along PLUS from Northern Part to KL... few km jam, some that I can recalled are at Slim River, Sg. Perak, & Bukit Gantang

I observed few "bad habits" of Malaysian's driver... quite sad, can't understand the mentality of Malaysian's driver (some of them, not all of them, of course).... maybe they are "lack of knowledge" about safety, negligence, ignorance or worst case is stupid or crazy... maybe they think the highway is belong to them... they know more about the highway.... they need to rush... they using expensive car (well, human attitude "ego"). Some of the bad habits that I experienced yesterday are as below
1. Overtake like there is no tomorrow - 1 toyota camry, silver in colour, overtake my car (I think most of the cars...) from left side on the emergency lane at speed more than 140km/hr!!! "Nak mampus kali"

2. After overtake - "enter to slow lane" after overtaking a car like nobody is behind you.... no signal is given, minimal space btwn the cars.... ayoyo.... where's the driving skill??

3. Tailing - most of the Malaysian's driver think that their car's brake syst can stop the car immediately from 150km/hr to 0 km/hr... the distance between the front car & your car is <1 style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">4. The driver holding her baby while driving on the highway!!! Hemmm, teaching the baby to become Schemancher in the future, maybe.... wrong place dude....

So, what's the accident rate during Hari Raya for this year??? We will see the statistics next week...

Safety During Fasting Month

Today, 17th day of fasting month.... quite fast I think.... but the interesting part about Ramadhan that is related to Safety is "mercun" or fire crackers...

This is unique case in Malaysia... since Malaysia is a multi cultural country, we celebrated different type of festival... Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Gawai & of course the biggest festival is Hari Raya... BUT, why there is always an accident related to fire crackers in Ramadan + Raya only??? This is sad, very sad... this accident always happen during this time.... happened in Malay community.... co-incidence?? "tepuk dada tanya selera"...


I believe & I think that Malay is creative & innovative when modifying "mercun"... maybe want to have a really "booom" effects, the kids (or maybe including the adults) need to modify the "mercun" little bit without thinking the risk that they will face.... come on, can't we see that we are dealing with explosive HAZMAT??...... hemmm, "orang utara cakap, habaq pun tak guna nooo..." Parents, please ensure the Safety is a priority in our daily life.... "raya, raya gak tapi bila berlaku accident, tak syok la raya...."