Malaysian drivers oooo Malaysian drivers...

Yesterday, Jan 30th, a road fatality accident happened at Kulim Hi-Tech Park, Kulim Kedah (at Jalan Perdana)... one motorcycle biker was die on the spot due to head injuries (based on initial report by KHTP)... I used the road yesterday, and I can see the victim was covered using the plastic back... it was 755am... the biker had an accident with Proton Wira car... the car was still in the middle of the road when I passed by.... from my observation, it looks like the car is coming from the opposite direction, crossed the middle road divider and hit the biker....

I'm in the process to identify the possible root cause based on the info/facts that I observed yesterday.... Will update the accident later...

BUT, I will always remind myself... if this accident happen to me, what will happen to my beloved family? How they feel when they heard about this news? etc.. a lot of questions will flying in my mind if this accident happen to me or to my family members...

Hacking inside the building

One of my project right now is to supervise the construction of radiation room... My roles
- to transfer the facility/utility & radiation safety technology from our counterpart in Europe
- monitor the project's safety during construction
- dealing with the authority on the approval of the radiation aspects
- of course other paperworks... :)

Yesterday, interesting activity was performed. We need to monitor 2 important parameters before the real hacking activities allowed inside the production building.... 2 parameters: the vibration & the noise level... this is critical in order to get a baseline data on those parameters to ensure it will has minimal impact to the production & OSH at the workplace... alhamdulillah, the results are ok... the hacking activity inside the building makes the noise level reach >100dBA!!... luckily, all the partitions already erected, PPE is mandatory to ensure the noise is minimized.... BUT, don't forget the dusts generated from the activities... additional ventilation needed, respirator is compulsory... don't forget to isolate the smoke detector bacause it can be triggered by the dust... of course, close supervision is needed to ensure no flammable materials are kept within the area!

Macro "Safety" (Part II)

I hope it's not too late to wish everybody a Happy Maal Hijrah 1430 (for muslim...) & Happy New Year 2009..

Today, Monday Blues.. Monday Fever.. Monday s#*@t ... disappointed little bit with my boss... well, after I did my macro safety, I'm trying my best to prioritize my workload... between important & urgency of my workload.... take over the workload from 3 previous engineers, trying to digest & transfer the workload slowly to my new colleague... sometimes just wondering whether I did the right thing, or my boss don't know my real workload, or my boss don't know his job (at least supporting us to deliver our job)... trying to explain to him, but he looks like more as Army Jeneral (my colleague's term given to my boss) than my office's supervisor.... I think this is a typical Malaysian or Asian's managerial style... have the authority, have the power instead working as companion/colleague /team to solve the problem for the company...

However, just keep reminding myself this is part of gaining knowledge & experience for myself... trying to think rationally not emotionally....

When thinking about Macro Safety, I'm trying to adopt "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" method... one of it Put 1st Things 1st.... quite a straight forward principle, BUT it's not that easy to execute.... I believe we need to practice it... by categorized your task to important & urgent matrix, hopefully we can prioritize our workload more efficient.... it can be more efficient & effective if we can get a full support from our supervisor!!.. hehehe, back to my Monday blues...

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...