Risk Management - Safety and Design Considered
17 Jan 2011 | Category: risk-management | Author: admin
The procedures and processes in your business must be efficient, and you should have methods of operation which take into consideration risk management. When you are designing these processes safety is something which may not necessarily be a major consideration for you, but it definitely should be. There are all sorts of OSHA standards, and I don't recommend that you break any - however, sometimes OSHA standards in certain circumstances can create unsafe situations.
The reality is that you need to keep your business model and processes within the boundaries of OSHA law to prevent lawsuits, and regulatory fines. Nevertheless, let me explain to you one case study and example, something in my own company prior to retirement which always bothered me. We used pressure washers and steam cleaners to clean fleets of vehicles under contract.
We would wash Rent-A-Cars, company fleets, school buses, post office jeeps, patrol cars, car sales lots, and trucks for trucking companies. When you use a pressure washer over 2500 PSI you are supposed to use a long wand with a 15-degree or greater tip on the end. This allows the water to spray out in a fan so you don't cut your finger off. That makes sense right? Sure it does.
However, we found that often times school bus yards had school buses parked way to close together. In doing this you could not clean them with a long wand and maneuver between the buses. And if you tried often the wand would catch on this side of the bus, and it would jab the gun into your body. Not good. Especially when it was cold out with ice, or when there was diesel fuel that had leaked on the ground.
That is an accident waiting to happen. Therefore, it made sense to move the buses out to an area where they could be cleaned. Of course trying to get in between buses, and open the door of the engine compartment to start them up, and bleed the system, could have the door coming back and sandwiching your head, while you were on slippery ground. We chose the lesser of two evils and shortened the gun wand length for safety. By doing this we never had another accident. I believe this is a good case study in risk management. Even if we technically violated OSHA rules, safety first I say. Think on it.
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