Safety specifications procurement process

The standard requires that processes be in place so that reviews are made of purchased products, materials and other goods, and related services to identify and evaluate health and safety risks—before their possible introduction into the work environment. To fulfill the Procurement provisions, safety specifications must be included in purchase orders and contracts. To assist safety professionals as they give advice on implementing those provisions, this chapter will ... 

Included in this element are requirements for purchasing documents (specifications, drawings, and purchase orders), selection of suppliers, inspection and control of received material and record-keeping. For ESH/PSM, this element would focus on those aspects of the procurement process which support purchasing according to regulatory requirements, safety standards, risk management controls, etc. 

The procurement system database must have an adequate number of fields for accurate part description, such as specification number and dimensions. There should also be a field to indicate whether the part is process safety critical, production critical, or maintenance critical. It allows the part to be flagged for special inspections or other considerations. Many electronic procurement systems are populated with inadequate or incorrect information. Job one is to clean them up. See Figure 1-3. 

DaimlerChrysler has given permission for its Ergonomic Design Criteria to appear in this book. Since the Criteria also serve as purchasing specifications and since examples of safety specifications being included in purchase orders and contracts are not easily acquired, the Criteria appear as an Addendum to Chapter 15, The Procurement Process. ... 

Discuss the pre-work necessary to include safety specifications in the procurement process. 

Several safety texts were reviewed to determine whether they give guidance on including safety specifications in the Procurement process. They do not. Searching the Internet is minimally productive, but this author directs safety professionals to one particular resource. 

DPSOP-338-208-1 (Reference 35) provides requirements for the identification and control of procured items. The process for the procurement and validation of vendor and contractor services is provided by the procedures that outline the procurement process and is verified by a process provided in DPSOL 338-207-3, "Supplier Evaluation Program" (Reference 36). The requirements for the proper storage of materials is initiated by DPSOL 338-204-1, which specifics storage requirements for procurement purposes. DPSOL 338-208-1 addresses the applicable identification and class storage requirements to implement the procurement specifications. The DPSOLs and RD 3.1 implement the basic requirements of QA Manual, IQ, related to procurement for safety-related applications. 

A team consists of two or more people that know the process technology, design, operating procedures, practices, alarms, emergency procedures, test and maintenance procedures, routine and non-routine tasks. They must consider authorization and procurement of parts and supplies, safety and health standards, codes, specifications and regulations. The team leader provides m.iriagcment and goals to the process the team and consultants construct and interpret the analyses. 

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