Safe Systems implementation

Are there safe systems of work implemented during the operation and maintenance of the plant and equipment (This may necessitate a permit to work to be issued by an authorized competent person.)... 

A safe system of work is a considered method of working that takes proper account of the potential hazards to employees, and others such as visitors and contractors, and provides a formal framework to ensure that all steps necessary for safe working have been anticipated and implemented. 

Where safe systems of work are used, consideration should be given in their preparation and implementation to the following ... 

The MR fluid-based suspension systems implemented on these various vehicles enable simultaneous ride comfort control and body motion control. As indicated in Fig. 6.85, the control system architecture for these systems processes inputs from relative position sensors at each wheel. In addition, inputs from a lateral accelerometer, yaw rate sensor, steering angle sensor and speed sensor all feed by way of a CAN BUS into the controller. The control algorithms are quite complex and seek to simultaneously optimize a wide range of performance features including overall handling, overall ride comfort, body control, road noise, head toss and a subjective safe feeling. 

The employer is charged with the provision of a safe system of work . The efforts made by the employer in this case, in seeking to ehminate electrical fatalities were proper. However, the delicate nature of personal perceptions and the subsequent implementation of safety programmes are always going to be difficult areas to match. 

It follows from this that the use of safe systems of work is in no way a replacement for other precautions, such as good equipment design, safe construction and the use of physical safeguards. However, there are many situations where these will not give adequate protection in themselves, and then a carefully thought-out and properly implemented safe system of work is especially important. This is usually call a health and safety method statement (or method statement for short). 

Permits to work are used as a control to implement a method statement or safe system of work for a particular high risk task. See Section 6.7 for guidance on permits to work. 

People doing work or supervising work must be made fully aware of the laid-down safe systems that apply. The preparation of safe systems/method statements will often identify a training need that must be met before the system can be implemented effectively. 

Safe systems of work/method statements are crucial in work such as the maintenance of chemical and other processing plants where the potential risks are high and the careful coordination of activities and precautions is essential to safe working. In this situation and others of similar risk potential, the safe system of work is likely to be Implemented by formal controls through a permit to work procedure. 

The permit to work procedure is a specialized system for ensuring that potentially very dangerous work (e.g. entry into process plant and other confined spaces) is done safely and the safe system or work/ method statement is properly and formally implemented. 

Training alone will not reduce manual handling injuries-there still needs to be safe systems of work in place and the full implementation of the control measures highlighted in the manual handling assessment. The following topics should be addressed in a manual handling training session ... 

Step 6 implements reg. 5 which requires employees to adopt the safe system of work established by the employer as a result of the assessment. This can be achieved through training to make employees aware of the risks, the proper working methods for the safe performance of the task. 

It is important to recognise that a PTW alone does not constitute the safe system of work but serves as a further precaution by confirming that the safeguards necessary as part of the safe system of work have been implemented. The effectiveness of a PTW system is dependent upon and is only as good as the safety culture existing in the company. A model electrical PTW is shown on pages 757 and 758. 

The international standard lEC 61508 provides guidance on meehanisms that can be used to ensure that safety-related electrotechnical systems implemented in electrical, electronic and programmable electronic technologies are safe. It comprises seven parts, the first of which were finalised and published in 2000, some 15 years after the lEC initiated work on the drafting of the standard. The seven parts have the following titles ... 

Railways need to have a proactive search for safety enhancements that are rational, reflect known and identified risks and they need to develop a safety culture that delivers consistent implementation of the safety controls that maintain a safe system. Regulators need to ensure that railway companies fulfil these obligations and maintain their will to do this, despite all the resource and commercial pressures that might deflect their priorities. 

An essential part of the existing reactor trip system has been designed as a fail-safe system. Special measures were implemented to ensure reactor trip in the case of a failure causing loss of reactor trip capability. Nevertheless, several types of failure remain undetected. They cause a loss of individual measuring channel capability to generate a trip signal. Information and control personnel frequently check and test the system to ensure its high reliability. 

A brief description of the Safe System approach as it is used in each of the three above countries follows, with the aim of illustrating the underlying concepts, while at the same time indicating the similarities and differences among the three strategy implementations. 

A safety adviser and/or the fire safety manager to provide guidance on statutory requirements, regulations, codes of practice and safe systems of work, capable of interpreting and suggesting methods of compliance and implementation. 

Safe systems of work do not always require documenting, for example the changing of a light bulb on a desk lamp. If, however, there is no formal safe system of work the mechanisms by which people undertake tasks and operations may vary and there is the potential that people may be harmed as a result. A formalised system enables standards to be communicated, implemented, monitored and reviewed which will assist in managing the risk. 

Having documented the safe system of work and prior to its implementation a critical factor that will affect the success of this procedural control measure will be ensuring that the information contained in the safe system of work is communicated to all those involved with the operation, including the operators, supervisors and managers. 

Systems of work that are out of date, ineffective or present an obstacle to production or service delivery will be unlikely to be fully implemented. It is therefore essential that an organisation ensures that it has a robust system for monitoring, reviewing and revising its safe systems of work. 

Quality and Safety Management Reports In support of the safe system operation it is important to develop and implement an adequate (Quality and Safety Management Systems. This part of the safety case should present the Quality and Safety Management... 

MRP. andTOC systems Environmental issues related are addressed in design Fail-safe systems are implemented Internal suggestion system adivated Safety is addressed in design A quality management training program is implemented... 

The autonomous systems of interest to us offer a wide range of features and operate in a diverse unstructured environment. They can thus be complex, which makes them difficult to verify. Moreover, diversity of the environment implies that testing cannot significantly cover the situations that the system will face. Here, we choose a classical fault tolerance approach by considering online safety measures implemented in a device called a safety monitor, that is simple and independent from the main control channel, and thus easier to verify. The monitor is solely responsible for safe system behavior. To this end, the monitor is... 

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