Case Study

You are the newly hired Safety Manager who joined ABC Pte Ltd (a local small-medium enterprise company), which specializes in Design and Build, Engineering Procurement Construction, and turnkey projects. Your responsibilities are to manage the plant’s safety management system and address all environmental, health, and safety aspects of the plant during the manufacturing processes.

ABC Pte Ltd is certified to Singapore Standard SS ISO45001:2018 Occupational Health and Safety Management System. The manufacturing plant specializes in the following areas:

1) Custom design and fabricate process equipment (silo tank, piping and vessel)

2) Installation of the electrical component on process equipment

3) Build and install silo tanks, piping, and vessels via welding operation, where employees are exposed to welding fumes and excessive workplace noise

4) Usage of toxic and corrosive media for treatment processes

5) Sand blasting operation using polishing media The plant stores and uses flammable materials and hazardous chemicals in its manufacturing plant for treatment processes. Tankers are equipped with secondary containment to contain spillages or leakages that could occur throughout the whole manufacturing process.

The company operates in 2 shifts, 6 days a week and employs 60 employees working in various departments. 20 employees are in the main office in the finance, human resource, quality, facility and environment, health and safety departments etc. There are 10 employees in each shift work and the company engaged 20 sub-contractors to support the operation.

Due to the Covid-19 situation, these 20 sub-contractors are housed in a Factory-Converted Dormitory (FCD). ABC Pte Ltd had obtained approval from the relevant authority to partially convert an empty warehouse to a FCD. During one of the walk-down safety inspections, you, the appointed Safe

Management Officer (SMO), noticed that seven sub-contractors violated the Safe Management Measures (SMM) of maintaining a social distance of at least one meter apart. Likewise, staff working in the office did not maintain a distance of one meter apart and several employees were not wearing surgical masks while talking to one another.

You noticed that two subcontractors were performing maintenance work on certain machinery and equipment while operators were working nearby. No barricades were installed to prevent unauthorized access into the work area. One of the sub-contractors was observed to be standing on the erected scaffold, with both of his hands over-stretched to the outside of the erected scaffold and he was not wearing any safety harness or anchored to any point while working at height. An interview with the worker revealed that he is trained and permitted to work at height.

However, his actual work practices were unsafe and risky. During lunch break, it was observed that one of the grinding tools was not turned off. You asked several sub-contractors and they replied that they had forgotten to turn it off.

You found that several lifting equipment (webbing sling, shackle and chain block) had expired and a few of them did not have any lifting tag in the maintenance room. Moreover, you noticed that tools and materials were scattered on the floor. Carboys containing residual toxic waste and recyclable scrapped metal piping and casing were found in the general waste bin. The The facility supervisor was interviewed and he said that these carboys and recyclable scrapped materials are being consolidated and would be disposed when the general waste bin(s) are full.

In addition, you found that electrical power tools (grinding, drilling machine, cutting machine etc.) were not inspected by a Licensed Electrical Worker (LEW). You inspected the chemical storage area and found that the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) of certain chemicals were either missing or more than 5 years old. Many chemical containers were not labelled in accordance to the Global Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemical (GHS). Several chemicals were stored in plastic drinking bottles, instead of appropriate secondary storage containers.

You randomly inspected the fire protection system and found that out of a sample size of ten fire extinguishers, five of them were obstructed. Further inspection of these fire extinguishers revealed that their pressure indicators were zero. Moreover, it was observed that three of the hose-reel casings were dented.

Several lagging indicators contributed to unsafe conditions or unsafe acts in the plant, such as:

1) Lack of adherence to the Covid-19 Safe Management Measures
2) Lack of proper control on the usage and storage of chemicals
3) Inadequate training on how chemicals are to be used
4) Behaviors of the supervisor, operators and sub-contractors
5) Insufficient preventive maintenance of equipment

An external audit by a certification body is due to commence in three months’ time. In preparation for the ISO45001:2018 audit, ABC Pte Ltd management team tasked you to lead a team of internal auditors to perform a safety management system audit on the entire plant.

Question 1

Describe how to formalise an audit team. Present this in a table and include description and justification for the following:
• Selecting the internal audit team representatives as compared to their primary appointment in the organisation,
• The roles and responsibilities of the selected representatives,
• The type of training that the representatives are required to attend, and
• The knowledge and skills the members must have prior to the internal audit.

Question 2

You are assigned to lead the audit team to conduct a 1-day audit. Examine the activities to be audited with reference to the clauses associated with the ISO45001:2018 standard. Present the audit schedule in a table.

Question 3

Based on the scenario given, develop an audit checklist and present this in a table format. Illustrate TEN (10) observations during your inspection, and describe preventive actions to address the ISO 45001:2018 clause 9.2.2(e): Internal Audit, which include ensuring that actions are taken to address nonconformities for continual improvement for OHS performance.

Question 4

The internal audit team had completed the 1-day audit. As the lead auditor, you are required to appraise the audit programme by conducting the closing meeting with the ABC Pte Ltd management team. Present in a table format and describe the elements not limited to:
• Define the audit criteria and scope of audit
• Classification of audit findings
• Results of the audit findings
• Acknowledgement of the auditee’s management representative
• Audit report
• Corrective Action and Preventive Action (CAPA) form