When it comes down to it, most serious incidents are avoidable when the right actions and precautions are taken to eliminate hazards and risks in the design and redesign stage, says David Walline, CSP, global safety leader of Owen Corning, Toledo, OH.
Walline, who will present Proven Solutions From Prevention Through Design, at the upcoming Avoiding the Worst: Fatality and Severe Loss Prevention Symposium, has seen first hand how gaps in design can lead to catastrophic events. Using those experiences, he has broadened his knowledge on the benefits of safe design and learned how taking a proactive approach to safety can improve injury/illness prevention, productivity, quality and employee morale.
In the early days of his career, before PTD was an accepted concept, Walline witnessed a fatality at one of his facilities. After the incident, he began truly looking at fundamental gaps within design and noted that the design of equipment or processes can be severely flawed.
Now, Walline has years of experience implementing risk assessment and PTD processes and training programs within the organizations across the globe. SH&E professionals who attend his session can expect to learn how to effectively leverage risk avoidance and elimination (the two categories found at the top of the hierarchy of controls table in ANSI/ASSE’s Z590.3-2011 PTD Standard) into their capital projects and designs.
He will share examples of solutions that he has incorporated into his own projects that directly attack high-level risks associated with fatal/serious mishaps by taking a risk avoidance approach in design.
As he explains, taking a risk avoidance approach in design, which he sometimes refers to as having a list of “nos” (e.g., No Portable or Fixed Ladders, No Forklift Trucks, No Energized Electrical Work, No Manual Handling/Lifting Products, No Restricted/Congested Work Space, No Roof Work), encourages the engineering team to find new solutions and alternative methods to a to avoid common hazards.
“PTD should not and does not have to be complicated to be effective,” he stresses. By implementing PTD into safety operations, SH&E professionals can increase their value to their organizations, avoid the constraints of managing time consuming compliance programs and associated burden costs that come with them, and enhance an organization’s safety culture.
For more examples, look for Walline’s presentation at ASSE’s Avoiding the Worst: Fatality and Severe Loss Prevention Symposium.