Money Saving Opportunities Found With Construction Safety Plan

When you work in the construction environment, irrespective of the size of the job you are completing, there always exists a demand for a construction safety plan.   These are fundamental rules enforced wherever your project site might be in an effort to keep construction associates safe in a high risk environment.   

This is accomplished by a business creating a plan before each project so as to meet any safety requirements placed on them in the environment they are working, as well as educate their associates of any new regulations they may be required to follow.   So what are the options of a business trying to create a construction safety plan for their several construction projects?

The traditional method or the method which several feel is the single opportunity could be time consuming and costly.   This is where businesses start with flipping through hundreds of different safety management plan forms in order to find what will be demanded from them during their project.   They should then consult legal specialists in the field of construction safety plan creation so as to filter through the vast amount of legal information to discover what info is related to their particular project.

The research that is needed to find the right documentation could prove to be extremely time consuming as a business looks to get started on their project.   Then when you combine this time with the high cost linked to using specialists in the field of safety regulation the need for a safety management plan could be of high cost to a project.

In an industry that is highly competitive regarding bid pricing, discovering ways to cut your company’s costs are very important.   When you can reduce the costs which are related to obtaining a construction safety plan you unlock a chance to demoralise your competitors and gain more contracts.   This will begin with finding a resource which specialises in the field of construction safety management plans.   

This resource must feature the knowledge and expertise of individuals incredibly familiar with the safety regulations of construction and who have simplified the process of generating a construction safety plan.   These resources must feature updated templates which would allow a business to easily impute information related to their job without the requirement for legal representation.

When you could discover a resource that would provide your business with all of this required information, you will discover an opportunity that could save you both time and money.   A safety management plan is a necessary component of every construction project and it is important that you create this plan at the lowest price possible.

Demysterfying OHS Management System Auditing – Part 1

What is an Audit?

According to AS/NZS ISO 9000 Quality Management Systems – Fundamentals and Vocabulary, an audit is the “systematic, independent and documented process for obtaining audit evidence and evaluating it objectively to determine the extent to which audit criteria are fulfilled”. All clear now? Obviously not.

Systematic Audit

Whether the focus of the management system is Quality (QMS), Occupational Health and Safety (OHSMS) or Environmental Management (EMS) it must, by definition, be systematic. In other words it has to be designed, implemented and managed in a pragmatic way. The auditing of these management systems must be handled in the same manner. 

An audit program includes a plan, designed to adequately cover all components of the relevant management system (either as a single or multiple audits) within a specific timeframe. It must be adequately resourced with competent auditors and time to ensure it meets its purpose and the deadline. The program should also consider who will be required to participate and the material that must be made available for evaluation.

Independent Audit

There are 3 types of audits – 1st, 2nd and 3rd party. First party are internal audits and the latter two are collectively referred to as external audits. 

A second party audit is undertaken by an entity outside of the organisation for the purposes of satisfying itself that the auditee is meeting specified requirements. Second party audits could be undertaken by a customer on its supplier to ensure the latter has a functioning quality system to control manufacturing process. Another example is a construction company auditing its contractors to ensure their safe systems of work are adequate. 

Third party audits are undertaking by independent bodies for the purposes of certifying an organisation to a relevant standard. Examples include an OHS audit against the requirements of AS/NZS4801 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems or an Environmental audit against ISO14001 Environmental Management Systems. 

The independence of the 2nd and 3rd party audits are obvious, they are done by external organisations whose sole motivation is to determine compliance. However, how does an organisation achieve independence when it is conducting a quality, environmental or OHS audit on itself? The answer is, only through deliberate action. 

One solution is to have internal auditors from within the organisation but not from the auditee site (e.g. sending OHS auditors from another state). Alternatively the auditors could come from another department, such as an internal OHS auditor who normally works in the production department auditing the site laboratory. Where these are not practicable options or further independence is required, external expertise may be called upon. Some organisations seek out professional Environmental Auditors / OHS Auditors to ensure their environmental and/or OHS internal audit program is sufficiently resourced and independent of their internal subject-matter experts.

To be continued…

Part 2 of this article will be available end of August.  For the full version, visit the OSHEM Solutions website.