We are nothing after our death. Let us donate our body organs for the poor.

Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvelous work The moment you fear, you are nobody - Swamy Vivekananda

If you think safety is expensive, try an accident... - O.P.Kharbanda

Preventable accidents, if they are not prevented due to our negligence, it is nothing short of a murder - Dr. Sarvepalli Radha Krishna, 2nd President of India

Zero accidents through zero unsafe behaviors. Do not be complacent that there are no accidents. There may be near miss accidents (NMAs). With luck/chance, somebody escaped knowingly or unknown to the person. But, we can't be safe, if we depend upon the luck.

Safety culture is how the organization behaves when no one is watching.

We make No compromise with respect to Morality, Ethics, or Safety. If a design or work practice is perceived to be unsafe, we do not proceed until the issue is resolved. - Mission statement by S&B Engineers & Consultants Ltd. http://www.sbec.com/safety/

Human meat gets least priority - A doctor's comment on accidents

CSB video excerpts from Dr.Trevor Kletz, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQn5fL62KL8

Showing posts with label industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label industry. Show all posts

Apr 26, 2020

Corona virus - lockdown - employment - financial management - some thoughts

Now, a month of lockdown period is experienced by us with not much physical activity. Don't know how many more days it will continue. Seeing what was done in its origin, may be we have to undergo another month or more like this.

One observation made is that public is not going for panic stocking of house hold items. As promised by governments, vegetables, fruits, groceries are available, though shopping time is limited. I feel that restriction of timings for purchase of these items by public should not be limited. Limited time means crowds in shops thereby defeating the norm of social distancing. To avoid public roaming around in the name of shopping, present checks by police shall be continued. Persons found at distance far off than from their residence (3 km) shall be charge sheeted unless valid reason as required by government is available. 

I also feel that keeping the vehicles caught on roads by police will be a headache for them. Instead, hefty penalties shall be collected on the spot to discourage them. The amounts can be like Rs 2000 for person plying on the road without valid need, additional amounts for having more than one on bike and more than two in four wheeler, like wise. In addition, routine penalties like not having helmet, or not wearing seat belt, over speeding, etc amounts shall be charged. 

It is observed in some places that vehicles were parked on the road. Public road can't be a parking place for private vehicles. Owners of these vehicles shall be charged for this and asked to remove them. They can't make profits at the cost of public.

Industries in which chemical storages are in place shall have proper surveillance round the clock to ensure that there will not be any untoward incident. No operation does not mean that everything will be safe. House keeping shall be ensured at all times. Protections systems like fire detection and alarm system, fire extinguishing system etc shall be checked for their functionality. Weekly checks shall be done for this. Necessary permissions shall be taken from local authorities for personnel engaged in these essential services to attend their duties.

Government suggested not to operate canteens in industrial premises. But, I feel that under proper checks, persons shall be engaged for operating canteen services. There can be several issues in bringing the food from home. They can be odd hours, stress on the person making food, etc. Canteens can serve food packets to make it easier for preparation as well as for employees. 

Regarding continuation of personnel in the jobs, tt will be stressful for both the management as well as employees under conditions when plants are not operating, but management has to pay salaries without getting any income. At the same time, if they want to remove persons, it will be painful to the employees and their families. It is also problem for the managements to hire such trained and skilled persons, once things become normal. Governments advised not to remove anybody from service and to ensure monthly payment. I read somewhere that even few decades ago during lockdown because of cholera, the then governments gave paid leaves.

As a middle level solution, I feel that industry should have two types of components in the salary package. One is minimum pay which will be paid irrespective of person is working or not. It is like the pay for qualification and experience. This can include PF, house rent allowance and medical insurance/allowance. Second payment is for the performance. That is for the output delivered when works are allotted. This can include various perks like transport allowance, performance incentives, LTC, etc. When person is not given work, but to retain talent, the assured pay can make the employee to be available and even can motivate him to acquire additional skills so that he can make himself more useful to the organization and that he will be engaged so that he can get performance pay. In order to retain the person, certain minimum number of days / weeks of work can be assured in the offer letter. This way, I feel both the organization and employees should find it reasonable and will not cause much problem financially. 

If organizations are forced to make pay irrespective of whether persons are working or not, it can lead to bankruptcy and can lead to closure and employees will become jobless.



Feb 26, 2015

Explosion in detonator factory during disposing of rejected detonators from explosives

In an explosion in one of the largest explosives exporting factory, during separation of rejected detonators from explosives by cutting wires, a mechanical cutter fell down on the explosives below causing the blast leading loss of two lives and injuring 13 others with some of them receiving severe burns.
One of the injured suffered hearing loss during the incident.
The site was visited by State Home Minister, Police and other officials.
Police registered case under various sections of IPC (Indian Penal Code) for negligent act and others leading to personal harm and initiated the probe.
As per reports, the persons doing the job were retired employees as contract workers having experience.
There were also reports of demanding for shifting of the factory from residential premises.
There were some fatal incidents earlier also in the last 10-15 years.

To avoid such incidents, possibility of  automation of removal of rejected detonators needs to be explored.
As the cutter fell down below on explosives during the job, and it is likely that such slippages can happen, suitable path for shifting of material below as soon detonator is separated from the explosive material for every explosive or collecting the explosive material under water or any other medium has to be seen.
Governments have to ensure that industrial areas are well separated from residential areas. There should a sort of no habitat zone between industries and residential areas. It is natural that wherever development is there, the surroundings will see growth of residential areas with a view to gain from real estate price increase. 
Definitely, large industrial complexes would have been set up far away from residential areas at that time. Earlier remote places would have become part of the present cities due to growth. Shifting of industries also will be costly and who will foot this cost. 
Hence, a policy as suggested above is required with marked zones and no-man zones.







Sep 12, 2011

Power failure due to snake in a feeder box

A snake entered a feeder box from which power is supplied to an industrial area. The snake died of electric shock and at the same time, power supply to the industrial area also got cut off. Concerned officers of electricity board could not find the reason for power failure for more than 10 hours. After search, they found 1.5 m long dead snake in the feeder box. They claim that they did not see such a problem earlier. Production loss for 10 hours, environment pollution due to DG (diesel generator) sets operated during the period, revenue loss for the power supplier and the inconvenience caused to public will add to large amount, though the cost of preventing such incident i.e ensuring no openings, is minuscule. Many times, we see open fuse boxes, partly opened doors of power distribution boards, etc which can lead to entry of reptiles and causing such damages and this has become an accepted norm for such industries.

The following link give some extra information about similar incidents.
http://www.fort.usgs.gov/resources/education/bts/impacts/electrical.asp

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