Practice for OBE: Mock Assessment 4

In a global automotive company with headquarters in India, a large number of engineering

activities are carried out in a large manufacturing setup. These activities include design,
production of parts, assembly, testing, and quality assurance. Many of the manufacturing
processes in the plant are performed using automated technologies and equipment. People also
perform some of the manufacturing tasks and the plant employs over 400 workers. The decision
on whether people or machines will be used for a particular task is dependent on many factors,
including costs, time, quality and worker health and safety.

The plant produces many parts for vehicles and assembles them. The plant normally operates
three shifts per day and has several production lines including machining shops, conveyers for
assembly and movement of goods, punch presses, and paint-spray booths. The plant utilizes
electricity and natural gas extensively. A number of workers at the plant have over the last six
months been subject to several different health problems. The CEO of the organization contacts
you so that as a freelance health and safety consultant you can provide both short term and long
term solutions to the organization’s health and safety problems. You conduct an audit of the
organization and come out with the following observations.

a) In the final assembly shop, some workers have begun to develop lower back pain, the problem
has become so severe for one of the workers that he has been told by his doctor to stay off work
for two weeks so his back can recover. This was because of repetitive motions during the
assembly process. Though automation was possible, it had huge financial implications. The work
was done without taking into consideration industrial ergonomics, as they had no expertise in
that discipline.

b) An increased incidence of respiratory illnesses has been reported over the last month by
workers operating near the paint-spray booths. The spray booth was provided with extraction
and filtration system. But it is suspected that leakages may be reaching the nearby workers
causing respiratory illnesses.

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c) In the machine shop is it mandatory for workers to wear eye protection but at least a dozen
eye injuries were reported in the last six months due to workers refusing to wear goggles.
Workers complain that they find the protective eyewear uncomfortable and do not think it is
needed. The plant manager knows of this behavior but overlooks it, since enforcing the use of
the protective eyewear seems may make the workers unhappy and, consequently, less
productive.

d) You have decided to review the commitment the company has made to worker health and
safety. There seems to be no statement of general policy (statement of intent) on health and
safety. The policy is not displayed on noticeboards.

e) The Health and Safety Objectives are defined, however there is no Safety Committee team,
nor the management carries out any Health and Safety committee meetings to evaluate the
progress of the defined objectives. There was no evidence that a management review was
conducted in the last two years.

f) There was a culture of not reporting incidents. Workers could not clearly distinguish the
difference between an accident and an incident. Also, they were not aware that even near misses
are to be reported.

g) No inspection of the natural gas piping running across the plant was carried out even though
it was a legal requirement to do it annually.
h) Though there were emergency procedures available, there was no mock drill conducted in
the last two years.
i) The machine shop area was slippery due to oil splashed out at many places. This shop been
closed from all sides had poor ventilation and workers were seen to be sweating
j) There has been a concern and notice received from the local authorities with regards fire-
fighting systems installed in the facility. The fire- fighting systems were inadequate for the
size of the facility and also there were very less trained fire fighters in the facility.

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Questions:

Task 1: Justifying costs in improvement

1. You are concerned about the legal notice received regarding the mismanagement of fire-
fighting systems and also of the health issues reported in the assembly shop. Prepare a
list of financial and legal arguments to justify putting in place a legally compliant fire-
fighting system, an ergonomic study of the assembly area and an adequate team to
manage any fire emergency. (10).

Task 2: Reporting of incidents.

2. You call for a meeting of all the managers and supervisors with an intention to gain their
support for implementing near miss reporting in the organization.
Considering the scenario:
a) How will you convince the management team on the importance of near miss
reporting? (5)
b) What actions would you take to initiate and increase near miss reporting? (5)

Task 3: Emergency Preparedness.

3. You create a cross functional team to review the existing emergency response plan (ERP)
and decide on conducting a mock drill.
Considering the above scenario:
a) What factors would you consider while reviewing the ERP? (5)
b) How would you explain the importance of conducting a mock drill to the team? (5)

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Task 4: Consultation with workers.

4. Along with the plant manager you decide to call a meeting of the workers to convince
them to wear eye protection.
Considering the above scenario
a) Why do you think consultation can solve the problem of workers not wearing eye
protection? (7)
b) Can you suggest more ways of consulting workers other than the one above? (3)

Task 5: Monitoring performance.

5. The plant head calls you to discuss the review of health and safety performance.
Considering the above scenario:
a) How would you justify the need for Active monitoring? (5)
b) How would you justify the need for Reactive monitoring (5)

Task 6: Health and safety management system

6. During the same meeting with the plant head you discuss the importance of having a
Statement of Intent.
a) How would you explain the importance of a Statement of Intent? (3)
b) Why should you insist the plant head to sign the statement of intent? (2)
c) Why should the health and safety policy be reviewed regularly? (5)

Task 7: Roles and responsibilities

7. Considering the scenario.

Comment, whether the site management of the manufacturing plant are taking care of
their responsibilities towards health and safety within the organization. (10)

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Task 8: Review

8. As you start putting things in place, you decide to plan a management review.
a. What is the purpose of reviewing health and safety performance? (3)
b. Who should take part in the reviews of occupational health and safety management
system? (2)
c. How often the reviews should take place and what typical outputs from the
management review need to be documented and maintained as a record of the
review process and as evidence of its effectiveness? (5)

Task 9: Health and safety culture

9. You are writing a report to the CEO about the conditions prevailing in the manufacturing
unit.

Considering the scenario

a. What are the indicators which you will mention in the report to prove that the
culture is negative? (10)
b. What would you suggest, the top management should do to improve this culture?
(10)

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