Practice for OBE: Mock Assessment 1

PEOPLE WAREHOUSING DIVISION (PWD) is a well-known name in supply chain management. PWD head
office is located at Mumbai in western India. PWD has 2 ware houses. Average size of PWD ware house
is approx. 4 Lac Sq. Mtrs. Different brands are available with them from household to industrial usage.
They are customer driven and offer quick service and after sales. Clearing and forwarding is the main
activity happens at all the locations. All the ware houses have ware house managers supported by the
technical and management teams. These teams consist of HR, Accounts, Logistics, Engineering managers
with their respective teams. The entire PWD site has 25 on roll employees and around 800 off roll
workers distributed in all three shifts. Recently, the management identified that there was an increase in
incidents in the warehouses. The injuries varied from minor cuts and bruises, while some others
required hospitalization due to serious injuries. The management has hired you as a corporate EHS
officer. Main objective behind your recruitment is to avoid the additional expenses on the incidents
which were not formally reported. Also the organization has received legal notices from local bodies
urging them to take action to prevent injuries.

As you settle down into your job, you decide to spend more time in the warehouses with a view to
understanding the reasons for the incidents and finding remedies to reduce them.

As part of your planned visit you take a round along with the site head. Site head explains to you all the
activities carried out but he doesn’t allow you to speak to any person. While asking questions to
workers, site head keeps on interrupting and tries to minimize the communication with the workers. At
the loading bay one of the worker was having food, site head shouted at him resulting the worker to
stop eating. You observe that there are no arrangements for drinking water and workers have to walk a
fair distance to the pantry area to refill their bottles. The workers keep their bags near the work
location. This is because there are no change or locker rooms provided. All along the facility you observe
that the path ways are obstructed with material and there is poor housekeeping in most areas including
the office area where files and office supplies are placed in a disorderly way. You observe that there is
low level of lighting and even the ventilation is poor. Loaders were unloading material manually and
carrying the load to the respective locations by hand as the only fork lift truck (FLT) was under
maintenance. You observed the weight of the parcel varies from 5 kg to 25 kg. The forklift was parked
near to the fire hydrant blocking it. On inquiring the driver said that there is no fixed place for parking
and they park it wherever there is space. You also noticed that the condition of the forklift was not
good and it was badly damaged. Workers were working with a ladder which was not supported. You
check the fire arrangements and found majority extinguishers are due for refill. Site head explained that
the vendor selection is in process and that happens at Head Office. You also find that the truck drivers
were smoking near the security gate.

Post lunch, the site head went for an urgent meeting and so you get a chance to talk to the workers. The
wrapping machine operators were operating the machine at a speed higher than that recommended in
the machines chart. The operator replied that he never knew that the speed was high and he had been
always operating it at the same speed from the day he had joined. On inquiring, whether he had

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received any formal training in operating the machine, the operator replied that he got hands on
instruction by the previous operator for half an hour who had resigned due to health issues.

Many workers shared their thoughts regarding not having proper first aid arrangements or PPE. No
training was being conducted for them in last six months. You also got to know that there is no incident
investigation process in place. No body reports near misses or first aid injuries as most feel it is
unnecessary and a waste of time. Also they did not know that such a formal system exists. The workers
spoke about hand and leg injuries caused due to manual handling.

Workers reported that the only FLT they have is under maintenance due to an accident that happened.
The FLT toppled sideways while taking a turn at a high speed. The driver was lucky enough to escape
uninjured but the impact left the FLT badly damaged and needs costly replacement spares.

Task 1 The reasons for managing safely

1. You meet the top three managers of the warehouse and decide to explain to them about the
importance of working safely. Considering the examples from above
Create a brief note about the moral, legal and financial reasons of working safely. (15)

Task 2 Roles and Responsibilities

2. Considering the scenario, what are the responsibilities not met by the Employer towards their
Employees as far as health and safety is concerned. (5)

Task 3 Contractor management

3. You speak to the HO to prioritize the selection of contractor to maintain the fire systems
a) Discuss the training that you need to provide them before they start working at your site (5)
b) Discuss, how you will coordinate the contractors’ work so that their activities can be carried
out without any incident (5)

Task 4 Health and safety culture

4. Considering the scenario, discuss the indicators which prove that there is negative culture in the
organization? (10)

Task 5 Incident management

5. One of the reason for an incident is Unsafe Act. Considering the scenario
a) Identify the Unsafe Acts. (3)
b) Explain management related issues which could lead to these unsafe acts. (7)

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Task 6 Incident reporting and investigation

6. You decide to investigate the FLT accident

a) Considering the above scenario describe how will you gather evidence to conclude on the
causes of the incident. (7)
b) What actions will you decide to take post completion of the investigation to prevent such
incidents from happening again. (3)

Task 7 Monitoring and measurements

7. Considering the scenario describe the active monitoring measures you will put in place to
reduce the incidents.

Task 8 Emergency and First Aid

8. Considering the scenario discuss the factors to be considered while deciding on the first aid
needs of the warehouse. (10)

Task 9 Training

9. Considering the scenario

a) Comment on the level of training provided in the warehouse. (3)
b) What different trainings would you recommend for workers? (7)

Task 10 Workers consultation

10. Considering the scenario

a) Discuss the various ways that can be adopted for consultation with workers (7).
b) What benefits would you find on regularly consulting the workers (3)

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