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 workers 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

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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 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.

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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 reasons 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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